Giuseppi sheds a tear for media

And he believes the. focus is no longer on. producing quality. work but maximising. profits.

“I really don’t know. why I bother because. apparently, it is a lost. cause. One of the major. problems is the. fact that the emphasis. is no longer on. standards but merely. on the pursuit of. the Almighty dollar,”. Giuseppi wrote in. his new book, The. Journey Continues,. which was launched. on Friday at the National. Library, Portof-. Spain.

Excepts of the book. were read by criminologist. Renee Cummings,. comedian/. cultural activist Errol. Fabien and Giuseppi’s. close friend Valerie. Laurent-Thomas ,. daughter of late educator. Eugene Laurent,. one of his mentors.

Cummings read for. the audience Giuseppi’s. observations in. the book about the. breakdown in journalistic. standards.

Giuseppi wondered. if media practitioners,. particularly. those on radio and. television, were being. called upon by their. managers to answer. for mistakes made on. air.

“I wonder also if. proof readers exist. today in the print. media,” he said, adding. that correct pronunciation. of words. also appeared to be a. thing of the past.

Cummings elicited. chuckles from the audience. when she read. Giuseppi’s comments. about a newspaper. headline, Man Dies. After Committing. Suicide.

He said another. newspaper, reporting. on the same suicide,. told its readers “the. dead man was seen. walking down the. road a few moments. before he committed. suicide.”. Giuseppi also wrote. that a newspaper ran. a sentence in a story. which read, “Homicide. victims rarely. talk to the police,”. while another said,. “the body that was. found on the Beetham. Highway caused. the police to work on. the theory that the. man was alive at the. time he died.”. Giuseppi bemoaned. the fact that. media managers do. not appear to care. about such blunders.

“But that is what. has become of the. media today.”. He said, however,. that while contemporary. media appears. to have “deteriorated. into mediocrity or. worse,” some of the. “unforgivable errors”. are not limited to the. present era.

Giuseppi recalled. that an announcer,. during his years at. Trinidad & Tobago. Television in the. 1970s, conducted a. live interview with. famous jazz musician. Dave Brubeck,. in which he asked,. “How many members. are there in your. quartet?”. Giuseppi also recalled. calling the. chief executive officer. of a radio station. after hearing an. announcer refer to. someone as vomit.

“I asked her why. the particular announcer. was allowed. to use that type of. language on air. Her. response to me was. that he (announcer). was making money. for the station and the. public loved it and,. therefore, as far as she. was concerned it was. acceptable. I hung up. the phone and wept a. tear,” he wrote.

In the book, Giuseppi. also spoke. candidly about his. prostate cancer scare,. distaste for politics. and love of golf.

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