THE NAACP claimed it was ‘snookered’ by the right-wing, anti-Obama media activists. It is incredible that in 2010 a mighty organisation such as the NAACP could be ‘taken’ by anti-government media manipulation. The whole mess surrounds a Georgia state agricultural official, Shirley Sherrod, whose speech to the NAACP was butchered to make her appear as intolerant of white people. Sherrod was pressured out of her job with the tacit approval of the White House. Investigations by the mainstream media revealed that not only was the NAACP ‘snookered’ but so were the Secretary of Agriculture, and even the president. Apologies have been forthcoming from all directions.
This story is instructive for Guyanese because what happened in this one instance with Sherrod is a daily occurrence in Guyana. The anti-government media daily twist and manipulate the news in order to present a picture of failure in Guyana. Government ministers and officials of state agencies are daily maligned. The aim is always to make the country look bad.
Several techniques are used. They include, but are not restricted to the following – extracting quotations from statements that deliberately misrepresent the central message when the totality of the statement is taken into consideration; making wild and unsubstantiated claims that are difficult to immediately disprove through specific references; consistent use of divisive language with appeals to historical memories of oppression but without any empirical analysis of the current situation in the country; employment of irrelevant headlines and front page stories; use of photographs that are sensational and thus without any substantive journalistic content; a penchant for showing photos of animals on the front page; publication of letters that call for violence albeit hidden in code words; engaging in direct personal attacks against individuals linked to the PPP and/or the Government of Guyana; consistent employment of emotional bullyism.
The media outlets and media-connected individuals that do this stuff know themselves well. The more established ones have now been joined by Demerara Waves. This source pretends to specialise in breaking news. It seems to specialise in fires and personal tragedies – such as suicide. Mixed in with these, however, are clear anti-government messages intended to spread the portrait of doom inflicted by sister journalists and anti-government outlets.  Demerara Waves has, therefore, joined the Guyanese ‘snookering’ machine.
The anti-government activists have failed to break the will of the Guyanese people. They have failed because the social and developmental realities on the ground fly in the face of the cocktail of lies and half-truths circulated on a daily basis.
The saddest development in Guyana today is that the media extremists have replaced the official opposition political parties. The PNC/R-1G and the AFC are themselves in a mess; both of them are dogged by leadership crises and by lack of meaningful policy alternatives. The WPA, of course, exists in name only. They too are likely to be ‘snookered’ by the media extremists.