Dear Sir,
THE Stabroek News’ complaint about not receiving advertisements from the Department of Public Information (DPI) is now labelled as “government press freedom assault,” Stabroek News 11/1/2019. This is what Stabroek News is about: ignore the facts, bring it down to its nadir, “racist politics Guyana style,” ramps up the soldiers (literally). Using their usual subterfuge, Stabroek News is continuously looking for ways to besmirch and intimidate this administration. Why? Because the Stabroek News is nostalgic for the past.

In this brouhaha, the DPI is claiming that after being rebuffed by the Stabroek News, they explored other areas and found that through “the vast reach of both digital media and radio government is receiving greater value on these platforms.” When the PPP had stopped the advertisements to Stabroek News in 2006, the reason the leader gave for that decision was, “it was getting better value from other publications.” Coincidental? What must be understood though, is that Stabroek News is not entitled to any advertising from the DPI; it’s not mandatory, the law, or their right.

In their editorial of Monday, September 30, Stabroek News made a statement claiming the media house has an unmatched record of fair and accurate reporting for 33 years. That timeline is exaggerated about 12 years. Back in the day, however, that statement would have been accepted without question; but after 2008, a light dimmed, and the Stabroek News has never been the same since. The people who took over had their own ideas of running a newspaper, and, more importantly, influencing the running of the country.
The entire presentation changed, except for the basics which followed a pattern. They took on the air of the intelligentsia, the privileged, a veneer of exceptionalism. Confident in their power-broker position, the coming and retracted struggle of the no-confidence motion (NCM) was like a godsend. This was the type of racist political scoop that the Stabroek News had envisioned since 2008. They wanted to come clean, and this was their time. All that was whispered about and long suspected, though appalling, drove them into a different whelm of understanding and comprehension.

It is not as though the Stabroek News and the PPP leadership did not know what the Constitution ordered. It is not that the Stabroek News and their friends and sycophants (they know who they are) did not understand the CCJ’s ruling or the Chancellor of the Judiciary who said: “The government continues in office until the next election.” So why did Stabroek News allow its pages to be overrun with racist innuendoes and political dog whistles? To show their contempt for the administration and the rest of the nation.

The Stabroek News gave ink to all and sundry to say anything they wanted (we were inundated with the insults levelled at the dummies who signed the oil contracts) along with the developing two-headed monster known as the “constitutional crisis.”  This monster that was created by all the intelligent minds (especially the Bar Association and their erstwhile friends) and saturated daily to our detriment; this monster (that was never explained by the FAKERS) has suddenly withered away.

It is clear that the Stabroek News has set the tone for the 2020 elections with its version of the NCM. They have, without a doubt, set their bearings straight. The vilification of the government is what they will claim as news, or par for course. The political arena allows publications such as the Stabroek News the permission to print what’s considered within the bounds. It’s all wrapped up in the jargon called democracy, (with a small d) and freedom of the press which has rules nevertheless, and the one on POLITICS asks: “How comfortable or uncomfortable they (the owners) feel in the political system of the country.”  Except for their supporters, no one would believe that Stabroek News would canvas for the coalition.

Behind their whining for advertisements, the Stabroek News got to do their dirtiest work. They and their cohorts went all rogue. They used the opportunity of the non-decision by the CCJ on the election date to commit a heist in broad daylight, while blatantly ignoring the Constitution and insulting those who tried to follow it. Stabroek News and the PPP confess to being protectors of the Constitution (as they cherry-pick) and insulting those who tried to follow it. Stabroek News and the PPP confess to being protectors of the constitution, but neither of them is advocating what the Constitution is saying.

The CCJ (the highest court)’s interpretation of the Constitution, is agreeing that the National Assembly must be convened before we can go forward; the word from the opposition leader to the National Assembly, “We en’t going back deh.”

The Stabroek News, in its rampage of dis-information and rank propaganda, took pot shots at the President and the entire Cabinet. The choice of names they branded the President and the Cabinet with were both insulting and demeaning. The Stabroek News was having such a great time that they even invited their cartoonist to join in the merriment.

Yours faithfully,
Milton Bruce