Editorial: Arthur Kennedy�s Harangue

In the Friday December 11 edition of The Chronicle carried a frontpage story headed: �Bonking Caused NPP Defeat.� The story is partly a direct quotation and paraphrasing of Dr Arthur Kennedy�s controversial book, �Chasing the Elephant into the Bush.� After the publication, Arthur Kennedy, who has turned himself into rejoinder expert and is reacting to every aspect of the book and commentaries that are being carried on it by the media, sent a strongly-worded rejoinder to us, which we have reproduced somewhere in today�s edition unedited. The Medical Doctor turned-politician accused us of practicing gutter journalism, because he did not use those words, as contained in our headline, in his book. �This quote is not supportable by the boo, and nothing in �CHASING THE ELEPHANT INTO THE BUSH� will lead a reasonable person to the conclusion that became your headline. In fact, it is a wicked and deliberate lie. It is a classic illustration of the type of gutter journalism practiced by so many in our country. In a nation characterized in large part by irresponsible journalism, your newspaper has reached a new low. My anger is further heightened by the fact that I took the trouble to send your paper a copy of my book,� Arthur Kennedy shrieked in his rejoinder. First of all, we admit that the word �bonking� is not stated into book, but it will be wrong for the author to conclude that reading the book �will not lead a reasonable person to the conclusion that became your headline.� Arthur Kennedy wrote in his book, and we quote: �In Kumasi, while polling agents looked for party leaders to help resolve problems, one party leader was reportedly holed up at his girlfriend�s place.� The writer also took time to narrate how some chiefs in the Central Region complained bitterly to him and other party leaders, about the way they were treated by some of the District Chief Executives (DCEs). Quoting one of the chiefs in the book, Arthur Kennedy again wrote: �On many occasions, he (chief) had tried to see the DCE, young women, scantily dressed, were waltzing in and out of the DCE�s office.� It is instructive to note that the whole book centered on factors that contributed to the defeat of NPP in the 2008 elections, therefore what crime did we commit if we write a headline that states that these factors contributed to the defeat of the party? Again, what was the mindset of the Medical Doctor when he decided to dwell on women, as we have already quoted him, in the book and not men? Definitely, some of the party leaders visited their friends who are men, so why didn�t Dr. Arthur Kennedy mention that, but stated that one of the leaders was holed up in girlfriend�s place. We are one hundred percent sure that men were also visiting the DCEs, so why did he fail to mention them, but paid attention to the women only, using adverb like SCANTILY DRESSED to describe them? We wish to state that we did not err in the use of the word �bonking�, because it summarises all what the writer wants to put across. We think the word gutter-journalism better fit Arthur Kennedy than The Chronicle, because what he has written about makes allegation against people, but he failed to contact those involved, before rushing to print. At least, former President Kufuor has come out openly to condemn him (author) for failing to contact him to react to some of the comments about him in the book. We believe that if Arthur Kennedy had taken his time to cross-check his information from the right sources, he would not have referred to the Alliance for Change as Committee for Joint Action (CJA) in the book. He should rather call himself �gutter� author for the above fundamental mistakes he committed, before describing our publication as gutter journalism. Arthur Kennedy has sent several articles to us, which we published for him, even though he knew that we are practicing gutter journalism. What double standards! We also wish to put on record that The Chronicle has NOT received us, so he must stop putting wrong information in the public domain. A word to the �professional� is enough.