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Comment: Whose yellow journalism?
8/30/2009
‘Monkey See Monkey Do?’
In what seemed to the unbiased reader to be a self-righteous diatribe against a known party-political activist, another section of the media rushed into print last Sunday, August 23rd to make out a case against “intimidation”. The Barbados Advocate would wish today to bring some sanity and sobriety to the issue and to demonstrate that it is even less than a ‘9-day wonder’. In fact, if truth be told, the matter seems to be of such minuscule importance that the seemingly “offended” newspaper appears guilty of ‘making a mountain out of a mole-hill’.
The burden of the claim seems to be that Mr. Hartley Henry, a former Journalist and a regionally known political strategist attached to the ruling Democratic Labour Party, called the Nation Newspaper and requested that the results of the CADRES poll conducted for the DLP “get the same treatment as polls done on behalf of that same newspaper”.
Mr. Henry is alleged to have made remarks to Sunday Sun Editor Ms. Carol Martindale, threatening to “tarnish her reputation” and “turn Barbados against her” and “bring her down … if she did not do the right thing”.
This story received the full treatment in the particular section of the media from which it emanated, namely a Headline story and a “Page One Comment”. The Barbados Advocate wonders why the matter was dealt with in this way.
Let it not be said that this newspaper condones any unprofessional behaviour from any part of the society against professional journalists; after all, this newspaper prides itself on being in the forefront of the fight against those who would vent their vindictiveness against media workers, particularly those in the print segment. However, this recent brou-ha-ha has made the Barbados Advocate come out to put matters in proper perspective, lest the public be fooled into “taking up other people’s FIRE-RAGE”.
Let us get this matter straight; Mr. Henry did not utter threats against Ms. Martindale’s life, if he did express any vindictive emotions at all. More to the point, Ms. Martindale fully knows that there is a way to gain redress for harassment – inform the Royal Barbados Police Force – not cry “wolf, wolf” when there may simply be a canine growl from a corner which has been battered, bruised and blasted by Ms. Martindale’s paper in the past.
There was a time, not so long ago when the DLP-in-opposition would have been subjected to some of the most cruel jokes, snide remarks and lampoonings from her newspaper, particularly after it fell into the hands of media moguls from the twin-island republic.
Persons like Mr. Henry then received short shrift whenever they complained of such biased treatment.
Let us be further enlightened. This is a tiny island with the greatest population density in the world; it is a closely-knit community where the private lives of well-known individuals are usually common knowledge. The journalistic community knows well whose ‘breadfruits hang low’ and therefore it is passing strange that the other section of the print media should scream loudly about threats of “exposure” and “tarnishing”, unless there is some matter of substance to be bruited abroad.
The Barbados Advocate wonders why it was necessary for that particular newspaper to bring to the attention of the critical mass in this island, a story which has had no particular hold on the public imagination. Surely, all proper local channels should have been exhausted first and an investigation allowed to follow its course before drawing such negative attention to Barbados’ journalistic reputation on the world stage.
One wonders if there was another motive behind the lurid captions. Surely that section of the media should not need to boost the sale of its publications! After all, it regularly trumpets the point about the 200 000 plus readership per week and then there is the ‘HEAT’ which is apparently “doing extremely well”. Sometime ago our paper was criticised for exposures and there was a ‘hue and cry’ about “yellow journalism”. Today the discerning Barbadian pub lic can easily judge the merit of such sensationalist claims and the Barbados Advocate says “who the cap fit, let them wear it!” After one week it is apparent that the story ‘has no legs’ and that this was one big fizz.
If this is a case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’, then it serves only to highlight the age-old notion that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, but the imitators must be careful not to tarnish themselves. After all, we should remember the pertinent Barbadian proverb, ‘the more the monkey climb, the more he show he tail’.
To be continued
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