Royal Media’s radio transmission suffered a temporary glitch last Saturday night. Then, the report about the glitch suffered its own glitch.
“Listeners of Royal Media Services (RMS) group of radio stations were on the night of Saturday, June 13, unable to access the service after a glitch,” kenyans.co.ke wrote online the next day.
What happened? “According to an apology that was issued by news anchor Victoria Rubadiri on Citizen TV‘s prime time bulletin, “the glitch was caused by a technical hitch on the broadcast satellite glitch,” said the story by one Derrick Okubasu.
What? Ok, let’s try to keep this simple. A glitch was caused by a hitch. We get glitch. It’s a small fault or problem that stops something working successfully.
But what’s a hitch? The Oxford Dictionary has four definitions: a) to get a free ride; b) to pull up a piece of your clothing; c) to lift yourself into a higher position and; d) to tie or fasten something to something else with a rope, a hook, etcetera.
So, we wonder, which of these four “hitches” might have thrown a glitch into Royal Media’s radio transmission?
Starting with Rubadiri’s apology on air, Citizen TV was guilty of kicking off the collision of words. But any story repeating that a glitch was caused by a hitch is guilty of furthering the blunder.
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The Standard on June 10 ran a misleading story. “Ruto allies flee to Raila’s embrace,” said the headline.
The intro promised the same. “Opposition leader Raila Odinga is welcoming jolted political allies of embattled Deputy President William Ruto,” said the story by James Munyeki.
Well, we counted one subject only: Laikipia Woman Representative Catherine Waruguru. So, who were the other Ruto “allies” — plural?
In fact, the Star ran a parallel story in the same news cycle headlined, “More Ruto allies troop to Raila, denounce Tangatanga.” The paper named Lands Chief Administrative Secretary Gideon Mung’aro, Laikipia North MP Sarah Korere and Mombasa’s Suleiman Shahbal. Now that’s plural.
Further, the Star story by Luke Awich pointed out that Waruguru was the first to “cross over” to the Uhuru-Raila side of the country’s current political divide.
The next day, June 11, The Standard wrote a new story titled, “Why DP Ruto’s allies are running into Raila’s arms.”
In this story, the paper all but acknowledged its previous day’s error with this second sentence: “When Catherine Waruguru, the Laikipia Woman Representative, walked into Raila’s Capitol Hill office on Tuesday, it seems she was opening the door for other members of Deputy President William Ruto’s Tanga Tanga brigade in Central.”
Could somebody at The Standard please correct the previous error and offer clarification?
