True story: ‘In 1919—over 80 years after Emancipation—a Trinidadian petitioned the King for compensation for 31 freed persons previously owned by his grandfather, which he claimed had never been paid.’ It’s one of the astonishing tales recounted by Professor Emerita Bridget Brereton in her newly released book, History Matters: Selected …
Read More »He loved sport, helping people, jazz, and corn beef… Remembering ‘Tony’ Harford
“[…] ‘Tony’ Harford was a person who loved his sport. He was a person who loved people, he loved to help people. “Basically his life was about those two things…” Former Northern Football Association (NFA) president, Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) board member, veteran media anchor and radio presenter, …
Read More »Media Monitor: French tongues, Spanish villages and stress for radio and TV presenters
Watson Duke, would-be prime minister of Tobago, held a news conference recently. Not for the first time with this high-profile personality from the sister isle, things did not exactly go swimmingly. I say ‘sister isle’ but for how much longer, I wonder. Trinidad and Tobago remains one country but that’s …
Read More »MEDIA MONITOR: Radio and TV in T&T; not voice and vision but vice and division
“You know how many programmes I could buy for $100,000?” The speaker is the programme director at a local television channel. He is responding—with a straight face, I am told—to a suggestion by a group of excited young men smitten with the television bug and naïve—or rash—enough to think that …
Read More »Guardian executes editor in chief Orin Gordon, Shelly Dass Clarke to be fired next
Trinidad Guardian editor in chief Orin Gordon was bumped off today in a slaying that, according to informed sources, bore all the hallmarks of a “Sabga City” gang execution. Gordon, who was appointed editor in chief on 24 February 2015, will be replaced by former television presenter Shelly Dass-Clarke, who, …
Read More »TV6 goes full corbeaux on late Security Minister
A 65-year-old man tragically drowned in Tobago this morning. Mr Live Wire knows what you’re thinking: What did his corpse look like and was he any good at his day job? You weren’t thinking that at all? Well, TV6 surely was. And so a married father of four who held …
Read More »CCN court date is a requirement not a choice
CCN must appear in court on 14 May 2012 to justify its broadcast of the rape of a minor, which was allegedly aired by Crime Watch over a three-day stretch and has led to nine charges for a possible breach of the Telecommunications Act. One can only presume that TV6 …
Read More »Crime Watch embarrasses police into action… But Alleyne still vex
A controversial public figure yesterday stood in defiance of a legal request and pleaded for indulgence to stay the course. But enough about school principal Sita Gajadarsingh-Nanga’s attempts to remain at the Tunapuna Hindu School—everyone else is talking about the arrest of TV6 Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne. Alleyne was …
Read More »Crime Watch takes another victim
Today, Lael, my 17-month-old daughter, saw her first dead body. I always thought it would happen after she had learned to ride her tricycle; certainly after she learned to spell. But Fate had other plans. You might think I live in a rough neighbourhood or maybe that, without considering my …
Read More »Fixin’ T&T wants TV6 apology for “despicable footage”
Fixin’ T&T, a social watchdog group, today reiterated its call for TV6 to apologise for airing footage of former West Indies, Leeward Islands and Trinidad and Tobago cricketer Runako Morton, which was taken after an accident that claimed his life on Sunday night. The broadcast of what might have been …
Read More »Crime Watch gives up hunt for taste
Fixin’ T&T yesterday condemned Crime Watch for gross insensitivity following the broadcast of 33-year-old former West Indies cricketer Runako Morton’s final moments before he succumbed to injuries from a car crash on Sunday night. Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne wasn’t the only CCN employee with questionable judgment; Dominic Kalipersad, the …
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