Manipulating the media
Frankly Speaking...........
Hello again friends and foes. Though (secretly) mentally tired of this sort of "stuff", I bow to some requests to comment, albeit briefly, on aspects of what obtains in the local media these days. And yes, reaction has been stimulated by a television commentary by me aired a few days ago. Partly. Notice the caption above? Well, I appreciate that my favourite foes and detractors will rush, gleefully, to accuse me of manipulating some medium myself - for my own purposes. My response to that sort of accusation is that it is unjustifiable, but I leave you, the fair-minded and the silent majority, to judge what I write and say and how I do it. To manipulate, in this context, is "to treat with skill in order to influence, even direct". Political parties' newspapers might feel it is a virtual right to manipulate facts, opinion; to distort and to propagandise. However, this type of journalistic impropriety seeps in, nay, is rampant in our mainstream media today. So-called "television" is the leading culprit - really Guyana's almost unique brand of radio-television and political talk-shows I mean. Mind you, I bear in mind always that these "professionals" have a democratic right to use all the propagandistic media tricks at their disposal to support and promote their party and their cause. But it's the Idi Amins of local television who incite and hold up only one side of an issue who I abhor. They play to the sub-literate, the illiterate, the uninformed, the mis-informed, the youth without history - and yes even the adult and the knowledgeables who are not "true to themselves". The state-controlled radio is not attracting lots of flak right now. Like the Chronicle Newspapers, it is criticised for being "pro-government". Period! My favourite Stabroek News, however, must be doing something right. It takes flak from all sides - PNC, PPP and in between. This newspaper attracts harsh criticism, vitriolic condemnation from the government top-brass, Oscar Clarke and his Sophia protesters, union leaders, et al. But you can't beat the trained, qualified, experienced, professional radio/TV crew! Bitter and hypocritical at times, they contradict themselves from one week, or one show, to the other. Especially where their brand of race relations, recent local political history and "majority politics" are concerned. This television terrorism could even be humorous, if it didn't cause pain and rupture in our society. Under the guise of exposing and making the government accountable, they speak to their own daily, win cheap "popularity" that is sometimes akin to journalistic masturbation, and ignore propriety, good order and the views of the silent majority outside the precincts of Georgetown. I rebuke them! Their electronic yellow journalism knows no limits. During the strike, one union leader used a TV newscast to call a lecturer a "gutter rat, a sewer rat". My Lord! (As (poetic) irony would have it, that same "leader" had to peep out of his union building - like a scared mouse - threatened by monsters he had helped to create). Some other "TV fellows", when responding to real or perceived "attacks", ignore the issue and attempt to get personal. If you say the TV PM misrepresented some actual fact and he is hard put to respond effectively, he'll say that you stole a hub cap or abuse women. What is the relevance? Morality? Are they angels? Careful! But I'll never sink to the gutter-rat level - through the media at least. And guess what? All the fellows, all of us, say that we have the good and welfare of Guyana at heart. What a media! My beloved Stabroek Dear Stabroek, how could you attract their rancour so? The PPP/Civic swears you have a hidden agenda - against it. Whether the issue is Venezuela or the PPP succession, you upset them. But then, the Sophia War Room loves you - selectively. Without much comment then, I wonder how the two camps would react to these editorial excerpts from editions over the past days? 1) "The PPP won a fair election in 1997. It has had little opportunity to govern since. It was kept out of power, originally for ideological reasons, for 28 years. It understandably feels it has justice on its side. Can it do a Mandela, so to speak, and embark on an experiment in the interests of the nation?" 2) "And then there are certain television stations which whip up emotions in a way which not only reflects badly on the profession of journalism, but also appeals to instinct rather than reason. It is this kind of appeal which throughout history has sometimes led to excesses of one kind or another. No one is suggesting that that is what any broadcaster in Guyana intends: it is simply that actions often have consequences which are quite unintended, but which are nevertheless usually foreseeable if people only took the time for careful thought." 3) "On the night of Wednesday, June 30, President Jagan was admitted to the intensive care unit of the St Joseph's Mercy Hospital. By early the following morning the grapevine was in full swing and a local, privately owned television station was broadcasting a lurid account of her state of health. It would seem that President Jagan's indisposition was, on this occasion, none too serious, although the usual cloak of secrecy coupled with the enigmatic official press releases left a lingering suspicion in some minds that everything was not what it appeared. This clandestine approach also allowed leeway for some scurrilous accounts of Mrs Jagan's health to be peddled around by those who clearly had lost all sense of dignity and propriety." Don't lose heart, dear Stabroek.
Tom's tax-collector theory Tom Dalgety, my favourite Pan-Africanist with Irish or Scottish blood coursing through Afro-Guyanese veins; Tom who says I'm living in his people's Guyana-house, wrote an interesting piece in reply to the discourse involving Ras Waddell, Mayor Hammie and the Investors' Advocate Chris Nascimento. Tom's response was replete with African history and Rasta "spirituality". (See SN Saturday July 3). I'll be revisiting that piece from time to time, herein. Like the Masai of Kenya became, Tom says, like the West African Emirs and Kings, the Guyana government, (any one), is a mere tax-collector of Omai and GT&T. Great stuff! Until I return to it, I'd like to ask the Patriotic Pan Africanist Guyanese Tom - and Dr Roop - just where can we acquire huge capital to develop the vast "potential" in the earth and elsewhere? Or is it when they come, the foreigners must give us half? Always? No space... again 1) The Chanderpaul story? It refers to Carl Hooper's magnanimous heart - or business acumen - allegedly. The Doc on Regent street is willing to testify! But Shiv never looked back from day one! More later. 2) The Jackass was made to "urinise" the pitch overnight so that the team to bat had to lose! The Doc will reveal with me... 3) Humour from the devastating strike? Well, one item is the striking customs fellow physically restraining a colleague from working. Why? That colleague would have taken away all his "customers" and the lucrative top-ups! 4) Has the VCT Evening News folded? 5) Mr Desmond Hoyte was kept back in Jimmy Carter's USA to rest. Doctor's orders! I must wish him well, genuinely. 6) But when a well-rested Mr Hoyte returns - in time for July 17 - should I get scared? All over again? 7) White South Africans, or Canadian Indians? Should I not welcome these investors? 8) Which TV operatives walk with extra-sensitive camcorders to pick up private conversations? 9) Still to come: Inside the TUC, and the church as business. 10) They are about to respond to Mr David, I'm told! (Not about FUGE's 8%!)
`till next week!!
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