PREVIOUSLY in this column and in other articles, the alliance of a few private local media entities and the Opposition has been exposed. While this exposure was articulated in the spaces mentioned, this coalition had its genesis even before the People’s Progressive Party/Civic won the historic 1992 elections. It is a known fact that the current Editor of the Kaieteur News was a close associate of the PNC when that Party misruled this nation. This explains the blatant anti-government stance taken by that paper. The same pact existed with the present Editor of Capitol News, whose spouse now serves within the ranks of the PNCR. Again, no surprise in the pro-Opposition position taken by that newscast.  Today, these relationships have been further cemented, with the PNCR and its factions, the Alliance For Change (AFC) and A Partnership for National Unity, (APNU). What is glaring is that others who are prostituting themselves under the mask of journalism to veil the political pawns that they have become, have also joined the bandwagon of the listless Opposition.

The positions taken by the Stabroek News have clearly identified them as the official mouthpiece of the AFC. When trying to infuse some balance, they glorify the PNCR and its offspring, APNU. The list doesn’t end with the Stabroek News. No one needs convincing where Prime News, Demerara Waves, the few others who masquerade as television commentators and some newspaper columnists stand with regard to supporting the Opposition. While the right to associate politically is guaranteed by the Constitution, this unconcealed association has morphed whereby this section of the media has seemingly become the Opposition.

The irony of their shameless diatribes of hindered freedom with regards to the profession of journalism which they have defiled by their blatant unethical and unprofessional approaches, has not escaped the awareness of an observant nation. A clichй has since been coined; “hypocrisy wallows in democracy”, a fitting representation of their duplicitous association. Their vehement denial of what is factual confirms what has become known to many; shamelessness and hypocrisy are not divorced. Nowhere is it more evident than in the association of the Opposition and the media entities mentioned.

The marriage of the Opposition and their subservient media cronies has been kept successful by their amalgamated attributes to disparage the administration and its officials and unpatriotically, besmirch the character of the nation. They do not hesitate in these endeavours. It seems pellucid that they achieve extreme levels of ecstasy when denigrating the country and its leaders. While numerous instances can be cited, their latest reportage on the crash landing of the Caribbean Airlines plane last week, is exemplary of their efforts to malign.

The initial reports from the Opposition media created the impression that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) was in some way responsible for the incident. Their unfounded sentiments were articulated without any attempts to seek other opinions and the possibility of the effects of various factors. While space would constrain expounding, the overwhelming prominence given to some related stories, was indicative of their engrained condescending characteristic.

It seems as if nationality was suddenly changed to that of the aircraft’s place of ownership to cast blame. Thankfully, President Bharrat Jagdeo and his team stuck steadfastly to the need for a thorough investigation. Initial reports, as articulated by Minister Robeson Benn in Parliament, vindicates what local experts have opined that the accident could have resulted from pilot error. Nowhere in the reports of the Opposition media did they allude to the development and modernisation of the CJIA which meets all criteria for an international airport.

The CJIA is now light-years in advancement when compared to the “shack-like” and woefully inadequate “place of landing” it was under the PNC regime. None can deny the rapid transformation the airport has undergone. However, these noticeable and costly developments have deliberately eluded the editors’ construction of stories by the Opposition media gang. Again, this is not surprising, since they cannot accuse the administration of not forging development across the land.

Being depleted of the developmental argument, naturally they close ranks and expend their energies to bring the country into disrepute. Of course, this is only possible due to the freedoms that permeate this now exemplary democratic nation; a converse to what it was when the said PNC was in office and when some of the current media operatives operated. Shameless convenience?