THE LAPDOG JOURNALIST

Ghana unlike many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, has a media landscape that is free in terms of operation and content it choses to publish. Journalists are those who hold to account the ruling class and tells stories of the marginalized who are often muzzled by the upper class.

The media that ought to serve as guardians of the realm are now serving as lapdogs, wagging their tails at their masters and barking fiercely and gnashing its teeth towards the people it ought to serve. Journalism plays a critical role in community development and human welfare. Its role in informing the people, shaping public opinion, and holding duty bearers to account, cannot be emphasized enough.

Lapdog journalism provides a convenient excuse for authoritarian governments to suppress free speech and to indoctrinate or brainwash people to believe in their self-serving ideologies. They serve their own idiosyncrasies and pretend to be the guardians of the realm. This crop of journalists are the reason why mediocre performance is celebrated and package to the people as unprecedented achievements.

Lapdog journalist do not researched what he professes to know and proclaim falsehood. They carry stories, advertise and market products, brands and services, knowing that, such acts aid in ripping off the poor. They have become agents and mouth piece of the business moguls and would do anything to defend the rots in the system.

These acts of lapdog journalism does not only impede national development, but also militate against hard working journalists who risks their lives to unravel the rot in the system.