Media

Old news: BW523 crash landed. There's plenty of photos, video and more all over the web and, due to copyright concerns, I won't post any here. Unlike the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister and her response team, I didn't immediately drop everything to go to Guyana and look at the plane.

I've been back in Trinidad and Tobago for a few months now, pondering what to write here on KnowTnT.com as I take in the myriad experiences that have brought me here - from the assessment of an old business being made new to rumors and innuendo of a highway running through some land I own to the multiple insults to one's intelligence by media and politicians - insults which in larger countries are easier to ignore.

Quoting Trinidad and Tobago newspapers and media in Parliament is like quoting toilet paper in the lavatory.

Comments?

I've frequently had to write the T&T dailies asking for an improvement on their ridiculous record of typographical errors (like the Trinidad Express's reporting of the San Fernando City Corp's new website is sancity.com, when it's actually www.sancity.org).  What I find more dangerous, because the trusting reader may not expect it and may act on it, are the non-typographical errors.  I cite two examples from this past week alone.

 So I am looking at Newspapers today and seeing pictures of Neeshad Ali's wife in her own grief. The pictures bring to me feelings of pity for her loss and disgust at the photographer and newspaper that published it...

Inside the newspaper is a photo, apparently taken in happier times,posted on facebook, of the couple. The entire article highlights the deceased's facebook comments and those of his brother. FACEBOOK?

Now, I believe in freedom of the press and investigative journalism but this is NOT news, this merely is intruding on a private moment of grief. Like so many perpetrated in past "to sell the story"...

I am reminded of the news pieces that Kalyzan Beharry (RIP) death had generated, some of which had alluded to her results and had named a band she listened too. How do those rumours relate?

When I read 'Blow The Whistle'  in the Trinidad Express, I couldn't help but notice that something was missing. Here's the hint: 

...Ramlogan is now issuing a call for all whistle-blowers who want to help in the blanket audit...

Give up? OK, I'll help. It's an article that goes in depth about what a group is investigating that notes that they are looking for whistle-blowers...

Just something that's bugging me after seeing the Trinidad and Tobago tabloid newspaper   'written media' headlines at the express checkout line in Hi-Lo:

600 cases in an estimated population of 1.2 million is 0.05% of the population. If we go with another estimate of Trinidad and Tobago's population, 1.5 million, we come up with 0.04% of the population.

Oh. And 3 people? 0.00025% and 0.0002% of the population dead, respectively.

I wish that someone in authority would specify whether the property tax itself will be rescinded or whether it is simply the reforms passed last year. The PP Manifesto indicates that this is the Property Tax itself by stating: "We will rescind the property tax." That's item 3 in the list of promises.

And the definition of 'rescind' is fairly clear.

I've held my thoughts on the new Trinidad Express website close to my chest, though people have sounded off on Facebook and other social media sites about their... perspective on how the site looks. I kept my thoughts close to my chest to assure that none of my friends were involved.

When Edmund Gall first wrote about the de facto monopolization of Carnival broadcast rights in Trinidad and Tobago (read it!), he mentioned friend Mark Lyndersay's point that it was more about control than optimization. When I wrote about the issue last night, I took the same tack.