OF PRESS PASS AND MEDIA TRESPASS

Putting the spotlight on the Kenyan media, is what one of the local TV stations has embarked on doing. Their new show, it seems, is seeking to interrogate topical issues as covered in the press, with the ultimate objective of apportioning blame or praise accordingly. But the first episode regrettably degenerated into another radar-less and lengthy talk show. 

Insinuations had been made that this new programme concept has never been explored before, in the country.

This raised expectations, only for it to begin appearing like one was watching the 'Professional View' of yore, or its latter-day morphs like 'Fourth Estate', previously aired by the same station.

The topic of choice was still relevant, though very belated, given the extensive media attention it had already received.

And the contributions from the panel were mostly making sense, but not in an unexpected manner.

The debut TV show thus lacked spark and direction, and one began to struggle to understand its desired intention, hardly mid-way through.

It was, however, great to see the producer deploy examples of stories sourced from other competitor channels. This does not in any way amount to media trespass.

But, passively using clips posted on YouTube, almost indicates there was no attempt made to engage the other news broadcast stations formally.

This is a pity because had that been done, and the programme producers gone ahead and negotiated to have the News Reporters/Editors from other stations on their set, then that would have been truly groundbreaking, in this part of the world.

Going forward, the host needs to be bold enough to raise shortcomings of his own employer's coverage of issues, (even if it means crossing the self-preservation red-line) and be brave enough to acknowledge superior treatment of a story by rival stations.

That will be the mark of distinction, Mark!