Sometimes situations drag people or organisations into situations that they desperately seek to avoid. We have not missed the various statements emanating from the Stabroek News concerning Kaieteur News. The description of this newspaper as the unmentionable rag, and all manner of derogatory names, has not escaped us.
Indeed, there were columnists attached to this newspaper who got involved in the debate about the withdrawal of advertisements from the Stabroek News and, as Mrs Janet Jagan conceded, we did not get any Government advertisements for 10 years, but we made not a noise about it.
It is not our duty to attack a sister newspaper, in the same way that a lawyer would not attack another lawyer or a doctor being reluctant to testify against a colleague. The owners of the Stabroek News would not hesitate to admit that whenever that newspaper experienced a crisis it turned to us, and, unhesitatingly, we offered our help.
So it was indeed a surprise when Mrs Jagan rushed to pass judgement on this newspaper, and Stabroek News, undoubtedly with glee, hastened to reproduce her comment. Mrs Jagan is one of the prominent people in this society. She was once the Head of State and, as such, wielded tremendous power.
She was also not one to take kindly to opposition. When The Evening News reporter Elaine Ross sought to solicit a comment from her, she looked at the reporter, asked her which media house she represented, and walked away without deigning to answer the question.
It was Mrs Jagan who telephoned Barama Company Limited, when she learnt that one of her opponents had been working there, and used her not inconsiderable influence to have the company release that employee. For her to now comment on the advertising issue, and sound like an angel, is to seek to pull wool over the eyes of those who either do not know her or are too afraid to examine her utterings.
Mrs Jagan did not have choice words for Kaieteur News. In her view, this is “a lousy newspaper filled with nonsense I don't wish to read.” She said that she stopped reading it a long time ago because of its sensationalism. But we hasten to ask, “How is it that she was able to know that we wrote about the 10-year absence of government advertisements from our pages?”
She read it, surely but her age is causing her to forget.
If the sensationalism is nonsense, so be it, but we stand proud in the fact that we are the most sought after newspaper in the country, and even on the Internet.
For the majority of readers who buy this newspaper, though, Mrs Jagan's comments represent an indictment on them. They, according to Mrs Jagan, have a penchant for nonsense.
But what is the ‘‘nonsense'' of which Mrs Jagan speaks? This newspaper has the record for breaking stories and for bringing to the attention of the public many of the things that would have remained hidden. It informed the Police of their shortcomings, and helped in so many ways that they are eternally grateful to us.
We were the people who informed the nation of the missing AK-47s; of the death of some of the killers in foreign lands; and of the myriad problems in every part of the country, while others found these things to be of no consequence.
Indeed, we were sensational, because that is the nature of some newspapers, and our sensationalism merely highlighted the sick society in which we lived. We never professed to be the bearers of good news or the people who have a vested interest in watering down the truth.
Of course, we have come a long way from those days when our publication of dead criminals sold this newspaper. We can be compared to any newspaper in any part of the region because of our news coverage, so much so that recently, when there was a regional forum in Trinidad and the organizers professed to be unaware of our existence, there were people who insisted that we be present. We were represented.
And as the Stabroek News protestations continue, we now note that Mr David de Caires is now claiming that he has not lost all Government advertisements. That is certainly a far cry from what the newspaper stated when it made its first noise over the advertisement issue.