A NEW LOW FOR BAHAMIAN JOURNALISM

By OSWALD T. BROWN

There is a story in today’s Tribune about certain allegations made about irregularities at BTVI that is gutter journalism at its worst. I can’t believe that The Tribune created a news story out of these irresponsible allegations by Ivoine Ingraham, a political gadfly whose apparent “claim to fame” is that he is a strong supporter of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.

What makes this story so ridiculous is that The Tribune describes Ivoine Ingraham as “a well known FNM supporter,” as if that was the only requirement it needed to justify printing the story.

Of course, the Editor and Publisher of The Tribune, Eileen Carron, seems to still can’t get over the fact that the Bahamian people rejected Hubert Ingraham and the FNM in the May 7 general election. Indeed, she was so angry at the Bahamian people for exercising their God-given right to remove a potential dictator from power that she made a total fool of herself by suggesting in an editorial shortly after the election that the Bahamian people were ungrateful for having voted against Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.

But even this display of stupidity pales in comparison to The Tribune’s decision to elevate the nonsense written by Ivone Ingraham in a “statement” to the position of being newsworthy. Without question, this is a new low for Bahamian journalism. If what Ivoine Ingraham suggests happened is true, why doesn’t he turn that information over to the police, who have the expertise to conduct a full investigation?

However, it is obvious that Ivoine Ingraham’s main objective is to continue his “smear campaign” against the new PLP government and he knows that he has a willing partner in helping him to do so in The Tribune, since that also happens to be one of the main objectives of that newspaper. Without question, this is a new low for Bahamian journalism.