Don’t abuse these boys, please

prof-jonathan-moyoSo, a discussion, we are helpfully told, took place at some place in the capital. Thank goodness it was a discussion, in the true sense. At worst, it could have degenerated into a fistfight or a screaming match.

It would have been both a spectacle and pity, wouldn’t it, a bar brawl between journalists!

The subject concerned one journalist who runs a weekly column, which at one point mentioned by name a particular journalist from a newspaper that has been on the forefront of denigrating the First Family, in particular the lady of that house.

The said paper is even so creative as to invent new terms and epithets just to denigrate the First Lady — and it’s all political, as we know that the real target of such attacks is the husband.

And, boy, inside the pages of these media the writers appear to be real, brave fighters fighting Evil Grace and Monster Bob!

One gets a feeling that the boys would be eyeing some awards such as those that have been given to the likes of Jestina Mukoko and her ilk for standing for human rights, whatever that means.

Which is the point the columnist made the one unfortunate day. Only the brave fighter in question recoiled, burned in horror and anger.

What a coward!

We thought the offending articles spoke for themselves and did not have to be pinpointed for their offensiveness somewhere in some weekly column?

Paid pipers

But here is the catch: he who pays the piper calls the tune.

That was the mournful explanation of the cringing and whingeing fellow.

See, he was heard to explain, it’s only a job. We are told what to write and I have no choice.

We are told that today let’s attack this person, and it’s not fair to mention my name. When I write the story it ceases to be my story but of the paper. Blah Blah Blah.

And, by the way, they are also told to make a point of prefixing the word “lickspittle” when referring to “State media”.

It must be such a miserable life, this fellow and others are living. And that fellow looked, we are told, miserable too.

But do they have a choice?

They need to earn something to take to their young wives and girlfriends and parents and hope to have something to spare for drinks to drown their sorrows.

So they, we journalists, grind on. It reminds us of what Professor Jonathan Moyo said just a few weeks ago.

He noted that journalists were an abused lot, especially by politicians.

“Let newspapers be owned by businesspeople who are ethical; I get surprised by politicians who own newspapers and tell editors and reporters what to write propping up their political life. At the end you fail to pay these reporters and tell them to go and look for adverts so that they get paid. Who on earth doesn’t know that our economic environment is so bad and no companies are advertising at the moment?”

Perhaps journalists don’t have to be so brave, after all, especially when they perceive, wrongly or rightly, that there may not be freedom after speech.

Ridiculous

Now, for fear that someone may also feel unsafe if we mention their name here, we will refrain from names; for now.

However, there is an equally excitable (whether by design or default) reporter from across town in the same “independent” media fraternity, who has also found a hobbyhorse in denigrating, or trying to shore enmity around the person of the First Lady.

Think of anything so outrageous, so shallow, so speculative and so ridiculous that has been written on the First Lady and her husband, and you are likely to meet this guy.

One day this week we woke up to the stupid and nonsensical announcement that “Grace wants Defence Ministry”.

That of course was barely days after telling us that she had joined the Presidium simply by sitting next to her husband in a party meeting.

We were told, “First Lady Grace Mugabe is reportedly prodding President Robert Mugabe to appoint her Defence minister in a much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle after she reportedly turned down the Women’s Affairs portfolio for being ‘less glamorous’.”

We are told, through “well-placed sources” that she was “giving 91-year-old Mugabe a torrid time, refusing to take up the Women’s Affairs ministry, insisting on the all-powerful Defence ministry.”

Gracious goodness!

But that ties in with the “Grace-is-now-in-charge” narrative, doesn’t it?

The good thing is that we know that even the journalists themselves do not have to believe such bull.

Blabbermouth Obert

We also pity Obert Gutu, not necessarily because someone is using him or stuffing words into his mouth. We pity him for his incredible shallowness that his loud-mouth rings to shrillness.

Gutu is the spokesperson for the opposition MDC.

It perhaps follows that he is. That party, led as it is by a man of no letters who we are told has poor choice of those he surrounds himself with.

So our Gutu, perhaps trying to impress and apparently loving the sound of his own words, opens his mouth at the most inappropriate times to the most inappropriate ends.

We heard a couple of weeks ago how he called on President Mugabe to resign.

This week he was at it again.

We wonder what provoked his outburst.

But Gutu railed that, “The nation should be allowed to move forward. Robert Mugabe is now a very old man who is also extremely frail and apparently no longer in control of his deeply fractured and divided zanu-pf. The MDC shall not stand by and watch as the zanu-pf gerontocracy continues to run down the country. The time for action is now! Enough is enough.”

It’s not just the bad taste that is the problem here.

One can note the lack of logic of the argument coming from a supposed democrat who seems to believe that losers in elections should just abandon their mandate mid-term to pave way for the vanquished.

We all know which party is deeply fractured and cannot handle its contradictions hence numerous splits.

For all we know, MDC will remain standing by because they have been excluded by the electorate and do not have the capacity to muster or implement anything.

The MDC has its own poor, broke Morgan and empty vessels like Gutu who is blowing away the decency of the office of spokesperson.

We may also note that the MDC will not go anywhere with mouthpieces such as the Daily News that applaud such nonsense as Gutu utters and imagine that it is “ratcheting up the pressure on President Robert Mugabe” and that when Obert Gutu throws “everything but the kitchen sink at Mugabe” it really amounts to anything.

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