Commentary: July 26, 2009
PM MANNING, THE MEDIA AND A WEAK OPPOSITION
By Professor Ramesh Deosaran, Independent Senator
So the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT), with apparent anxiety, plans to meet the Prime Minister, because, according to its youthful President, Marlon Hopkinson, MATT “should not engage in any public row now with the Prime Minister at this time and we thought the responsible thing to do is to meet with the PM to find out his concerns.”
On July 13 at a PNM mass meeting at Woodford Square, Prime Minister Manning expressed concerns over the media’s role in not educating the public. Judging from high-profile announcements in all three dailies, this MATT-PM meeting looks like a really grand affair, especially since Hopkinson mannishly states: “Of course, we too have concerns.” The high news fling given to this PM meeting suggests some heavy editorial backing too.
Now MATT or any group could meet anybody it wishes in this democratic society, even for a courtesy call. So too could the PM. But what tickles my own curiosity is the reasons advanced by MATT. MATT says it does not want to engage with the PM in any public row. Well, I declare. I thought that is the stuff which makes news. Given the basics of the separation of powers and the critical, robust role which the “free” media is expected to play in-between, I always thought that the relationship between the executive and the media should be consumed by arms-length professionalism and inevitable tension. Ironically, such professionalism is also for the benefit of the Government and its several agencies – not only for bringing muscle to our democracy as a whole.
With the promise of a highly credible, forceful Opposition still in dreamland, a lot now rests on the shoulders of our “free” media. And to have this seeming genuflection by MATT, well, the impression given is not worthy of an industry that is so well protected by the Constitution.
Are people who now buy newspapers, listen to radio and watch television to believe that after this MATT-PM meeting, the media as a whole and its brave and bold staff will go on a penance of good behaviour? Or will MATT tell the PM a thing or two and straighten him out too. Note well, Mr. Manning expressed his concerns at a public political meeting, not at any MATT-sponsored seminar or at a post-cabinet press conference. And he did not speak directly about news bias. In fact, any proper content analysis will tell you that, of whichever party, Government spokespersons and Ministers get the best of all coverage and without much parallel or follow-up analysis. A Minister could say the same thing one week after the next and on each time, he will be assured of an early-page headline.
At an OAS expert round-table on election financing in Miami three months ago, Caribbean pollster, Peter Wickham, described Caribbean journalists as “Minister-driven.” Just last week, veteran journalist Tony Best cautioned our journalists not to appear as “carrier pigeons.” Like one or two other professions, journalists too might wish to be careful about their image.
Now before I come to MATT’s concern about the PM’s concerns regarding the media’s role to “educate” the public, let me in the interest of balance remind MATT that many other political leaders, including Winston Dookeran and Basdeo Panday, have made similar and more heavily loaded complaints about the media. Will MATT now as a broad-minded gesture also meet with them? Now Jack Warner has developed some cutting edge techniques to woo and capture the media so I don’t think he needs MATT. But before I get misunderstood, let me declare that I too share Mr. Manning’s concerns about “educating the public.” And for a very long time too. My professorial instincts compel no less.
But wait, really, is the media’s role, the mass media that is, to “educate” the public, or to inform in an accurate and fair manner about events that matter. And in a timely and news worthy manner. We are talking about the early pages where I am sure Mr. Manning’s concern is assumed to lie. In fact, there are “educational” stories and features on TV and far back in newspapers. So, MATT’s sophistication would be enhanced if it asks the PM to show them a few examples where the media failed “to educate.” It will certainly help if a programme of scholarly research, in addition to a School of Journalism, could be developed on the Caribbean media, thus helping to put “concerns” as Mr. Manning’s on a more reliable footing.
I think that is what the “freedom of the press” and even “freedom of expression” clauses in the Constitution expect. Now you begin to see the dilemmas here. Firstly, the difference between “to educate’ and “to inform.” As referee, the Oxford Dictionary defines “to educate” as “to give intellectual, moral and social instruction.” Could our mass media deliver this, and even if so, how long would the one or even two who succeed remain financially viable on their own? Yes there is the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, but here it is competition in the market place, my friends. During my stint as editorial writer for one of our dailies, the editor once told the staff: “A newspaper is not an academic journal nor for sermons.”
Secondly, the Government, at least through finance and management, already has control over three televisions stations, regular “Government Information” spots in all commercial television stations and even the option of radio spots. So why not use these options “to educate” the public?
I am not saying to reach the stage of BBC but surely there is space and the place to educate. Thirdly, I too am worried about “educating our citizens on public affairs” but I am not sure this is the primary role of the mass media. There are other institutions for this. From ethnic cleansing, constitution reform, regional integration, crime policies to corporal punishment, the death penalty and even daily political contestations, there are heaps of propaganda and self-serving, emotionally- driven stories in our media. A lot of this become neutralized if not cleansed by the “right to reply” the next day, but you know what is said about “first impressions.”
So while I agree with the PM’s concerns, I think we need a more deliberate, sustainable and practical way to heal the breach. I hope the medicine concocted at this MATT-PM encounter will not make the patient more sick.
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