News Outlets of the Ethiopian Diaspora:

Stop conflating a rumor into a juggernaut news of sensationalism!

Adal Isaw

adalisaw@yahoo.com

May 12, 2008

The idea of EPRDF rendering what is an Ethiopian territory to Sudan in order to dismantle Ethiopia, as NES and other pundits are suggesting, is unthinkable and beyond comprehension. Normally, you would expect for pundits and surrogates of the opposition to hold their misfire of the worst kind, fearing shame and showing a bountiful of gratitude to the Ethiopian people. However, these same pundits and propagandists have come again full circle, to claim hyperbolically that, " EPRDF is abrogating its duty by handing out Ethiopia's land to Sudan."

Mashing the trivial with the serious, these surrogates are using German Amharic Radio, VOA, Nazzret.com, Ethiomedia, and the feeblest of all, NES, to stir up crises and induce a sense of urgency within the Ethiopian populace, so that, their self-inflicted wound brought by their own political idiocy in 2005 would heal in time for another round of election in 2010. Till then, they will be standing to create crises out of a rumor until any kind of government other than EPRDF is selected.

Many crises are resolved peacefully; few are not. Specific to our case, we Ethiopians may face border conflict with Sudan, Eritrea, and Somalia, but in no way should each and every conflict with our neighbors lead us to war. In principle, if any border conflict that we have with Sudan and any of our neighbors is resolved peacefully in a manner that both parties benefit from the outcome of the resolution, so be it. The Ethio-Sudan border is neither the result of EPRDF's successful struggle to oust Derg, nor it is the result of Derg's dictatorial years and the kingdom's failure to keep an eye on the border. Instead, like many other countries with border conflict, it is what colonialism brought forth.

To efficiently mange the newly subjugated people and their resources, colonialism sought a cohesive political unit, and it deliberately weakened and dismantled all local authorities and rearranged where people live and use their resources in ways suitable to its management. Many border conflicts may arise from this specific colonial rearrangement of resources.

Why some border conflicts develop into war and others do not is obviously an issue of great interest for us all. Because, understanding the nature of border conflict may give us the impetus to benefit from resolving border conflict peacefully. From what is being propagated by different news outlets favorable to the opposition, however, there seems to be an uproar by pundits and surrogates of the opposition against resolving border conflict peacefully.

At least in theory, peaceful border conflict resolution may include to mean the rendering of land that isn't yours as much as it is the gaining of land that is yours. The process can be very complex and abstruse if one is to interject the colonial boundaries of different eras. The question then becomes who if any is to benefit more from unresolved border conflict? The answer, those who want conflict after conflict rather than resolve, so that, havoc be the order of things in Ethiopia and in the Horn.

Consider OLF, ONLF, Eritrea, and the once "powerful" ICU and ask yourself what exactly do they lose by saying yes to all of EPRDF wishes to talk and negotiate an outcome for peace. Nothing, other than their apparent want of defacing Ethiopia from the face of the Horn.

We Ethiopians have stood united and have denied the wishes of OLF, ONLF, Eritrea, and ICU from taking any grip to hamper our existence. The opposition is seeking to exploit this nationalist fervor of ours, to " swift boat" EPRDF as un-Ethiopian, by claiming that, a great chunk of the Ethiopian territory has been handed to Sudan. This misinformation is also part of an agenda intended to upgrade the negative political temperature of those true Ethiopian patriots and to urge them do something about it. The agenda has one clear objective, and it is the making of crises after crises, in order to create the impression that real crises is taking place in Ethiopia.

There is a pivotal characteristic of a crises that stand out, and it refers to important events for the Ethiopian peoples, our beloved country and EPRDF, and involves fundamental issues of security and possibly the continued existence of Ethiopia. The cases of Soamlia and Eritrea are the two important events that stand out as pivotal characteristic of a crises.

During crises, the government is obliged and authorized to take actions that it deems proper and necessary. As a government of the people of Ethiopia, EPRDF had reinvigorated the pride in us all by badly bloodying the megalomania in Asmara till he uttered "no mas," while NES, ONLF, OLF, and the forgotten umbrella group of AFD had coalesced in the open to do just the opposite by dissolving the name Ethiopia from their own vocabulary of "freedom."

NES, ONLF, OLF, AFD and Eritrea are the darlings of these same propagandists who stand to tell us that EPRDF has abrogated its duties of protecting the sovereignty of Ethiopia. Really? If we ask Awyes and the megalomania from Asmara to relay the answer to VOA, German Amharic Radio, Nazreth.com, Ethiomedia, and NES, we are sure that, they are more likely to hand us a "proof" of the vast Ethiopian land that they have annexed right after the two wars. Lies, lies, and lies. Why on earth then, these pundits and surrogates of the opposition would like to depict EPRDF as craven land tossing government while they're aware of the very fact that it isn't? Simple; rating.

The time is so bad for all these supposed news outlets, and they are in need of increasing their listenership, readership, or what ever the case may demand of their followers. All these outlets are in a period of decline or diminution, and that who generates more beguiled follower stands to gain the most. Airing, writing, and posting inflaming subject matters without evidence suffice this precise intent.

All these outlets have been blazing under the guise of reporting the "truth." Realistically speaking though, these pundits and surrogates of the opposition have come together to exhibit to us the folly of journalism of the highest order, by obliterating the first article of faith in journalism. The first article of faith in journalism is that, "you don’t take issue, you report the issue," provided you have one.

Supposedly, if there seems to be an inconsistency in the story being told, a reporter must maintain independence from its sources and should stand to ask its sources to put the evidence where their mouth is. In any case, at the center of this egregious violation of the rules of journalism resides the tendency to give a favorable coverage to an issue rather than the truth. Like in war, the first casualty in bad journalism is the truth, and no wonder all these "news" outlets are in a mode of war with EPRDF. Neither war nor bad journalism is peculiar to Ethiopia, and these "news" outlet of the Ethiopian Diaspora may learn more from the egregious example of those Americans who violated the fundamental rules of journalism.

Janet Cook and Kurt Lohbeck, the former, a reporter for Washington Post, and the latter, a "CBS News" stringer in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion, each egregiously violated the fundamental rules of journalism on accuracy, objectivity, fairness, sensationalism, and many more. Janet Cook concocted a dramatic news story about the life of an eight-year-old drug addicted boy, under the title, "Jimmy's world." The Washington Post won a Pulitzer Prize for it to only return back the Prize after it is learnt that Cook cooked the story and resigned in disgrace.

In a slightly different fashion of deceit, Kurt Lohbeck of the then "CBS News" stringer, falsified reports, created his own battle scenes, and worked his heart out as a publicist for the Mujahadin, until a reporter named Mary Ellen Walsh offered evidence otherwise. Keeping Lohbeck's tradition, these "news" outlets of the Ethiopian Diaspora are not that new to concocting a dramatic story to the point of becoming the publicist of all of the enemies of Ethiopia. And, all that we can ask for now from these "news" outlest is nothing more than to refrain from the dereliction of their duty in journalism.  News outlets of the Ethiopian Diaspora: Stop conflating a rumor into a juggernaut news of sensationalism!