Let's suppose (suppose mind you) magwanda seen on TV are meant to represent CHADEMA. I say "suppose" because this need not be so. I recall wearing my Converse Khaki fall/winter jacket once, some narrowminded individuals (or possible jokesters) immediately associated that with CHADEMA even though I liked the "
DJ Premier" look of the outfit more than any CHADEMA connotation. By the way, I had some "foreign correspondent"
Peter Jennings type (what y'all eighties babies know 'bout Jennings, American Library washafungua tena baada ya the Dar embassy bombings, ah, I forgot you get cable nowadays, plus the internet?) magwanda waaaay back then, before CHADEMA was even a popular household name. Nuff said.
Could this journo be adopting that same "foreign correspondent" look more than a CHADEMA look?
But, on the real, more serious level. Let's go back to my original supposition.
I go back to some ground principles of journalism.
The journalist is never to inject his/her personal view into the story. I recall listening to many a BBC World Service interviews, in which the journalist -mostly foreign correspondents dealing with persons unfamiliar with the underlying role of a journalist- would be asked "what do you think about that?" often after an uncompromising blatant question.
And the BBC journalist would quote from the rulebook something to the effect of "What I think personally is not of importance here", stressing that he/she is just telling the story, reporting the facts, and not compromising the story with her/his opinions and political convictions.
Are we celebrating the corruption of this central tenet of journalism just because the beneficiary is CHADEMA?
What if the beneficiary was CCM?
Are we reducing the struggle for a principle based leadership and professionalism to a simple game of who is winning by whatever means available?
If so, where do we get the moral authority to shame corruption? Isn't this a sort of corruption of journalistic integrity?
