RAYMOND ARCHER LAMPOONS SEARCHLIGHT EDITOR

I have read The Daily Searchlight Story of yesterday published on your esteemed website, which attributes a front page story quoting me as haven said that Jerry Rawlings has been given $5 million by the Atta Mills government.

This story by The Searchlight Newspaper, reminds me of the story of a young reporter who claimed that he saw the statute of Jesus Christ weeping a day after it had rained heavily. The reporter concluded in a story that the tears of Christ was a sign of the end times. As it turned, it was mere rainwater which had seeped through a crack in the head of the statute and the so-called tears of Christ was rather rainwater finding its way out of the cracked of a concrete statute.

Whilst I am horrified by the story, I am not surprised because of the style of the Searchlight newspaper which has the penchant of seeing things more in the realms of the abstract than in reality.

I admit that I was on Alhaji and Alhaji news review program on Radio Gold last Saturday. Everything I said was recorded and has been played back in the wake of the controversy started by the publication. The numerous live of the program never heard me mention that Jerry John Rawlings or his Wife had been given $5 million by the Mills government. There was only one person who heard me say this: Mr. Ken Kuranchie.

Let me state emphatically that I did not make those statements attributed to me by the Searchlight Newspaper. The said story is false.

To my horror, a News reporter from the Searchlight Newspaper , called Prince Pra telephoned me yesterday after their scurrilous story broke to ask whether indeed I made those statements reported by their newspaper. What an irony. I am sure your readers have their verdict on a newspaper which runs a story on Monday morning that Raymond Archer had said Jerry Rawlings was given $5 million by the Mills government, and then the same newspaper calls Mr. Archer at 4:45pm to enquire whether he actually said what they had reported him as saying.

One would have thought that Ken Kuranchie, the editor of the paper would have listened to exactly what I said on radio before making a such an embarrassing professional mistake.

I stand by what I said on radio Gold which has been re-played by the station, I completely deny the words attributed to me by The Searchlight newspaper. I never made those comments, let alone spill the beans. I did not also mention any Calf Cocoa Processing company in my presentation.

Wherever Ken Kuranchie and his newspaper got that story from only God can tell. If I indeed made those comments, it could have been only on one platform: In the dreams of the Editor of the Searchlight. If Mr. Ken Kuranchie wants to get at Jerry John Rawlings and smear him with such allegations; he should boldly do so and not hide behind me to perpetrate such professional misconduct.

I intended to ignore The Searchlight, after all no one takes them serious. It’s a paper read by less than 100 people each day. I feel ashamed that I used my resources in the past to support a newspaper which has become such an embarrassment.

As journalists, we all do make mistakes, but deliberately concocting stories as done by the Searchlight Newspaper is another story all together. The days of “BIGFOOT JOURNALISM” are gone.