Here is what Toni Payne has to say;
In some cases I
agree that silence is powerful, but when silence continues to do so much
damage, it may be wise to rethink that stance and say something. Some
will say ignore, I say, I have ignored a lot of things, in fact I ignore
most things. Others will say don’t grant interviews, I say, why should I
stop creating awareness about my work. Before I continue, let me say
there are still some good, in fact, awesome media people out there who
do their job well and hold the profession at high esteem. Now,on to the
reason for all this.
I gave an interview to Punch Newspapers recently, which in my mind I
was comfortable with. The interview came out Saturday as a frontpage
feature interview. Before I had the chance to leave my house to see it, a
friend of mine snapped the headline and sent it to my phone. When I saw
what she sent, my heart skipped a beat because I knew what it meant,
that I would soon be trending, but for the wrong reasons.Let me state clearly, my problem was not with the interview per say but with the HEADLINE and the fact that It did not tally with anything I said in the interview and that fact bothered me a lot considering the caliber of the publication.
The bold headline read ” 9ice, Ruggedman SHOULDN’T HAVE fought over me”.
I’m not an English student, but I know well that “shouldn’t”, implies that they fought over me and I feel they should have just made merry. Which is not so! You know now, Oko and Oko Ile tinz.. lol.. seriously though, its not funny.
I have stated times without number that the alleged fight was NEVER about me. 9ice has said soo many times that the song was never about me, I have shouted it from the rooftop that I never cheated and was a VERY MUCH, I BEAT MY CHEST WHEN I SAY THIS, A FLIPPING LOYAL WIFE!!!!!, but with careless Headlines like this from a widely read paper, how can people hear the truth?
If the headline stated that “9ice, Rugged DID NOT fight over me”, maybe I wouldn’t have been as bothered but it still doesn’t change that I feel the headline should have been based on the reason I agreed to an interview in the first place.
The primary reason I agreed to do the interview was to promote my works but I guess in their eyes the good things I am doing was not WORTH their headline.
Personally, I feel the 9ice,Rugged,Payne gist is beyond stale, old, finished, more boring than counting your toes. All parties involved, as well as most media houses have moved on from it. All parties involved have clearly stated that the rumors never happened, so what exactly is some peoples’ problem? I cant remember how many times I said “no comment” during the interview, it really shouldn’t have been so, Why can’t they just let sleeping dogs sleep peacefully?
If in 2013, you feel the need to wake up a dead topic or see that topic as fit to make your headline, then there is a need to go back to the mission statement written when your publication was created and really sit back and rethink why you are there.
Anyways, with that said, I’m not even going to touch on the issue of copy and paste bloggers who don’t verify or care to check well before posting, I am not going to get into the topic of people who just read headlines, without fully reading and trying to comprehend each story, because if I do, we will be here forever.
Anyhow, It’s nothing personal. The same way it’s their job to report news, it’s also my job to protect my image from shoddy, half baked false headlines. The rest I’ll say is left in Gods hands.
One good thing though, this and many others inspired this poem
