Nattering nabobs of negativism

Jul 29, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor:
The following represents different pieces I wrote in recent times on the shenanigans of parts of the private media:
“Nattering nabobs of negativism” was a description former U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew heaped upon the media elite in that country. People then saw the remark as a cheap political shot, but today people are now seeing the light of day (Marks, Christian Science Monitor).
Then there was U.S. media mogul, Randolph Hearst’s celebrated aphorism “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war”. Wanjohi Kabukuru cited Hearst’s remark in his article in the New African, calling on journalists in Kenya not to engage in sensational journalism so prominent in the Western world.
Hearst’s reporter Frederic Remington covering Cuba at the turn of the 20th century told Hearst that there was no likelihood of a war, and indicated his intention to return to the U.S. Hearst’s response was that he should remain in Cuba, and produce pictures, and that he (Hearst) will provide the war.
The Spanish-American War did happen; nonetheless, the battlefield of that war was the press. Kabukuru alluded to this era as one of yellow journalism; a concept that typifies excessive hyperbole. Yellow journalism has already invaded the journalism world.
There also was the Rwanda genocide of 1994 where 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in fewer than 100 days; Professor Thompson (Pluto Press, 2007) argued that the radio and the print media were utilized as a tool of hate, where it encouraged neighbors to hate and hurt each other; these were the infamous radio broadcasts that fanned the flames of hatred.
The mass media in all of these instances played a villainous role in its perpetration of yellow journalism. And yellow journalism is not a thing of the past, and it is ever present in Guyana, too. Everyday in Guyana, people read, listen, view, and form opinions on all kinds of stuff the mass media present to them. This is a natural process.
Nonetheless, some parts of the mass media have intentions to politicize everything, to present excessive exaggeration.  While they bestow upon themselves the divine right to educate the public, their biased intentions color and shape the education the public receives.
Parts of the private mass media have great concerns and proclivity to make their political intentions become a reality, to become a happening thing; keep in mind that the private media are part of some new opposition. For these reasons, this private media always have an interest in converting their political intentions into ‘sensationalism’, and by such action enter the realm of yellow journalism.
This sensationalism can be quite graphic as when some mass media depict human demise with all its one thousand points of light and gory attributes intact; and people largely latch on to these desires, impulses, and images of ‘sensationalism’ as they talk about the day’s events.
Nevertheless, the graphics, photos, etc., are important, but more importantly, ‘sensationalism’ extends beyond these pictures and gory attributes; ‘sensationalism’ also clothes letter columns, opinion columns, editorials, etc., at least in some private media houses.
And the ‘sensationalism’ principle also invariably results in over-politicizing the content of these letter columns, opinion columns, editorials, etc.
Clearly, sensational stories are not accurate by definition; as in ‘sensationalism’, all knowledge flows from the senses, and, therefore, there is no innate knowledge. But this cannot be true as knowledge arises from sources other than the senses. Therefore, in the mediatic sense, the private media content rooted only in ‘sensationalism’ is incomplete and subjective; a yellow journalism in action in Guyana.
Everyday, some media people identify something is wrong within the Government of Guyana, and then there is the predictable rummaging around to find out why this wrongdoing happened, and, indeed, the name calling , personal attacks, etc. earnestly begin, becoming all part of this daily private media ritual.
This is the state of Guyana’s journalism. This is how some media houses escape the wrath of journalistic justice. In fact, journalists here excessively indulge themselves in cherry picking, overgeneralization, and selective observation. The bottom line is Guyana unhappily bears the misfortune of accommodating a growing false journalism, a journalism of allegations.
Their writings inducing incitement and excitement to the usual suspects expose their permanent obsessions with distinctive governmental figures, an obsession, they fantasize, will catapult them to political stardom.
I have no doubts that there are flubs on the governmental side; but if that is what the entire private media dictatorship can see, then these petty dictators and their hirelings should seek real jobs, rather than parading as journalists. What this country needs is evidence-based journalism, not a journalism of allegations; Guyana needs a journalism of verification.
Perhaps, an apt description of parts of this insidious private media is Agnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativism”.
Prem Misir

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