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**Lazie** · October 31, 2006, 12:15 PM

RE: Journalism / Broadcasting in Jamaica

Integrity and media bias
published: Sunday | October 29, 2006 <DIV class=KonaBody>

Ian Boyne

Is the Press being too hard on Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller? Is she overreacting to the media pressure? Does the Observer have an agenda against the Prime Minister? Have the media already drawn the battle lines in the undeclared electoral contest between the two main political parties?

These are some of the questions which some people are posing and they provide an excellent opportunity for me to share some thoughts on media bias and the whole issue of moral and intellectual integrity. It is an issue I feel deeply about.

There is one aspect of Jamaican life which I absolutely abhor and am repulsed by and that is our intense partisanship and blind group loyalty.

Everyone Displays Bias

Yes, all peoples display some levels of partisanship and everyone has biases, coloured perspectives and even prejudices. It's a human, not particularly Jamaican, phenomenon. But, culturally, Jamaicans seem to be more intensely partisan and tribalistic than many others. We are individualistic in terms of economic behaviour, <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">personal</SPAN> ambition, taste, etc.,

but when it comes to political views, we find it difficult to think outside of some narrow confines. We tend to argue from a predominantly visceral and glandular point of view rather than from a cold, rational view. This makes it hard for others to do serious intellectual work in such an environment.

This partisan, tribalistic culture requires courage and integrity on the part of the intellectual. It requires the courage to be misunderstood, maligned and mistreated. But, it is a courage which must be demonstrated if one is to display integrity. The pressure to conform, to toe a particular group or party line is overwhelming, but it must be resisted by the intellectual who is serious about his commitment to truth.

Writing a column is sometimes frustrating in the Jamaican environment where many people have an aversion to rational thinking and scorn the discipline of logical processes. It is much easier to sprout the propaganda line, to carry the <SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">party </SPAN><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: orange! important; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; POSITION: relative">flag</SPAN>, to engage in polemics and histrionics. The standards are not particularly high in such an environment, for here one can easily <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink2 onmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,2); style="POSITION: relat

**Lazie** · October 31, 2006, 12:17 PM

RE: Journalism / Broadcasting in Jamaica

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Jamaican media one of the wimpiest</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Reader,<P class=StoryText align=justify>It's not just my colleague contributors to this newspaper - Mark Wignall, Henley Morgan, Ken Chaplin, et al - whose columns have reflected the deep concerns and convictions about the Trafigura issue. It is just about everybody that I have spoken to since the "donation scandal" unfolded. Wignall is absolutely correct. Trafigura is by no means dead. In fact, it seems to be gaining more and more currency within the broader populace, as the days go by.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I am not sure that I can accurately put into words the sentiments that people are expressing, even those friends of mine who have been strong People's National Party supporters over the years. One young woman remarked: "When I think about the arrogant and contemptuous way the government is handling such a serious matter, my heart pounds in my chest as if it's going to drop out." An older gentleman expressed: "I have never felt in my gut such a deep feeling of hurt and anger as I have experienced, over this issue."<P class=StoryText align=justify>I'm sorry the Trafigura story cannot vanish as easily as the government would wish for it to happen. As for me, I have never felt such a sense of outrage. Everybody knows that we live in a country where the systems and structures are thoroughly corrupt and compromised. In fact, we have come to accept it as a normal way of life. What has offended and angered Jamaicans, however, is the blatant arrogance and contempt with which the matter has been dealt with by the government.<P class=StoryText align=justify>I don't think that those who lead us fully understand what happens when citizens believe that they are victims of injustice and contempt. The sentiments take on a life of their own, and there is no stopping it after that. It is the stuff that revolutions are made of. The feelings first take root in the physical body - that deep gut reaction - then it spreads and contaminates the country's body politic. It seems to me that the main reason the Trafigura affair has not generated widespread protest is because there is no credible leader to articulate and consolidate the sentiments and the energy of the people.<P class=StoryText align=justify>But it's not just the absence of leadership that is feeding the collective inertia. It is also that our people are battle-worn. They have been robbed of their sense of hope and energy by the oxygen thieves - those people and systems which suck the lifeblood from the people.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Oxygen thieves use a variety of strategies, the biggest being the weapon of fear. The banning of the press from a section of our Parliament is not merely a demonstration of unbridled power; it is tactic designed to create intimidation and fear. There are many ways to suck the life out of the free press - it's done all the time over the world.<P class=StoryText align=justify>First of all, you identify those journalists whom you consider to be "tame" and those who are clearly on your side. You then play the divide-and-rule game. You already know that the society is highly polarised, so it's relatively easy to play one against the other. When the divide-and-rule strategy pits the two major newspapers in our country against each other over an issue that ought to unite everybody, then you know that the oxygen thieves have perfected the art.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Our prime minister ought to have known before she took the job that, "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown", and that one of the qualifications for the job is that you need to possess the mental, if not physical attributes of "very broad shoulders". When I see the unrelenting battering that Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken from the Bri

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