The news that Nana Kofi Coomson, a journalist and publisher/owner of the Chronicle Group of Newspapers, has been caught trying to palm off an appeal for funds on the letterhead of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) may, to some observers, be surprising news during this political season. Kofi Coomson, as he was known in the early 1990s when he made his name and felt emboldened to add the honorific Nana, is quite a journalistic monument. He has been named Journalist of the Year and his paper has won many awards, in addition to the professional rewards and recognition that many a leading journalist today acquired while working on his paper as a dutiful apprentice. But today the man who spawned a sparkling genre of investigative journalism has been exposed in a shabby fundraising stinker which may affect the appreciation of the motives of journalists in the country. For with this double exposure and the towering stature he has carved for himself in the profession, Kofi’s NPP letters are certain to be cited as proof of the untrustworthiness of Ghanaian journalists and the need for the public to be wary of them. Mr. Coomson's problems with the NPP, the police and public opinion rest on his authorship of two letters appealing for funds from his well-wishers to sustain his campaign to win the parliamentary candidacy of the Effia-Kwesimintsim Constituency on the ticket of the NPP. There are a few observations to be made about these two letters, both of which were dated February 2008 and also carried the pictures of Mr and Mrs Coomson. First, both letters are nearly identical word for word in their composition. Second, the major difference between the two letters is that one estimates the amount of money required for the campaign to be $70,000 and the other, with the same justification, puts the figure at $150,000, that is, more than double the figure in the first letter. What explains this vast discrepancy? Third, in the first letter, his children, whose ages for someone around 50 may not be that much, are reported to have been consulted in the tortuous decision to run for Parliament but they are omitted in the second letter. Why? What should puzzle observers all the more is the obvious fact that in his defence on the airwaves, Mr Coomson made it clear that the letters were not for general circulation but targeted at a few trusted friends and well-wishers who were wealthy enough to contribute to his campaign. Why put pen to paper in this fashion when a personal meeting to make one's pitch was all that was needed for those already known to provide the cash? Friends and well-wishers don't need this type of communication to demonstrate their sup¬port for such efforts. Though he is very political, as someone in his vocation would be, Kofi Coomson always strenuously denied his links with the ruling NPP until he volunteered to be interviewed on Gold FM and lambasted, unprovoked and without reason, Nana Akufo-Addo's ambition to be the NPP flag bearer for the 2008 elections. He has plainly become a victim of his own vanity imagining that one person can be considered a hot parliamentary prospect in five different constituencies in three separate regions. Essikado and Kwesimintsim in the Western Region are clamouring for him, and so are Cape Coast and Mfantseman East in the Central Region and lastly Ayawaso East in the Greater Accra, a record not even Kwame Nkrumah can match! One wonders the political calculations and moral considerations which must have propelled Kofi Coomson to seek political office in a party whose presidential candidate he has so viciously and cruelly attacked in public. Is he prepared and ready to defend and help pass the legislative proposals of Nana Akufo-Addo as president when he is elected? Is he ready to mix and commune with NPP members, many of whose leading members, the delegates, that is, voted for Nana Akufo-Addo? And does Coomson really believe that this decision of his is the best he could have taken for himself and the profession he has served so well? For someone who has made a living and a reputation from taking politicians of all hues to the cleaners, the problems of Coomson though self-inflicted, may seem like poetic justice. But the downside for the profession he has hitherto adorned would be the elevation in the minds of the general public that journalists cannot be trusted, nor can they be seen as impartial purveyors of information. He has, with these two letters, harmed himself, deeply embarrassed his friends and cast a slur on his profession. It is hoped that he can extricate himself from this trap and restore some dignity to his person and his chosen profession. Source: Ewurakuwa Insaidoo/Daily Graphic