Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY Inc.
by Roderick P Harris
“One time in journalism it was the truth matters; but now we are hearing that the source matters.” – Dennis Johnson, VOB’s Down to Brasstacks, Thursday, August 19.
It was delightful to hear moderator Dennis Johnson remind his colleagues in the media fraternity and the general listenership about what the true tenets of journalism are.
What was ironic to me is the fact that it is Johnson’s sister company The Nation that is the establishment which coined the phrase: “the source matters”. The media in Barbados is worrisome.
We are at the point where some media houses do not even care about camouflaging their “hidden agendas”. In Bajan parlance their petticoats are exposed for all to see.
And, even more ironic is the fact that Johnson’s company’s daily news cast oftentimes leaves much to be desired.
I listened to the same Brasstacks on Monday where David Ellis and president of the Democratic Labour Party Verla DePeiza were on from 10 a.m. until just before midday; close to two hours. Her opponent Rev. Guy Hewitt called in to refute some of what she said in response to allegations made the night before at a branch meeting.
Would you believe that Starcom Network News led the 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. news with the same story? Would you believe the story was a salacious piece about DePeiza and Hewitt hurtling insult at each other? Would you believe that for close to two hours that is the only story trained journalists could write? No mention of her talking about candidate selection and the party’s election readiness.
No mention of The City seat in which she admitted there were facing challenges. No mention of membership growth where she reportedly said that 89 persons had joined in recent times. The only “truth” the Starcom News team took away was the two party-mates sparring.
The following day, they along with CBC, Loop and eventually Barbados TODAY made a hero out of a most offensive woman who spoke at Monday night’s town hall meeting. She was insulting Bajans and promoting discrimination. An entire town hall meeting of three hours and the only public submission they all felt worthy of news was hers. No mention of the guy who identified himself as Andre Gill who brought compelling evidence to suggest that our own immune system was fighting the virus long before there was a vaccine. No mention of the lady who asked what ingredients are in the vaccines.
Then there was the town hall Wednesday night. All of Thursday, Starcom led with the head of the Private Sector Ed Clarke spewing negativity and apocalyptic tripe. He said we cannot sustain COVID spread with the variants, our system will collapse and Barbados will be no more, some nonsense along those lines. He was followed by community activist Adrian Donovan who was berating the anti-vaccine supporters. These two led the news all day. Starcom did not even give a few minutes to their own Programme Director Ronnie Clarke. I guess the source does matter and one Clarke mattered more than the other.
They gave no airtime to Mr. Corbin whose submission was excellent. They gave no airtime to the white woman who spoke about the cost of healthy eating. They gave no airtime to the guy who was representing a Rastafari group and was unceremoniously cut off by the moderator. The entire day all we heard was the doom and gloom, fearmongering of Ed Clarke and complaints of Donovan.
For Starcom, the ranting woman made up the sum total of Monday night while Clarke and Donovan represented all that transpired Wednesday.
Starcom News is sickening! It is as if they have been given a directive to go to the town hall meeting and only report on pro-vaccine stories while shelving all others. We depend on the Fourth Estate to be the gatekeepers. We expect them to enlighten and educate us with truth and fact not their selected part of a story or government narrative. That news team at Starcom needs to do better.
