What is traditionally a normal news bulletin anchored by Karabo Yibe, was instead a debate anchored by Mabe, identical to the type of debate she will be chairing come Monday when she takes over ANN7 Prime.
The hour was still branded on air as Newspoint, though.
The topic of the hour? None other than the Guptas' controversial ownership of ANN7 and its sister newpaper, The New Age, and a report the two entities released about the ANC apparently gtting ready to recall President Zuma. This is something Mabe will have to defend on a regular basis should the Guptas continue to stay in the spotlight.
Today alone, in defense of the Guptas, Mabe cited the positive influence the Guptas had on the country, which includes an amount invested in the economy apparently exceeding R10 billion and that over R200 million of taxes are generated by Gupta employment. The whole defense came across as awkward.
The whole hour was probably just a test hour for Mabe to get used to the setup and ANN7. I must say she is very good at what she does. It was not her being on tv that drew my attention but rather me wanting to see who this anchor is that is doing quite a good job on a channel that generally has bland anchors. ANN7 Prime is in good hands. But for how long? We'll see.
The interest generated by Mabe joining ANN7 in the media has been quite sizable considering how silent these things usually are for the channel. They seem to have a proper PR/marketing division now sending out releases on these kind of things while they even have a Twitter accoun dedicated to marketing the channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment