EDITOR, The Tribune

The country needs quality and fair newspapers. It needs these guardians to demand answers from power brokers. The Government, the church, companies, or anyone else who holds power, influence and authority should be scrutinized and held to account by a fearless, free and fair press.

The best newspapers are loyal to ideals: Defending freedom, fair play, democracy and honesty should be the objective of a quality paper.

I have been around a while and have watched the Bahamian media evolve over many decades.

Now I have grave concerns with the direction of one of our two newspapers. The Nassau Guardian has let itself shift to being an activist paper for the interests of its editors.

Read the commentary by The Guardian’s editors. It is all and always anti-Hubert Minnis and his Government. Week after week The Guardian’s editors use the newspaper to attack Prime Minister Minnis. You don’t find anything by them that says a good word about something the Government of Dr. Minnis has done.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying a newspaper should be an advocate for the Government, but when a newspaper’s editors every week use the paper’s opinion and commentary space almost exclusively to attack the Prime Minister and his administration there is an obvious agenda at play.

That agenda seems clear. The paper’s editors want a change of government. They want Dr. Hubert Minnis out and Brave Davis in as Prime Minister.

The direction of the editors has spread beyond commentary. Quite a number of the choices as lead stories reflect a desire to use the paper’s news coverage to attack the Government. In stories, angles are pursued and a tone exists to get at Prime Minister Minnis and his Government.

The Guardian in the Bahamas is what Fox News and MSNBC are in the United States of America. Fox sells information to advance the agenda of Republicans and the right wing. MSNBC does the same for Democrats and the left wing. The Guardian’s agenda is to remove Prime Minister Minnis and give power in the country to Brave Davis.

A paper has the right to shift in this type of direction. The news business is a business to make money. In doing so though, the paper should be honest with its readers and say what its agenda is. The Guardian should not claim objectivity when bringing down the Government and making Brave Prime Minister as its objective.

I am not sure about this part of the paper’s agenda. Is it the view of the editors that Prime Minister Minnis should be brought down and Brave made Prime Minister?

Is it the view of the publisher of the paper that Prime Minister Minnis should be brought down and Brave made Prime Minister? Is it the view of the publisher and the editors that Prime Minister Minnis should be brought down and Brave made Prime Minister?

If the editors have embarked on this journey alone without the consent of the publisher then the publisher and owners have a responsibility to rein them in.

Making a newspaper an activist operation is a very serious step. Once people know that the paper is no longer objective a certain number of readers will leave. The ones who share the anti-Minnis–pro-Brave position will remain just like in the United States of America where conservatives watch Fox and liberals watch MSNBC.

I lament greatly The Guardian’s position. I like news that is just news. I like commentary and opinion to be separate and varied.

Newspapers that are on an activist agenda are not for me. As a reader one feels one is being misled to a position when reading a story or an opinion.

As an old observer of the media I thought I’d offer these few thoughts. It would delight me if The Guardian shifts back to the centre, but I doubt it will.

From the opinions the editors have written in the paper their anti-Minnis views are very strong and deeply ingrained. Prime Minister Minnis is their enemy and target. They will not stop their crusade on their own. Someone higher would have to intervene.

ECM

Nassau

October 27, 2019