During prime time on Sunday night, ANN7 channel executives saw nothing wrong with putting an audibly ill, hoarse Mahreen Chenia on as the news anchor in a surreal news bulletin done very badly, but as if nothing's wrong.
Mahreen Chenia's constant faltering voice detracted from the broadcast as it completely faded away for moments during the entire broadcast. Her rasping, grating, ill voice constantly sounded as if she was on the verge of a cough outburst.
Besides her raspy voice, Mahreen Chenia clearly struggled to read, couldn't pronounce multiple news speak words correctly, "uhm"-ed throughout the broadcast, and clearly didn't read her script beforehand, making numerous reading mistakes throughout the show.
It completely defies belief how Infinity Media, ANN7 and MultiChoice can think that this is acceptable, professional, good enough television, or how anyone working in television can pretend that it gets a passing grade for the type of television DStv subscribers should be paying for.
Just look at this one small clip of 22 seconds of Sunday night's ANN7 Prime on ANN7 - short, but endemic of the vast range of mistakes from various parts, people and the production machine at ANN7 which are simply not working.
It's how Mahreen Chenia sounded for the entire broadcast. It's completely unacceptable television. Who signs off on low budget trash like this? If a news anchor's voice is not up to scratch (no pun intended) that person cannot be placed on air.
Look at the various other mistakes due to ANN7 producers not knowing what to do, incompetent to do what needs to be done, or not willing to do what each needs to do.
Or the mistakes are technology shortcomings and programmes which are failing or not working properly, in which case ANN7 seriously needs to replace it.
And it's been months now after the channel's train wreck launch, and ANN7 is still mired in these kinds of ongoing mistakes.
Added to the unprofessional news anchoring on ANN7 on Sunday night, was a litany of terrible ongoing mistakes, ranging from sound and audio problems, sudden moments of silence, on-air graphic spelling mistakes, as well as incorrect on-air identifiers.
In covering "nothern Joburg" and the week's hale storm damage to power supplies, Mahreen Chenia amazingly asked an electricity spokesperson (who works with electricity) what residents in Johannesburg can do "to avoid this destruction" to property during future storms.
He awkwardly obviously had to reply that "there is very little that residents can do".
This is of course not Aaron Mokoena the former Bafana captain, but Danny Jordaan.
ANN7 Prime viewers had to listen to Mahreen Chenia cough and watch blurry video from Mandla Mandela's court appearance which is far below par production wise to show on television but which ANN7 showed anyway.
As Mahreen Chenia stumbled through stories on the plane crash in Namibia and the train crash in New York, she fumbled lines, and got basically almost all place names wrong, leaving viewers wondering what she's trying to say.
Instead of saying "derail", the commuter train in New York "crashed off its tracks" according to ANN7. Mahreen Chenia said "it took place about this morning about 90 metres north of the Spuyten ... Duyvil station," halting stammering through wrong sentences and inaccurate pronunciation.
Fahraaz Patel standing right next to a World Cup trophy, hilariously told viewers on ANN7 that "this trophy right here, next door to me, was held by some of the legendary figures of world football".
The terrible and pathetic news production which ANN7 did for real on Sunday night, was unprofessional and shocking in the level of mediocrity, compared to the eNCA (DStv 403) and SABC News (DStv 404).
Why is ANN7 news producers putting someone whose voice is not clear, healthy and fit for broadcast on the air? In television news an anchor's voice is a pivotal part of the overall production values. Why so many spelling mistakes?
Why is ANN7 giving viewers an anchor on a news bulletin who can't pronounce words properly? Why always the ongoing sound problems, the silences, the graphics problems, the unintelligible reading?
Since ANN7 disastrously launched in August this year on MultiChoice's DStv platform, the trainwreck TV channel's ongoing bad news delivery - to those who might tune in - continues unabated with clear sub par production in various aspects. It's a shame.
Infinity Media and MultiChoice need to seriously start taking responsibility for the disaster which is ANN7 and close down this mess on DStv or do something about the ongoing problems. What normal person or DStv subscriber would look at Sunday night's broadcast and find it acceptable television?
