By Mulengera Reporters
Even when knowledgeable insiders at Parliament say that Speaker Anita Among had (at the instigation of some of her aides) turned her back on the station in her last days at the helm of the legislature, Ugandans a few days ago took to social media and castigated the individual NBS TV editors for failing to stand in solidarity with cracked former Speaker Anita Among and be there for her at the moment she needed them most.
Led by David Kabanda and former State House employee Duncan Abigaba, Ugandans demanded to know why NBS TV editors ‘cheerfully rushed to broadcast Anita Among’s funeral [as Abigaba put it]’ yet she treated them generously when she was at the helm of the legislature. The expectation was that NBS would take a stand that is pro-their ally Anita Among who they would defend by way of soliciting analysts and studio guests who would come and say nice things about her, while trying to conduct the raid at her palaces. The station was never expected to abandon her that quickly, but things happen.
Abigaba claimed that Anita Among ensured that (even contrary to the President’s earlier directive) the state-owned UBC and Vision Group were actively and consistently sidelined on the advertising budget simply because she felt they weren’t flattering her enough in their reporting and opted to have NBS exclusively dominate and have everything.
He implied that the NBS editors didn’t have permanent friends but permanent interests which explains why they had quickly pivoted to amplify the PLU talking points popularizing Oboth-Oboth as the incoming Speaker of Parliament, while at the same time scandalizing and deflating Anita Among.
David Kabanda quickly weighed in with “Trust NBS at your own peril” and the debate raged with thousands of Uganda social media users participating in the debate that lasted several days. Some defended NBS on grounds that theirs is a business and that editors have to go with vibe and what is trending as opposed to getting stuck with a clearly sinking Anita Among.
Indeed, all major media platforms, including those that all along were perceived as eating from the Anita Among palm, have since pivoted from being her praise singers to harsh critics.
Even when they are supposed to be the country’s biggest and most influential media platform, Vision Group was always very complementary of Anita Among in their reporting and never endeavored to give platform to those who were out to call out her excesses. Such critics were either locked out or out rightly contradicted.
Even when the Daily Monitor and NTV journalists were curiously excommunicated from Parliament coverage as the leadership protested and resented their truthful reporting and portrayal of the inappropriate conduct of the Speaker, the New Vision was conspicuously silent. Not even a single editorial was written pretending to defend media freedoms while offering some advisory to the leadership.
They simply ignored and carried on with their complementary reporting and flattery of the Bukedea Woman MP. The conduct of NBS was generally not very different to the extent that their own Nile Post even tried to spin the events at the Kololo swearing in ceremony where Gen MK exhibited extreme disinterest as Anita Among reached out trying to create some rapport.
She came near him and endeavored to appear to be having some cordial discussion with Gen MK so that her well-remunerated media team members would take photos which would be used to create some complementary optics. The reporting by Nile Post created an impression that that little moment Anita Among had was indicative of the fact that she was a great ally of Uganda’s Crown Prince whereas not.
When it eventually became clear that things were irretrievably bad, the same media platforms pivoted, switched sides and joined Daily Monitor in reporting objectively while putting out everything as it is, the way the NMG journalists had taken months doing.
It was very clear Anita Among, who never endeavored to deliberately cultivate genuine and enduring relationships with key media actors, had been abandoned by the media which gave in to dwelling on her real unenviable situation since it was increasingly clear that was the sort of reporting the general public wanted. Broadcasters got more views and the print newspapers registered more copy sales each time they reported about the Anita Among scandal. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
