Ask us no questions

Like the only media our politicians and their spin doctors keep a keen eye on (or ear to) are the local radio stations, their ministerial and "doctoring" index fingers hovering over the speed dial button, at the ready to counter or spin away the least of criticism.

You think if these people were watching cable news, we’d be hearing the insulting answers from the Attorney General’s staff and from his peers to questions from Newsday reporters about the state of John Jeremie’s health; that we’d be hearing nonsense the like of, "The AG is away on private business, but we don’t know where he is;" or "He sounds and looks well. I didn’t know that the AG was sick, but if I did I wouldn’t say"?

No, if these political and PR pretenders watched CNN they’d see how real politicians and communications experts conduct business: they’d know that the AG’s health is not his private business and that they can’t play games of hide and seek with the people, not when the people are his employers. They wouldn’t be going through the Newsday reports, nitpicking at irrelevant errors contained in these. They would be treating with the sole issue of importance: the AG’s health. They certainly wouldn’t find a query about the AG to be a joke, as ministers did Thursday at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing. They’d know that they have two options and two alone: they must either dismiss outright the reports that John Jeremie is ill, or they must come out and say what his condition is and whether he’s away seeking treatment for this.

Above all, if these spinners and politicos watched foreign news reports, they would realise that they cannot issue a release stating that the AG has been grated a "temporary leave of absence" due to illness without elucidating, that is to say, without saying how long he might have to be away from office and how sick he is. A leave of absence does not usually mean one day away from the job, as the AG’s peers and people are trying to convince everyone it does. It implies a much longer period. So what was the media to do on receipt of such a statement a week ago? Swallow it hook, line and sinker without a question? We could not and did not. We sought more information from the Government. We were informed by sources who did not wish to be named that the AG had a condition which needed monitoring. They would not however tell us what this condition was.

It was thus crystal clear that "something was up", but that no one in the administration was prepared to say anything for/on the record. Jeremie could not be located and as it turned out, he was already "out of the country on private business," having winged out on April 24, one day after the first story about his sick leave and his mysterious condition appeared in Newsday. And we wouldn’t waste our time trying to get the facts from his colleagues or PR staff. Not again. (As it was, our instinct was proven correct for in the ensuing days, the administration and its hacks did their very best to kill the story without denying outright that the AG was indeed ill.) Information would, thus, have to come from further afield. Our probing brought news from four sources that the AG was truly ill and that his staff had observed for months that "something was wrong". They just didn’t know what the something was. Sources in the legal profession told Newsday that indeed the AG "had a condition".

Newsday decided to publish the second story on the AG’s health. We were not wrong to do so. What’s more, we’re not letting go of this story. Not until the AG answers our questions. And I can only trust and hope that Jeremie who is due to return home today will be more forthright and accountable than he was last week; that he sees that 2020 must include political development; and that he will take not a leaf out of his leader’s comic book and seek to mislead the population as Patrick Manning did a few years ago when he had everyone looking toward Venezuela and all the time he was en route to Cuba to have heart surgery.

As for some of the AG’s Cabinet colleagues and PR employees, the only advice I can offer them is this: switch off the radio and turn on your TV sets. Go to channels 36 and 37. There you will see some real people in public life. Though these images might be quite shocking, disturbing even, keep watching them for at least a few weeks. If after this period, you still feel that the AG’s health is a private matter, you may easily return to your radios, but without your previous anxieties over the harmful effects the radio shows might be having on the voting public. You can give the speed dial a rest.

For you see, by your watching CNN and BBC and remaining as impervious to the importance of accountability and professionalism in public life as you were before, you will have proven the theory of countless experts in the field of communications theory: there is no empirical evidence that demonstrates how and how much the media can incite or direct people toward any particular set of actions or attitudes, be these deeds and thoughts violent, racist or lofty. Put another way, you will have shown — even though I have playfully wondered if, and encouraged you to watch CNN and BBC — what I have always suspected: both cable TV and radio are neither problem nor solution, their audience is.

suz@itrini.com