“A La Romain man who was shot and killed on January 10,” CNC3’s Jesse Ramdeo reported just over a month ago, “has died.” You laugh. In spite of yourself. Raucous mid-morning laughter had also filled the Guardian newsroom way back in the 1990s as the word got around. Crime ace …
Read More »Media Monitor—Epilogue: Taking a reading; what do current trends mean for today’s papers?
Two questions demanded an answer last week during the second Donald Trump impeachment proceedings. Fascinated by the phenomenon of fascism’s fight for a firm foothold in what once was democracy’s fortress, few had missed round one last year. This time around, many watched very little, including the final vote. After …
Read More »Gov’t hits back over vaccine procurement; Dr Browne: It’s responsible to wait for WHO approval
“[…] The Trinidad Guardian went so far in its editorial to opine that Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to wait on the ‘validation’ of the World Health Organization before exploring India’s AstraZeneca option ‘seems unnecessary’. “[…] If we offered unapproved vaccines and persons became ill or died as a result, the …
Read More »Media Monitor—Pt 5: The Chacon St collapse; why I don’t read the Newsday
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: 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 »‘Mischievous and malicious!’ Renne initiates legal action against Braveboy, after latter’s Boodan defence
Trinidad Express investigative journalist Denyse Renne has initiated legal action against political blogger Marcia Braveboy for ‘egregious false claims and deliberate inaccuracies’, after an attack on the former’s integrity on social media. Braveboy, in a direct response to the ‘unmasking’ of Express columnist Darryn Boodan as the corporate communications officer …
Read More »Noble: Termites eating our democracy—the danger of spin doctors in ‘independent’ clothing
Distrust of politicians and public figures is a mainstay of democratic politics. Trust and distrust go hand in hand. We have institutions as a check on untrammelled forays by politicians, but we also use public opinion as a brake. The savage lampooning or ‘fatigue’ of the unfortunate George Chambers—‘done see’/‘duncy’—signalled …
Read More »Quan Chan denies calling for Fifa action against Wallace; Wired868 reveals Guardian transcript
Southern FA (SFA) president and former Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) Board member Richard Quan Chan has rebuked a Trinidad Guardian article which claimed that he wants Fifa to take action against former local football president William Wallace and vice-presidents Clynt Taylor, Susan Joseph-Warrick and Sam Phillip. In fact, …
Read More »Roget accused of ‘inciting racial hatred’ against media; JTUM: It was ‘class critique’ not race
The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) today referred Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) leader Ancel Roget to the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) for ‘racist remarks directed towards certain members of the media fraternity’ during a JTUM press conference at Paramount Building, San Fernando on 4 August. Roget, while …
Read More »“Is the legacy media still ‘independent and fearless’?” Noble looks at politicians and the media
“Every politician who has tasted power, and many who counted for little, has gone to war with the media. If they didn’t, that would signal that journalists were not doing their jobs, that they were too busy prostrating to power to do their duty to country.” Raffique Shah, 30 March …
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