At a half-day symposium Saturday which marked the anniversaries of Love 97 Radio and the Bahama Journal, local journalists were roundly criticized by veterans in the field for failing to hold the feet of politicians to the fire and for falling down in investigating critical issues affecting Bahamians.
“I think a lot of the problem rests with the journalists,” said well-known columnist Nicki Kelly, who recently parted company with the Tribune. “They do not keep themselves informed. They do not read and they do not know what is happening in the wider world and I think this is a serious problem.”
The symposium, which was held at the British Colonial Hilton, provided a forum for journalists to engage in frank discussions on how to improve their craft and gain more respect for those who practice in the field.
Mrs. Kelly expressed concern that the journalists who are helping to shape public opinion are not cognizant of the critical role they play, and as a result do not pay closer attention to accuracy.
Veterans agreed that journalists today are falling short of effectively carryout their role as the “Fourth Estate,” and are not as aggressive as their colleagues were 20 and 30 years ago.
Presenters riddled off a long list of reasons why today’s media are not as effective as they should be.
“We do not have in our society, and as a part of our educational curriculum, an understanding and an appreciation of our history,” said Jeff Lloyd, another veteran who hosts the daily talk show, “Issues of the Day” on Radio Love 97. “That slack has to be taken up by journalists.”
Mr. Lloyd said he found it strange that even though today’s journalists have more available to them in the line of technology and information, they are still not head and shoulders above journalists of the past.
“We have a critical challenge in the media,” he said. “I believe this is at the heart of the capacity, the failing of being able to receive the information and to present the story.”
Nassau Guardian Editor Anthony Capron admitted that mediocrity plagues his newsroom.
“There are people in my newsroom who do not read the Miami Herald, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and we get all those papers every day,” Mr. Capron said. “In fact, they don’t read the Guardian. They look at the paper to see if their by-line is there and they have read the paper.
It’s a shame because their writing does not get better. We talk about training and we really have no time in the newsroom to do any training. We have deadlines and we have to get our paper out.”
The veterans recognized that some journalists are underpaid, others see their craft as merely a job and not a profession, and others still have inadequate training.
As a result, the field is filled with reporters in their 20’s who lack proper grounding and historical context in producing their work. There is also a high turnover rate that requires re-training on the part of newsroom supervisors.The dilemma is one that media bosses have grappled with for years.
Anthony Newbold, special projects director at ZNS, said if reporters at his station were held to the highest possible standards, only about three or four of them would be allowed to go on the air.
“You wouldn’t even get reports being read by these people. They shouldn’t be on the air,” he said.
The key is ongoing training, Mr. Newbold pointed out.
“You can never downplay the value of having the proper training,” Mr. Newbold said. “One of the things that I do every day is to pull the reporters aside at ZNS [and tell them how to pronounce their words.]
In addition to trying to edit the scripts…I’m trying to make sure people pronounce words properly.”
Because ZNS is the national station, Mr. Newbold said he reminds his reporters that they have an obligation to the Bahamian people to be “the absolute best.”
Chief Executive Officer of Jones Communications Ltd, Wendall Jones, said the symposium itself was an educational session. But a part from attracting a slate of veterans, the symposium only attracted a few day-to-day reporters.
Mr. Jones said while media need to improve their operations, they must also be applauded.
“We are very fortunate in this little country to have the kind of people who are writing and broadcasting,” said Mr. Jones, who owns Radio Love 97 and the Bahama Journal. “We ought to give ourselves some credit as well, because we could have been in worse shape.
We need to be thankful that we are what we are, but we have to build on what we have and educate as many young people as possible so that when we move off the scene, then there will be other people who will be able to carry on for us.”
By Yvette Rolle-Major, The Bahama Journal
