Friday Musings
ONE of the things I like as a media man is sitting on the fence and keeping a close watch on proceedings.
It at most times provides a good perspective on what’s happening around you, but it has its hazards and with my luck, fence-sitting can put me in some serious trouble.
That’s why I do not sit on the fence in the yard where I live because jealous husbands or boyfriends in the neighbourhood may think I am stalking their wives or girlfriends.
Or fathers may get the wrong ideas about me and their daughters.
And fence-sitting is even more hazardous these days with a lot of people going for razor wire fences. Can you imagine me trussed up like a hapless fowl cock on a razor wire fence? (That will provide some good laughs for some people I know!)
But under the right circumstances, a fence can provide a good perch to be objective.
It’s not that I do not like taking sides.
But a journalist shouldn’t really be taking sides when reporting on issues. He or she should always try to be fair, accurate and balanced as far as possible and keep their views to themselves and not allow these to colour their reporting.
And a cardinal principle in reporting is getting to the truth, which at times can be inconvenient to a lot of people.
The view is not very comforting from the fence I straddle at times these days to look around the media landscape where quite a few are content to report only the truth they find or believe to be convenient.
And it’s sad.
I am not a paragon of virtue but I see so much shoddiness being purveyed as journalism in the print media and on TV that it makes me want to puke some times.
The so-called crusaders and those who fancy themselves as beyond reproach fool no one but themselves, but the crap they spew can cause some degree of stench in the society and there’s untold danger in irresponsible reporting.
Worse yet is that the young people coming into the media learn the tools of the trade from the uninitiated who themselves badly need serious journalism training. You can guess at the result and well ask who will train the trainers?
I have given up trying to plead with some senior media people to have a shot at regular short-term media training courses (with which I am willing to help) because they do not seem to care.
And from my fence, I see a lot of people wallowing in journalistic cesspools. Ugh!
Some are schooled to report only that which suits their bosses or media house owners; others turn opinions into news stories; some twist stuff to fit a particular angle; and quite a few do not even have a nodding acquaintance of what makes a news story.
They get little tit bits, chew on them a bit and spew out what they think is news.
The convenient truth sits comfortably with them and the whole truth goes through the window.
The saving grace for Guyana is that not too many people take them seriously and the discerning ones take much of what is churned out with more than a pinch of salt.
Me? Come news time in the evenings when I am home, I prefer to watch `Two and a Half Men’, `Family Guy’, `Everybody Loves Raymond’, music videos on Channel 72, or shows of beautiful women on catwalks.
It’s much more comforting and satisfying than the view from the journalistic fence I jump on sometimes.
