A Call For Alternative Sources Of Information About Trump

I write this piece in response to the unfair treatment and wrong perception against President Trump each and every day since his great victory on November 8^th 2016. In my view, President Trump is an excellent human being with flaws, just like the rest of us. Unlike many of us, his flaws are magnified and exaggerated almost every single day by those who hate him for no justifiable reason. People who hate him include members of his own party who are known as “Never-Trumpers”; members of the opposition party (the Democrats) and most importantly, powerful sections of the mainstream media.

The mainstream media for the purposes of this article is concerned with the Cable News Network which is simply called “CNN”. Although other news media networks such as CBS, MSNBC are also very powerful media establishments who are relentless in their attacks against President Trump, they have minimal influence in Ghana compared to CNN. CNN is a global network in many countries of the world and as such, has a powerful voice and influence in forming perceptions and the distribution of information. CNN has been celebrated for its outstanding journalistic works over the years which more than awards, have earned it the trust of many people around the globe. For example, it recently brought to light the slave-trade of black Africans in Libya which caused a global outcry and condemnation of the wicked activity. Such great works of journalism makes CNN an authoritative force in news and there lies a problem.

What happens when a global force like CNN has its own view it wishes to force on everyone? For example, what happens when CNN relentlessly begins to promote homosexuality or the transgender culture as a good thing? The outcome is clear: people will most likely accept that if CNN is saying it, then it’s true and will begin to promote these ideas wherever they are as they are gradually being promoted in Ghana. In Ghana’s case, I expect homosexuality as a movement to suffer many set-backs because Ghanaians have a counter-perception of the practice as unnatural. This counter-perception is primarily thanks to religious indoctrination from Christianity, Islam and the Traditional systems which give no consideration for homosexuality to thrive. But even with that, how long will Ghanaians be able to push back against homosexuality?

Now we see that counter-perception can play a role in nullifying the views of others, I will like to zoom into the main purpose of this article which is the Presidency of President Trump. Any objective person who watches CNN knows by now that the network is in no way fond of Donald Trump as President. Since Donald Trump won, networks like CNN have consistently punched the Trump Presidency with one bad story after the other. From the so-called Russian collusion story to unsubstantiated claims that Trump is a racist who refers to Africa as a “shithole”. As we saw very recently, the unsubstantiated shithole claim by Trump was met with global anger as CNN actively pushed that information with the underlying aim of ruining the image of the Trump presidency-and it worked. In Ghana, our former President John Mahama and our current Presidents all responded to the unsubstantiated allegations and as sad as I was about their reaction, I wasn’t blind to understand that they too have been hooked onto CNN’s power of perception-creation and said what they said because of the image of Trump CNN has successfully presented to them.

The real tragedy is that Ghana’s local media have made the US mainstream media their point of reference when they wish to inform their followers about news from the US. This means that whenever there is negative news about Trump in the US, our local media will present that negative news to their own followers hence promoting the strategy of the anti-Trump bias media. It is at this point that I wish to appeal to the educated Ghanaian public as well as our local media to actively seek out balanced and objective reporting on Trump and any issue for that matter.

It is unfair for any man to constantly have his words twisted and have his image shredded on a consistent basis simply because he ran for an election and won. There is no proof that Trump is a racist or is evil and it is dangerous for Ghanaians, especially those in high places of our government to harbor such perceptions against a man who has done nothing wrong to us. Not every American is hooked to this anti-Trump perception created by the mainstream news media because they are opened to other news and views which give fair factual news about Trump without injecting their bias. Fair stories about Trump can be found on news networks like Fox News, Breitbart.com, and Dailycaller.com. These alternative news sources try to tell the other side of the Trump stories we are often bombarded with. It’s only responsible for our local media to seek out some of these alternative stories so they can give their own listeners fairer and more objective stories about Trump.

Papa Abakah.