By Margaret Jackson
In Ghana today it is very common to see some people roaming the corridors of some print and broadcast media houses calling themselves journalists. But what they do behind the scenes make them look so pathetic that it can easily compel you to conclude that such so-called stomach journalists are a bane to democratic advancement and development.
One of such pitiable characters who over the years had been operating as the Political Editor of the Daily Graphic, but had openly been doing the biddings of his NPP masters is Kobby Asmah.
You don’t need to work at the Daily Graphic to know the cunning and fuzzy role Kobby Asmah had been playing. When you buy the Daily Graphic and go through the political pages you see it all. For nearly four years since the NDC came into power, Kobby Asmah who sold his conscience during the days of ex-president JA Kufuor had always favoured the NPP in the selection of political news. Because nobody had raised an alarm or pointed to his buffoonery, Asmah falsely thinks that his back is completely covered.
Otherwise, what went into the head of Kobby Asmah to plant a pathetic and cheap story in a newspaper like the Daily Graphic involving the destruction and defacing of billboards and fliers of Ursula Owusu, the NPP parliamentary candidate for Ablekuma West. And to make matters worse, that despicable story which covered half page went with a picture of a defaced billboard.
In case Kobby Asmah is an ignorant journalist, I would like to inform him that in political activities worldwide posters and billboards are torn down every single day with Ghana not being an exception. Even though such acts are despicable and unwarranted, there is nothing much to do about such deviant behavior. Therefore, it makes you look very pathetic and throws your judgement into question when you plant such a stupid story from Ursula Owusu concerning the destruction of her political posters. This behavior by Kobby Asmah is childish, appalling, stupid and a waste of everybody’s time.
Is Kobby Asmah going to give equal attention to all the political candidates who have had their posters and banners destroyed by agents of their opponents? And we have Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, the General Manager of Newspapers at the Graphic Communications Group Limited, who doubles as another paid agent of the NPP calling for fairness in newspaper coverage yet feigning that he is unaware of the stupid things Kobby Asmah had been doing to favour the NPP.
The NDC put up three giant billboards of President Mahama on the new road from GIMPA through Fiesta Royal Hotel in Accra, but some deviants have torn down two of them. Is Kobby Asmah going to do a story about that? All over Accra we have seen multiple posters, flags and billboards that have been tampered with by some unknown agents, but the political activities continue to go on.
Nobody as childish and immature as Ursula Owusu had raised concern or held a press conference to cry over such trivial issue because if you are serious candidate, you concentrate on issues that sell you to voters and not waste everybody’s time by crying over destroyed posters.
Kobby Asmah thinks his back is very well covered and that nobody knows what he is doing. He should continue, but after December 7 he would be so deflated after Akufo-Addo loses the election that he will no longer have the appetite to do that kind of dirty job ever again.
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