Editorial: We Disagree, Mr. Chairman

We were taken aback by the utterances of the Chairman of the Liberty Party, Israel Akinsayah during his appearance on the Thursday, November 25 edition of the RCI Radio and TV Talk show, the Truth Breakfast Show.

Chairman Akinsayah and the Secretary General of the CDC, Eugene Nagbe were hosted to discuss the Weah-Brumskine Accra Deal, as well as the decision of the Executive Committee of the CDC to endorse a resolution regarding the deal.

Other than addressing the issue of opposition in his party against the deal as a responsible politician, Akinsayah chose to shift blame, mentioning cash being dished out by the Unity Party all around the place to thwart their efforts.

While the Liberty Party Chairman was not a man enough to name those receiving the money from the Unity party for such propaganda, we do believe that one of his references was us-the New Dawn, since we have been at the core of various publications on the deal. While we may not want to lend credence to him or dignify his utterances, Israel Akinsayah must understand that the New Dawn is too big an institution to allow itself to be lured into mercenary Journalism, as we see around here.

All information about the merger deal between George Weah and Charles Brumskine, Israel’s uncle or father, were provided by either some of his party stalwarts or those of the Congress for Democratic Change, including George Weah himself( even on October 22, 2010). We believe, he’s quite knowledgeable about the pronouncements of Cllr. Brumskine on this deal-it was not the New Dawn.

It was the same Liberty party that told the people of Liberia about meetings its Political Leader, Charles Brumskine had with the Black Congressional Caucus of the United States in early October this year, but did not detail the actual nature of those meetings. Let him and his likes understand that we at the New Dawn don’t only rely on information on the surface as presented, but go beyond and digging out the details, and make analysis for the common good of all.

Here, we fear nothing, but to do wrong-and that’s why our news and feature items are all in consonance with the principles of good journalism-whether one admires us or not. Akinsayah and his Liberty Party must also understand that as a daily newspaper, our survival is greatly dependent on dvertisements/supplements and other news contents as evidenced by what he and his likes read on a daily basis.

Our editorial team is made up of experienced, credible and professional individuals well knowledgeable of the geo-politics of Liberia and not easily carried away by sentiments and dollars, unlike his family party leadership that is “grass-hoppering” all over the place begging for cash just to enter and “beat dum-boy” in the Executive Mansion (in the words of Cllr. Charles Brumskine during the 2005 elections after believing that he was the “anointed one.”

May we assure the Liberty Party Chairman and his likes of our preparedness to vehemently respond, even harshly, to any attempts by any institution, individual or group of individuals to erroneously corrode our hard-earned reputation and place on the Liberian media landscape. Equally so, we are prepared to succumb to professional errors and make up in our strife to maintain our credibility and good relationship with our many readers.