APOLOGY OR NOT – THE CNN DEAL REMAINS OFF
(Posted 17th August 2015)
‘That is what you get when you employ blondies with no clue on African affairs and let them shoot off their mouths on live TV’ let a regular source from Nairobi fly when sharing the latest news coming out of Kenya about the CNN PR and advertising deal the Kenyan government had inked before being portrayed as a terror hotbed.
Only a few days ago did a senior CNN official from Atlanta, one Tony Maddox, fly to Nairobi to formally offer the network’s apologies for the negative portrayal of the country, very likely hoping to rescue the one million Dollar deal which was to showcase Kenya for a year on the international network. He got a suitable public rebuke from President Uhuru Kenyatta who summed up the country’s bitter disappointment for having been portrayed as a country at war, seriously impacting on Kenya’s reputation around the world and affecting tourism arrivals.
According to information received however it appears clear that, very likely as a result of sustained public pressure, the Kenya Tourism Board will now explore other options and the CNN deal remains suspended. KTB’s Managing Director Muriithi Ndegwa reportedly confirmed this when he was officiating at the annual Maralal Camel Derby yesterday. Several tourism stakeholders expressed their support for the government’s decision, one of them in particular saying, on condition of anonymity: ‘I was against that choice from the start. CNN in the past often misrepresented issues about Kenya and even their Ebola reporting left a lot to be desired when they put up wrong maps. We in Kenya have other options like Al Jazeera which receives a growing audience in our emerging and new markets. Europe anyway does not bother much with CNN and for America we should use other portals to promote and market Kenya’. From Hotbed of Terror to Hotbed of Error to Hotbed of Regrets no doubt. Watch this space.
