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 …
Read More »Dear editor: Is complete honesty too much to ask for your political coverage, Mr Enoch?
“[…] I was also very concerned on last Wednesday morning, when I heard [i95.5FM] Head of News Dale Enoch affirm—on the popular morning talk show he hosts with Tony Lee—that the Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) were never bought (by any government of Trinidad and Tobago). “[…] It seems implausible to …
Read More »Gilkes: Where denial meets ignorance; and where you can stuff ‘all lives matter’
Dem old people and dem does say: ‘when yuh neighbour house on fire, wet yuh own’. So I trying to wet mine, with this open rant to Lasana Liburd and my not-so-secret crush Dr Sheila Rampersad. Because we Trinis doh learn, we doh like to connect things and we love to live …
Read More »Rowley: T&T media have interests to protect! PM pushes back on Venezuela narrative
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley launched a scathing attack on the local media today, which he accused of trying to paint him and his government as ‘liars’ with regards to its narrative on the visit of Venezuela vice-president Delcy Rodríguez and her contingent in March. In today’s …
Read More »MSJ: The problem with the Rio Treaty; and how gov’t, opposition and media got Venezuela imbroglio wrong
“[…] Central to this entire issue is the United States’ agenda with respect to Venezuela. If the US had not imposed sanctions on Venezuela there would be nothing for the government to explain about a visit by the vice-president of Venezuela, nothing to explain about the sale of fuel by …
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