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Jagdeo’s vultures and carrion crows

Oct 27, 2011 Editorial

 

The news media have long been the subject of attacks from every quarter.  Criminals criticize them for exposing aspects of their lives that they the criminals would wish to keep under wraps; people who do things that they do not want to reveal turn on the media when these things are revealed; politicians detest the media because they always have an interest in what the politicians do; and governments enjoy an ambivalent relationship with the media.
There has always been the query about what society would have been without the media.  There are so many things happening that could impact the society and if the media do not highlight these things then society would be worse off.
For example, it is given that political office leads to corrupt individuals. The news media have more often than not reported on the actions of corrupt politicians with the result that they either end up in jail or are removed from office.  Some have been known to lead double lives and through the media these activities have been exposed, revealing the guilty party for what he or she is.
The media have even policed itself, exposing the corruption in its ranks. Just a few months ago the media revealed that one among them actually hacked the phone of a dead girl. That media house has gone to the wall.
In Guyana many things have come to light. Desmond Hoyte’s ‘Putagee mafia’ speech was made known through a media report. His political counterparts were able to pounce on him and to check any untoward behaviour he might have been inclined to pursue.
Forbes Burnham was known to enjoy some of the finer things in life. Catholic Standard would always get information on the fare he would have on the aircraft he used to travel on overseas assignments and his political opponents were able to campaign against these so-called excesses, comparing them to the hardships the rest of society faced.
When the shoe is on the other foot the media is touted by those on the other side as the best thing in the country. These days, as Election Day nears, the media now find itself the main campaign issue. President Bharrat Jagdeo who is on record as vowing to protect the media is on a trail to expose reporters to the whims and fancies of his supporters.
He has described the media as vultures and carrion crows who feed on the negatives of his government.  He is inviting them to look for dead meat elsewhere. He has divided them into opposition media and his supportive media. He has gone as far as identifying those whom he sees as the political media.  All those that he has identified as opposition media happen to be those that are privately owned.
His reason for being hostile to the privately-owned media? They focus on the corrupt practices by the very government over which he presides. The questionable activities are well known. What makes these activities even more abhorrent is the fact that they are undertaken with money sucked from the lowly taxpayer.
It cannot be coincidental that just about every privately-owned media house would be hostile to the government. His government has been in power for nineteen years and during that time he enjoyed the kudos for the excellent things that he has done in the interest of the country. There were no attacks on those occasions—and there have been more kudos than criticisms.
One would expect that rather than attack the media for exposing corruption within the government President Jagdeo would have dealt with those unveiled as corrupt parties. Instead, by his attack he seems bent on providing some cover to them. It is as if he is condoning the corrupt acts and becomes angry at the exposure.
He is also angry at the media for reporting on the actions of the very opposition that he at one time described as inept.
We expect the attacks but what we cannot accept is the invitation to his followers to do harm to reporters. We cannot accept his vituperations when these allude to falsehoods. And in his personal attacks against the media we cannot accept that he has identified the owner of a privately owned media house for attack. Suffice it to say that he has also identified two editors for equally caustic attacks.
The media can defend itself and before long it will. President Jagdeo may find himself excluded from the pages of the media and only reported on when he does something corrupt or outlandish. For now he should consider himself fortunate that the very private media report his vituperations and abuses thus taking his insane message to a forum wider than the ones that he addresses during this silly season.

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