By Arap Doyo
You cannot be a journalist who interviews socialites, does tech editorials, bashes politicians on your twitter feed, writes controversial columns, engages in twitter exchanges with those who hold different opinions from you, rant on Facebook over every little thing and still expect to conduct an objective political interview. Few will take you serious.
And again, every time a presenter hosts a guest(s) for an interview and he/she ends up getting the attention more than the guest (s) or the topic of discussion, something is terribly wrong.
Journalists worth the salt all choose a path/niche. The jack of all trades and master of none doesn’t really work well with TV. Check with the western media which the Kenyan media look up to. Beat journalism is key.
At Citizen TV, Hussein Mohammed is brilliant at interviews and so is Yvonne Okwara at KTN. The two can conduct an objective interview an adult can watch. Sadly at NTV, I’m yet to watch a serious interviewer. The man tasked with that responsibility is a terrible flop.
Someone talk to Linus Kaikai. Larry Madowo might be good at hosting the trend but that doesn’t mean he’s equally up to the task at conducting serious interviews. He might be popular and controversial, a key ingredient in boosting TV viewership but that does not mean the viewers love him so much that they constantly wish to see him conduct every other show on TV.
That said, I think he is quite exceptional at playing cat videos. That lane is surely his. At least you can play the videos with a certain mindset exhibiting all types of attitudes and mannerisms and no one gets to complain.
Oh..Before I pen off, there was a time Larry ranted on Twitter why DP Ruto rejects TV interviews at NTV and accepts at Citizen TV..We all know why
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