Thackoor Boodram. Remember the name? I do. Not because he is—was—important to me but because journalism is—was—important to me. New Year’s Day, 1 January, 1998. Guess what gift one of the daily papers in Trinidad and Tobago offered on its front page? Why, a man’s head. It had been found …
Read More »Media Monitor—Pt 4: Still sticking it to readers in the time of Covid-19
Remember the OUR OBSCENE TRAGEDY editorial to which the Guardian devoted its front page on Sunday 7 February? The following day, the Express devoted both its front and back pages to continuing outrage and public protests over the most recent killing of a 23-year-old The UWI graduate. And contrary to …
Read More »Media Monitor—Pt 3: Class of 868; taking tired newspaper habits right down to the wire(d)
“Allyuh publishin anything now?” asked a sarcastic commenter on a recent Wired868 story. Wired868’s editor is not the person who spent two years performing autopsies on the two media dinosaurs in Port-of-Spain. But he is nonetheless acutely aware of the adage that enjoins entities to adapt or die. To the …
Read More »Media Monitor 2: An Obscene Farce! St Vincent St, Independence Sq, Memory Lane and and Shit Street
“Nah, sir!” Two words, no more. But I know I heard controlled anger. I know I heard complete disbelief. “You mean you read (she used the present tense) that Sunday Guardian editorial,” she said, her voice almost breaking with the effort not to lose control, “and only see grammatical errors?” …
Read More »Media Monitor: Editor, editor where have you been? To London, not ‘Lester’, to see the queen
If you plan to be a journalist in voice or vision media at the BBC, be prepared to spend a full three months merely learning names. Important people, places, common foreign words and phrases and, of course, commonly mispronounced words like ‘epitome’ and ‘anemone’. One wonders if any such arrangements …
Read More »Media Monitor: Kalicharan launches attack on WI elite, Skerritt called to defend innocents
In all my years of observing and commenting on West Indies cricket, I have tended to agree rather than disagree with public positions espoused by Dr Noel Kalicharan. Or Ricky Skerritt. But I guess there’s a first time for everything. That’s progress! Progress comes in various forms. For more than …
Read More »Media Monitor: Is Mondello leaving a ‘shithole country’? Or returning to one?
It wasn’t, we knew then, the best of times; it wasn’t, we now know, the worst of times. When, in July 1990, Yasin Abu Bakr opened a door and, in David Rudder’s well-weighted words, showed us our other side, like Adam and Eve, we went frantically in search of a …
Read More »Media Monitor: Chalkdust’s advice, Fourth Estate allies and education today
Until David Rudder came along to fill our hearts and minds with his inspirational repertoire, Ah Fraid Karl ranked up there with the best. And Ah Put on Mih Guns Again was among my top dozen favourite calypsoes. So having long recognised his worth as a calypsonian, I have no …
Read More »What a little CNC3 birdie told T&T; how Bassant became the bogeyman for football’s albatross
David John-Williams is standing on the par-5 fifth tee at the golf course at Savonetta, addressing his tee ball with his driver. Investigative notes in hand, Mark Bassant ‘ambushes’ him. “Is your middle name Apullnaris?” he asks. Startled, the ex-president blocks his shot. “Right!” he yells. Bassant did not need …
Read More »Media Monitor: CNC’s Bassant to the rescue again; T&T football family sees big picture at last
Wired868’s Lasana Liburd is far and away the best football reporter in Trinidad and Tobago, arguably in the West Indies. So if any proof were needed that the current protracted TTFA vs FIFA issue is not about football, it came on CNC3 last night. I am sure Liburd and Wired …
Read More »Media Monitor: Is this the UNC, Best? Yes, it is Devant, yes, it is!
It did not take long, did it? We all knew it was coming but less than a month? “One law for them. Another for you.” This stunning insight on the state of the Republic, brothers and sisters, comes down to us from the Upper House via Facebook. More accurately, it …
Read More »Media Monitor: Pollard vs Holder: reporters mistake Mind Games Pt 6 for Fast and Furious
Not for nothing has television been dubbed the ‘boob tube’ or ‘idiot box’. And this, long before anyone was able to watch the sports news on TV6! Bad as it is, the CCN channel is not alone. Not just in vision but in the voice and print media as well, …
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