Response to NBC News
NBC News reporter Marquise Francis wrote to us at African Stream implying that we are spreading misinformation to “target Black audience” (sic). He didn’t cite any examples, but we politely gave him the courtesy of response regardless.
Please read below to see his two emails and our response.
Emails from Marquise Francis
First Email
Good afternoon. My name is Marquise and I’m a reporter with NBC News. I am working on a writeup on a forthcoming report that takes a deep dive into online networks that, it claims, targets Black audience with misinformation and includes your company. I am reaching for comment about whether you feel as though this is an accurate or inaccurate statement of the work that you all do and how you would like to respond to critics that say you share misinformation to that hurts Black communities. Additionally, I would love to include how you would characterize the work that you all do. I have a Wednesday 10a EST deadline and thank you in advance for your time.
Best,
Marquise
Second Email
One update: my deadline is Tuesday 10a EST, not Wednesday. Thanks in advance.
African Stream’s Response
Hi Marquise Francis,
Thank you for your email and for allowing us to respond. However, you should accurately indicate what we are accused of to respond adequately. It would be more in line with customary practice to lay out the allegations in detail with examples of what you mean by ‘misinformation’ and allow us to respond to the examples you cite. You have not done that. Instead, you sent us two emails. In the second email, you moved the deadline for us to respond from Wednesday to Tuesday at 10 am EST, which gives us less than 24 hours. Again, this is not customary practice, but we will deal with it as professionals.
But firstly, to avoid any ‘misinformation’ on your behalf, you misspelt our media name: we are not ‘Africa Stream’ but ‘African Stream.’ Now, the misspelling of our name suggests to us one of two things: a) You have not done your due diligence about our company (which would explain why you could not cite any examples of our supposed misinformation in your email), or b) This assignment was handed to you hastily, most likely by a white supervisor who wanted you to do the hit piece because it looks better optically if we are attacked by someone who looks like us or, as Malcolm X once brilliantly stated: “They will pay one of us to kill one of us just to say it was one of us.”
Let’s answer your questions as directly as we can. You describe us as an online network that “targets Black audience [sic] with misinformation.” You are half right, although you mean Black audiences plural, not audience singular. We target Black audiences, although we prefer the term ‘African’ to ‘Black’. We do this because we are a Pan-African digital media platform covering affairs concerning Africans at home and in the diaspora. Consequently, we cover events in countries ranging from Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, Jamaica to the United States.
Our team is based in Nairobi, Kenya, and we are run and staffed by Africans, including veteran journalists with expertise in regional and local politics. We present an authentically African perspective, unlike media outlets like NBC News, which represents the view of the American establishment that seeks to economically control and plunder Africa.
Now, on to your more serious and defamatory allegation that we spread misinformation. Not sure how you do journalism at NBC, but at African Stream, we ensure that our journalists follow the basic principles of Point, Evidence, Explain (PEE). Simply put, if you are to make a point like you have here, claiming we are spreading misinformation, then you need examples to back up your point (something you have failed to provide) and then, finally, to explain how your examples back up your point. You need to drastically improve on two of the three fronts.
However, we will still attempt to answer your allegation as simply as we can. No, we do not spread misinformation.
We have a vigorous fact-checking process, which means work is checked by three different trained journalists three times before posting on our platforms. Of course, like all news media, we occasionally make mistakes, but we issue a retraction when that happens. However, this has happened only a few times because of our thorough verification process. Again, if you have found any information that we have posted that is not factual, please let us know, and if we agree with your findings, we will issue a retraction of the post and take it down. Now, we are transparent about our political perspective. Are you open with your audience at NBC about your political leanings and who and what you represent? We must admit we don’t follow your site closely, but what does filter through to us comes across as propaganda for Joe Biden’s Democratic party in the U.S and the U.S military–industrial complex, which is the opposite of what the media is supposed to do: hold truth to power. We are based in Kenya and have been covering all of the protests against William Ruto’s government following the imposition of the IMF-backed 2024 Finance Bill. We are putting ourselves at risk to hold truth to power in the country in which we are based. Have you done the same? We notice that Julian Assange has just been set free after five years in Belmarsh’s maximum security prison in the U.K., battling extradition to the United States for exposing U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. We noticed NBC’s sit-down interview with President Biden on 26th November 2020. You didn’t ask him a single question about Julian Assange. How come? Since you are concerned with misinformation and protecting journalism, why not ask about the most famous journalist locked up at the request of the United States to the one politician who could have released him with one executive order? Since you are concerned with misinformation, you would know that WikiLeaks has an impeccable record, better than African Stream’, as they, unlike us, have never had to retract a story. Yet you don’t bring up the case of the Wikileaks founder to the most powerful politician in the world. What was the purpose of your interview? Was it to ask the newly elected President Joe Biden tough questions or to bask in the glory of his recent election victory?
You see, we cover U.S. politics too, but following the radical pan-African tradition of criticising both the Republicans and Democrats, to paraphrase Malcolm X again, both parties are enemies of African people worldwide, including Africans in America. If you check our page, you will see that Trump is as criticised as Biden. A look at your page reveals that, sadly, criticism of Biden is woefully missing. Is supporting, funding and arming a genocide against Palestinian children not worth criticising? Or the fact Joe Biden has received over $5.2 million in support over the last 34 years from Israeli lobby group AIPAC, more than any Congressional recipient, according to OpenSecrets? Have you ever raised the question of whether this is why he is continuing to arm Israel despite pending cases by the ICJ and ICC against Israel for genocide and war crimes?
Please respond to these questions by Friday at 10 am East African Time. We hope we have satisfactorily answered your questions.
Kind Regards,
Ahmed Kaballo
CEO & Founder, African Stream
17 Comments
Ahmed, Powerful measured response! I like the two Malcolm X quotes, especially
‘You see, we cover U.S. politics too, but following the radical pan-African tradition of criticising both the Republicans and Democrats, to paraphrase Malcolm X again, both parties are enemies of African people worldwide, including Africans in America.’
Another factor here is the USA-pushed WHO takeover of future pandemic actions. The latest is a block of about 50 African nations have had enough of this bureaucratic attempt to develop a treaty that will result in signatory nations surrendering their sovereignty. These ~50 Africa nations say no. I will send you an email on this featuring a wonderful explanation of the status of this attempted takeover by Drs. Kat Lindley and Meryl Naas in a 44 minute video from the flccc.net (webinar). Keep the stream flowing!
Conrad Miller MD Cartersville Georgia USA
Powerful, smart, & sardonic reply to a very condescending and patronizing email from a corporate shill network! You’re going to have that brother questioning all his life choices.🤣
I’m so glad you have this website as your own platform beyond Meta and Google, And I’m very grateful for all your amazing work every single day! I’ve learned so much from your channel in the last year and a half. As you say, we all need to be hearing more from Africa-based news sources.
Thank you for all you do! I’m with you. So are millions more! ✊🏾
Thank you for doing this for all of us Africans. Don’t get discouraged for anything they throw at you and we Africans will do our best to support your news outlet as long as it stays true to Africa.
Very well said. From a white dude in rural Missouri.
Dear African Stream,
Do not waste your time on modern day wanna-be WarranT Chiefs” such as Marquise Francois these are low life sellout niggaz sho shamelessly sel their souls for peanuts.
We have seen all these goons who aid and abet the “Servitude/Subjugation and Dehumanization of their own kind.
He is a scumbag…don’t waste your breathe on “it”.
Try and stay true to the TRUTH as gone are the days when their mis-education and brainwashing strategies had a strong hold over the totality of our peoples minds as many of us are long past that stupidity stage.
Stay Strong….Peace
Idris
Is the Telegram app an option? I’m concerned and don’t want to loose connection with AS.
BRILLIANT.
Excellent response, although I doubt the American ‘journalist’ read it. Their point wasn’t to explore and learn is was merely to strike out an accusation. It’s how we roll here in America.
No matter how you respond, unfortunately, African Stream is now a target of the U.S. Government. The question now is, how will you fight back? Apparently you covered, or unearthed information they seek to suppress, even if it’s basic news. How will you fight back? Your interested subscribers can only disseminate your information but so far until it reaches a level of disinterested people, due to the dumbing down propaganda imposed over several decades. Re-education is one route, but that will take just as long. Streaming information directly from your website and providing educational (Re-Education) content is one way. I am Cuban American. I’ve seen and researched the length the United States is willing to take against my people, which is also our people, given the number of Afro Cubans living on the island. One of the most effective weapons the United States has is Dis-Information, Static and Noise. Eventually, a person will disengage because uncovering the truth becomes too burdensome, so they disconnect altogether. YOU MUST TUNE YOUR INFORMATION TO RESONATE ON A DIFFERENT FREQUENCY THAN THE NOISE AND DISINFORMATION. (MAKE THE SMOKE CLEAR). You also have to understand how they function by “Thinking Like Them” (Sociopaths). Unfortunately, these are the people in charge of our media. Zuckerberg. Musk. and Google, (which are more organized than Zuckerberg and Musk).
For now, you must fall off their radar and regroup. CHE GUEVERA.
You are about to enter a Guerilla Digital War now.
This is not a fight against AfricanStream, it’s a fight against Africans
I’m so happy to see bravery of my African brothers and sisters.
Keep up the greater works, our government has done wicked deeds from the beginning.
Stay strong 💪🏾 Brothers AfricanStream is the best. TRUTH!!!
We stand with African Stream.
We stand with African Stream!! The tyrant west should wake up and stop shoving us their narratives that dont work anymore. How long do they think they can ride us?? U mighty super power tricks dont even scare a fly anymore!! They’ve robbed our resources, screwed up our environments, taken away our seeds.. Fed us GMOs and synthetic fertilizers that kill our soils and cause terminal illnesses.. Blame our beloved Africa on anything negative like pandemics and highly infectious disease and yet they still come to Africa.. Leave us alone with all our savagery, disease hunger and our illiteracy.. Leave us alone please!! African Stream, Tuko pamoja!!
I had never heard of african stream until today. I came to the site with an open mind. But reading your so called ‘professional’ response to the enquiry from the NBC journalist in which you have maligned his reputation, acused him of an ulterior motive, used Malcolm X quotes to suggest that he is hostile to your cause without a single thread of evidence, leads me to believe that your principles of PEE ar paper thin.
If this is how you approach your journalism then you are likely to fall foul of a lot of the behaviour rules of many platforms.
How do you answer a charge of doing something when one does not clarify, yet make blanket accusations??? Nigel
Good Day
How do we get hold of you since you have been blocked all over
now i follow African Stream thanks to the bloviating charlatans at NBC