During the just-ended general elections, the Media General television network reported that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had secured 146 parliamentary seats out of 275 seats.
Right after their projection, the Electoral Commission indicated that the NPP won 137 parliamentary seats, an excess of nine seats.
TV3 received a heavy backlash on social media, especially Twitter.
But Media General responded to the backlash, saying their ‘projections were not in any way intended to be the definitive results of the elections’ and that the results ‘changed from time to time’.
Reacting to this, Bridget – who exited TV3 a few years ago – said the station should ‘own up and apologise’ for the gaffe, adding that their protections ‘were not statements of fact’.
“When you make a mistake, you own up and apologise,” she said in a video she shared on Facebook. “And for a station like TV3, I expected them to apologise and move on or let it die. Instead, they are doubling down, explaining nothing.”
“TV3, remember your presenter said you know for sure and your projection is based on 275 seats. We are talking about parliamentary seats and kept stressing. Those two statements we know were not statements of fact. In fact, they were lies – pure and simple. And I expected that you issue a letter to apologise and move on,” she continued.
She claimed TV3’s projection was sourced from figures from the NPP, adding that no verification was done by their management.
“And the sad aspect is that you have producers and presenters at TV3 who are working hard verifying their figures and yet there's the manager who is sitting in the office has zero ideas what goes into production and is calling the shots.”
“The dangerous part about this is that some of the people there were compromised and were taking their figures from the NPP. Look, it's okay if you have friends in the NPP and it's okay if you didn't have friends in the NDC but when they give you figures, you must verify. You cannot let your partisanship influence the decision that should have been influenced by your reporters who were on the ground. Don't be in a rush to announce something. Look at this embarrassment,” she added.
Watch her below.