It’s a really depressing story. You get back home at the end of a long day, turn on the TV and stretch a leg on the couch in the hope of unwinding as you catch up on the latest goings-on. Instead what confronts you on the screen compounds your misery for the day.
If the lead story is not about a ‘peaceful’ students’ procession gone terribly awry, then surely its got to be a demonstration by matatu operators in some city route apparently in protest against Mungiki harassment. “Not again”, you sigh and mutter between your teeth.
Until her dramatic exit from the cabinet, the former Justice Minister had evolved into a sure bet for top news item. Atleast for now you can be spared what had become the all too familiar rhetoric verbal exchange between the ever frowning ‘iron lady’ and either the Attorney General or the Chief Justice.
But the worst case scenario is when our honorable law-makers resort to trading hate speeches that they are now well known for in public rallies.
Truth be told, these diversionary gimmicks are anything but news. Still, these stories end up hogging prime space on Prime Time News. Its said that when a dog bites a man, its not news. But when a man bites a dog… now that’s news! Tough choice, but you are stuck in it for a good one hour or so. Its useless channel-surfing; often, the same story will be running concurrently on all the other channels. The strong salient message; ‘Put up (with the boring news, of course) or shut up!’ And we keep whining that the western media portrays us in bad light through negative publicity?
By this time you are stiff bored and silently cursing. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. Call it the ‘global financial crisis’, ‘global credit crunch’, ‘global economic meltdown’ or the ‘global economic downturn’ - the metamorphosis is tremendous – but it all results in mundane Business News reporting. And why is that sports news and the weather report are always stashed at the bottom of the pile? When your convivial sports presenter finally shuffles in, time is almost up, and the poor fellow has to rush everything through his breath.
Even the weather forecast is no longer presented in the interactive style that made names like Wandimi Muchemi, Ayub Shaka and Nguatah Francis so popular. Its only Channel 1 that has kept faith with the human face despite toning down abit.
Things are not any better if you happen to be that late bird that frequently does the night shift. You’ll soon discover that there is really nothing to smile about in the morning. There is very little to choose between the various breakfast shows lining up your TV screen at that early hour. It doesn’t matters whether its ‘Sunrise Live’, ‘This Morning’, ‘Power Breakfast’ or ‘Good Morning Kenya’, rest assured that breakfast will be served cold by unassuming, unsmiling presenters mechanically doing a re-run of the Late Night News interspersed with frequent traffic updates. Yeah, same old, same old… the level of duplication is startling!
This may sound abit harsh, but let’s face it. News on TV is not news anymore. After putting up with it for far too long, I’ve finally been pushed to the brink. No more old news for me until our boring TV stations polish up their act.
News in no longer news. Its only news if its new, but if you can already predict what will be featured then why bother. I must admit though that Muhammad Ali with the excellent "jicho pevu" feature is something worth watching. I particularly enjoyed "wizi wa ngawira" feature (whatever that word means). Keep it up!
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