Beware of planting opinion on the newspaper front page, in print or online. The Star did it at least twice last week. The Standard went on thin ice in the same direction at least once. It smells desperate.
“Ruto, welcome to the Odinga family,” screamed the headline of an opinion above the fold on October 3 by Sam Omwenga, identified as legal analyst and political commentator.
The article argued that Deputy President William Ruto’s recent rallies across the country are a chapter from Raila Odinga’s 2003-07 playbook. But that the only viable path to the presidency for Ruto is to either cool his heels under Raila or challenge the system and, perhaps, get lucky in 2027 or one of two subsequent terms later.
Why did this merit the prime real estate spot above the fold?
And once wasn’t enough. The Star did it again on October 4, pulling out an opinion that belongs deep inside their “Siasa” section and planting it above the fold with a similar Ruto-name-should-sell-the-paper playbook.
“Uhuru pulls the ladder to heaven, Ruto will land back with a thud,” said the headline of an opinion by Collins Ajuok.
This piece started out with a folklore about the hare, the tortoise and a spider’s web stretched to heaven. No need to tell you this would not be news.
Then, the Standard came a long and fell into the bandwagon with a front-page opinion about Ruto this and Ruto that.
“Unseating Ruto,” said the Sunday Standard’s front-page headline October 4. The piece by Roselyne Obala, a seasoned reporter, and Moses Nyamori, rode on analysis; it was not a hard news story.
The intro read: “President Uhuru Kenyatta flies back into the country today, straight into a political storm threatening to bring down his Jubilee house whose mantra of ‘Tuko Pamoja’ has been turned upside down.”
That is analysis, albeit with subsequent facts that backed it up. It put the news on thin ice.
You can have two analyses from the same set of facts. A news story is just the facts. The facts are put out. They speak for themselves. No colouring. No embellishing. No opinion.
Okay, on the basis of substantial reporting evident in the Sunday Standard’s story, we can see how it may have passed muster for a news story, but not the Star’s two examples.
Look, there’s a reason a newspaper is spelt, first, with the word “news.” Opinion is not news. We can’t think of reasons that warrant any opinion sitting in the prime, breaking news spot. Unless, admit it, you want to be a cheap date and compromise content quality for expediency, a quick sale. But that’s a deadly path for a newspaper’s integrity — and longevity.
