By: Spencer Estrada Harris |
One of the most dangerous deficiencies of any professional person is his/her insatiable taste for money and the ultra-weakness to resist the disastrous temptation of money and material gifts.
When a professional is controllably money-minded, he/she puts money at the height of everything he does in brazen disregard for the sacredness and sanctity of his/her profession. The extreme greed of such a person often causes them to blatantly defy the canon and ethics of their profession in exchange for money and lofty material gifts.
Even at the peril of others, they would submit to the whims and caprices of money with zero ounces of remorse and conscience. Psychologists and trauma experts have postulated that such extreme greed for money is not only caused by moral bankruptcy, it is also a manifestation of behavior psychosis.
Rodney Sieh, the owner and Managing Editor of unethical and “libel-machine” Frontpage Africa Newspaper sadly bears the beastly character and behavior paralysis described above. It is astounding, disheartening, and unbelievable how a man with such moral and ethical dissonance and tragic deficiency has managed to cajoled and endeared himself to a few foreign media organizations and begged a horde of awards from them— under the pretext of performing investigative and advocacy journalism.
In keeping with ethics and civility, Rodney Sieh must summon the courage to return these laurels to his foreign friends, or his foreign friends who appear to be charmed and mesmerized by his scoundrel and phony maneuverings must muster the effrontery to rescind or revoke their awards from him, for he doesn’t represent ethical journalism and for the larger span of his journalism career, he has been dishonorably compromised to the dictates and trapping of the mighty U.S. dollars.
The plain truth is Rodney Sieh is not who he professes to be. He has zero integrity and represents no ideological belief. A man who is not ideologically structured is most likely not guided by ethos and principles thus rendering him vulnerable and dangerous to society. As far as we know, money is what Rodney Sieh stands for and money is what sits at the height of his incontrovertible journalism career over the years.
From the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to the George Weah age, Rodney Sieh has been sadly compromised— dedicating the pages of his error-packed FrontPage Africa Newspaper to only those who cut the fastest check to grease his pocket.
He represents the wretched segment of the Liberian society whose greatest priority is to amass wealth by every means possible— even to the detriment of their country, Liberia, Rodney, and his friends care less.
For three months running and with consistency too, Rodney Sieh the chronic money-gobbler has dreadfully turned his sword on Benoni Wilfred Urey, Political Leader of the All Liberian Party or ALP, and at times wage attacks on former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai—for the obvious reason that both Urey and JNB relish a solid political and family camaraderie.
I have read with keen attention and indignation the profusion of libelous, scandalous, egregious, vicious, denigrating, and malicious stories written by Rodney Sieh and prominently published in the Frontpage Africa newspaper ultimately at the behest of Alexander Benedict Cummings, the controversial Political Leader of the alarmist Alternative National Congress or ANC, originally an offshoot of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).
Cummings according to one Liberian political writer, is a “politician wallowing in glaring obscurity who doesn’t hide nor pretend about his burning desperation for the Liberian presidency”. It is intriguing and outrageous how Cummings, Rodney Sieh’s paymaster illusively believes he can become president without commanding popularity and national appeal. Which political theories or history books is Cummings reading? The scale of hallucination that has consumed Cummings and his boy Rodney Sieh is unimaginable and mind-boggling.
Unimpeachable sources have hinted that not only has Cummings, in his cynical quest for the presidency, hired the media services of Rodney Sieh and his ethically diminishing Frontpage Africa newspaper, he has also hired Rodney to launch a blistering slanderous attack on Urey and his family.
The plan is to attack Urey continuously until the question of who heads the CPP ticket in the much-heralded 2023 presidential election is resolved. Recently, the nation was stunned and appalled when they saw leaked WhatsApp messages between Alexander Cummings and Rodney Sieh rolling on Social Media in which the two men were plotting to dreadfully attack the character of Urey in the media with the Frontpage Africa newspaper being the willing conduit for the planned attacks.
Since the revelation of such a diabolical plot, Rodney Sieh through his Newspaper has launched a stinking smear campaign against Urey and his family to the pleasure of Cummings. Interestingly, the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) that once crowned this renegade and miscreant of a Journalist as “Best Journalist of the year” has said or done nothing about the disgraceful, unprofessional, and disconcerting journalism he has embarked upon. This is perhaps why some media pundits and analysts described the PUL as weak and haggard in the charge to maintain ethical standards in the Liberian press.
Cummings and his stooge Rodney Sieh believe that Urey relationship with Boakai is a potential barrier to getting close to Boakai and consummating a political deal that will see Cummings possibly chosen as Vice-running mate to the Unity Party standard-bearer who is believed to be the strongest opposition candidate numerically and commands the appeal of the Liberian masses.
Their strategy is to crudely impugn the character of Ben Urey by writing horrible negative stories about him so that Boakai gets frustrated and weary and eventually disassociates or divests himself from Urey thus paving the way for Cummings to step in and politically establish a relationship with JNB.
But even if Cummings and his “Attack Dog” in Rodney Sieh are so desperate for the head and blood of Urey, writing malicious and erroneous stories in the shabby pages of the Frontpage newspaper against the Ureys doesn’t cut it. Political commentators are now pontificating that the constant negative stories in the Frontpage Africa Newspaper are only hurting the reputation of Rodney and his paper on a daily and further exposes his callous dislike for Urey.
The constant appearance of Urey in the Frontpage newspaper doesn’t pull the trick as Cummings is not earning or garnering any political traction from such misguided and unwarranted libelous onslaught.
Interestingly but not surprising, all these ridiculous articles carried in the Frontpage Africa newspaper, all redundant stories, by the way, have ethically and intentionally defaulted to contact Urey for his side of the story under the doctrine of “balanced reporting”.
This illustrates the extreme to which Rodney can be unethical, unscrupulous, reckless, rebellious, and irrational when he is paid to malign the character of another person especially in the case of Benoni Urey who he hates with a passion.
He would defy the standards of good journalism even to the detriment of his name and reputation so long money is involved. This is disgusting and shameful, to say the least, and such despicable and counterproductive conduct must claim the attention of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) and other media groups in Liberia.
Such racketeer who chooses money and material gifts over good journalism must be publicly slammed by all. Rodney and his paymaster Alex Cummings are so desperate to demoralize and diminish Urey politically to extend that they would stoop so low to run a video on social media caricaturing Urey as a broke and hungry man who is begging for credit as low as US$500 from friends and businessmen.
This I believe is the height of madness caused by desperation. A Urey with the largest private rubber plantation, the largest real estate that runs across Liberia with prime properties in the City of Morovia, Sinkor, Oldest Congau Town, Paynesville city, and other premiere locations, Holdings in the largest GSM Company in Liberia (Lonestar Cell) and chains of other businesses will be the guy begging for US$500 credit from friends?
Guys with such existing economic power and influence will beg to credit change? How childish and moronic can Rodney and Cummings be? It is heartbreaking and disdainful to see Cummings’s wild ambition to become President would cause him to proudly finance inflammatory rhetoric and blusters against other Leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties or CPP in the Frontpage Africa.
How evil and shabby can Cummings be in his desperation for political power? It seems he hasn’t done his worse yet and is ready to do more. He is a monster in disguise waiting to explode with power in his hands.
How does publishing negative articles against Urey and Boakai energize and propel Cummings’s presidential bid? How publishing rubbish on Urey promotes Cummings and secures a desirous relationship with Joseph Boakai? The vague and preposterous attacks on Urey are pure misfiring and will earn nothing for Cummings. By the way, what new is Rodney Sieh writing against Urey that the world doesn’t know?
It is a global knowledge that Urey worked for the Charles Taylor regime. But what is wrong with working for a legitimate government? I hope Rodney and Cummings haven’t forgotten the current Vice President of Liberia Jewel Howard Taylor was the wife of former President Charles Taylor.
The current Maritime Boss Lenn Eugene Nagbe is a Taylor associate and worked for the Taylor regime. The ruling Congress for Democratic Change or CDC of President George Weah is in a merger with Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Party or NPP. The vestiges of the Taylor regime to include Charles Bright, Monie Ralf Captan, Cyril Allen, Emmanuel Shaw, and others are currently holding positions in the current ruling establishment.
Who doesn’t know that Urey was amongst Taylor’s associates that were placed on a travel ban by the United Nation and after the U.N. Security Council found him and others no longer harmful to Liberia’s peace and harmony, it lifted the sanction off them? If Taylor’s associates are bad beyond abomination why is Jewel Howard Taylor the current Vice President of Liberia? Why has she been constantly elected as Senator of Bong County before her ascent to the coveted seat of Vice President? Rodney “Money-minding” Sieh are you so daft to rationalize these hard realities? Urey’s relationship with Boakai is in no way an abomination or the worse thing to ever happen in Liberia.
Whatever Urey might have done as Commissioner of Maritime, he did so upon the instruction of his Boss Charles Taylor who was a democratically elected President. Do you not get tired of writing trash against Urey, or do you get huge sales for putting the face of Benoni Urey on the front page of your shady Frontpage Africa Newspaper? Oops, I forgot you must do that which “desperado” Alexander Cummings has hired you to do even at the peril of your integrity if you have any left.
Rodney, I shall leave you pondering over these questions as I pen part-2 of a three-series piece on you and your desperate and irrational benefactor Alexander Benedict Cummings, an obscured man so politically conflicted and clueless.
Publisher’s Note:
This article was published unedited based on the author’s request.
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