On June 30, we woke up to a screaming headline: “Ruto, Gachagua get pay hike.”
Then we were told that the President and his deputy were set for a 14 per cent pay rise “in a move likely to trigger public uproar.”
Nation Africa reported that the President and his deputy were getting a pay hike “to cushion them from high cost of living.” Deep sarcasm right there. Or is it incitement?
We decided to do a quick check on this ‘likely’ headlines and intros. The ‘likely’ count was unlikely high.
“University education will likely be out of reach for thousands of students”, Daily Nation.
“Why your power bill is not likely to come down”, Daily Nation.
“Why Kenya is likely to face a HIV crisis”, Daily Nation.
“Kajiado land rates likely to increase”, The standard.
“Why Ruto will likely hand over power to a political greenhorn”, The Standard.
“Bipartisan talks likely to kick off this week”, The Standard.
“Somalis likely to tilt national political equation”, The Star.
“Ruto and Raila likely to cut a deal”, The Star.
We could go on and on about this ‘likely’ stuff, which, most likely, never happens.
And here lies the problem with our media speculation.
There is no gap too big or too small that we will not fill with ‘likely.” And when there are no gaps left to fill, we will ‘likely’ create them….and fill them in a move likely’ to fool our audiences.
There is one word for this: Gossip. We, the media, are increasingly becoming peddlers of gossip, and have normalised this with such adjectives as ‘likely.’
We might just need a new article in the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism: Do not fool your audiences, or report in a ‘move likely’ to fool them.
Two ‘likely’ headlines take the most unlikely trophy here: “Why Nietzsche would likely declare that God is dead in Kenya today,” The Standard. And: “Counties where you are more likely to get a virgin”, The Star.
