Peter Supports Obama but Loves Corsi More.

Journalists have often been accused of being unprincipled, without conscience and available for hire by any or all bidders. This quackery is typified by one Peter Mbae, who recently offered to take up the ignoble responsibility of sprucing the floor upon which some American bigot had intended to stomp. He should be grateful for the pre-emptive government intervention that may well have averted a messy conclusion to his principal’s provocative venture.

There are those who are arguing that the deportation was just what Corsi had hoped for in order to get the ensuing publicity. I think they are being too generous in ascribing to the man a cleverness that he simply does not have. There is ample evidence of the man’s stupidity in the piles of rubbish that he pens copiously and to suggest that he’s capable of such a plot is merely to argue for the sake of argument. In any case, Corsi has had extensive publicity on news networks and the internet such that a dramatic jaunt to Kenya is unlikely to impact on it one way or another. If Obama loses this election, it will certainly not be because of Corsi’s campaign in the US or Kenya.

Peter Mbae says that he had never heard of Corsi or his works before he visited Kenya. That is ignorance of an ugly sort from a man who claims to be a journalist and media consultant. But what is more bizarre is that he (Mbae) was one of the founders of a group known as the Senator Obama Worldwide Supporters whose mission was to counter the smear campaign that questioned Obama’s politics, patriotism and religious beliefs. At their launch in June this year, they said “We want to ensure that what Senator Obama stands for is not diluted by cheap propaganda”. Since the group had declared that it was not being funded by the Obama campaign, it is safe to surmise that Mbae has since had a change of heart and decided to pursue more profitable enterprise like coordinating Corsi’s campaign in Kenya.

It is Mbae’s right to sell his skills (clumsy as they are) to the highest bidder, but in this case even Dr. Jerry himself would find it difficult to agree that any useful services were rendered. Having been actively engaged in last year’s parliamentary elections during which he went on a party hopping spree like a headless chicken, Mbae should have been a little bit more equipped to help his client navigate the local political waters more sensibly. Clearly he flunked and the last he was heard of, he was grumbling about outstanding payments from Corsi.

Soldiers for hire are also known as Dogs of War. The equivalent for local journalists would be… waandishi kwa bei ya jioni?

Voodoo Polls on Kenyan Television are Dangerous

These are results of an opinion poll conducted on the day Amos Kimunya invoked Raila’s name in his death wish. The opinion count was taken at a table where my three friends and I were enjoying an evening drink at our local. Clearly, the ‘poll’ was unscientific, unreliable, strongly biased and could not in any way represent the opinion of the public.

But it could very easily have been conducted by KTN or NTV who on the same day carried out polls phrased along similar lines of question. Indeed if they’d asked the same question and only the four of us participated, such may have been the broadcasted results. Though I doubt if they would have read out our accompanying comments on this one, as they sometimes gleefully do in celebration of ‘public’ vindication of editorial bias. In the scheme of political things, the above poll would obviously not be carried by KTN, seeing as they lean towards favorable coverage of the Right Honorable. NTV, after some soul searching, would probably do so but after rearranging it along the lines of “should Raila step aside?”

While the political bias of our broadcasters is clear and might even be professionally acceptable, I find the shameless exposition of their own prejudices by disguising them as public opinion to be unacceptable. Even dangerous. The pseudo-polls that have now become a permanent feature of the evening news on the major channels are manipulative and a distortion of incomplete information. I think it is reckless for the media houses to continue dishing out all manner of half-truths and even maligning individuals through false information and be able to avoid direct responsibility for it. They surely know that what they are conducting are not legitimate polls, so why do they persist?

Opinion polls are designed so as to indicate, predict or represent the opinions of the wider population. Unlike known scientific surveys, these prime-time polls are not supported by any statistical control tools to make them even a little credible. The poll questions, to start with, are so inherently biased as to make a mockery of the exercise. Probably because the media houses have a partisan interest in the result, they design questions that are so constrained as to elicit only results which justify their bias.

Some of the recent poll questions;

• Do you believe the Transparency International report?
• Do you believe the Kenya Police is the most corrupt institution in the country?
• Do you think the Cockar Commission of inquiry into the Grand Regency sale is really necessary?
• Is Narc-Kenya justified in rejecting calls to dissolve itself?
• Do you believe Kajwang’s defense?
• Has the PNU outlived its usefulness?

Striving for brevity is commendable, perhaps even necessary for the sake of focusing an issue. But these questions shamelessly lead you to predetermined points of view especially when you are asked to give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in the short span of an sms at news time. A little credibility would obviously be found if the participants were sizeable, let alone varied. But do they ever tell us how many people participate in these polls? “...the poll result is in…90 percent said Yes!” would acquire meaning if it wasn’t referring to four buddies sharing a Tusker at the corner pub.

How many people have read the TI report other than listening to a selective summary of its release? What was Kajwang’s defense other than the edited news clips from their reporters? Are we Narc-Kenya members? Are we PNU members? In short, these uncontrolled poll questions are stupid by themselves but useful in serving narrow and often disruptive political agenda. They are so quickly contrived with no pretense to even a little research or substantive knowledge but based on whim, innuendo and even rumor.

While public opinion is unlikely to be sensibly gauged by such polls, they could have a bandwagon effect which unnecessarily whips up emotions and entrenches animosities particularly amongst our gullible folks.