You've got to be joking
It's not the Premier's excuses for why he was "not being racist" that really bug me. After all, the phrase "look like" seems to carry far more racial undertone in Bermuda than it does anywhere else thanks to Renee Webb's infamous comment. Every time I have discussed this issue with friends from Canada, Norway, Argentina, Denmark, the States, and England, they have been far more taken aback at how technologically incompetent "P" is than at anything else. Congrats, Island Girl, you have lost your much-heralded position as number one committer of email faux pas!
That being said, the comment was made in Bermuda by a Bermudian Premier, a member of Ms Webb's party, the party which clearly buys into the "looks like me" concept. So perhaps it has more racial undertone than outsiders might believe.
Even so, I'm going to be daring and leave the race issue aside entirely - mostly because I'm sick of it. I don't remember it being like this when I was younger - but let's not get started.
First, there's P's ever-strengthening links with religion. I actually defended the state joining with the Church on National Prayer Day to friends who were up in arms about it. I saw it as a way for a significant proportion of Bermuda's community to feel a sense of unity in the face of increasing social chaos. I stopped defending him on that issue after the press conference releasing the BIC report, however, when a smug Premier announced to the media that on National Prayer Day he had turned to Wayne Furbert of the UBP and told him he loved him, "and there wasn't a thing he could do about it". I am a heathen, yes, but even I could see the ideological chasm between actually believing in religion as a tool for unity, and using it as a way to get your political opponent's goat - and then bragging about it on national TV. Perhaps he was just trying to be funny, but isn't that belittling the whole purpose of National Prayer Day?
He also blew up Tony B's comments to take them as criticism for his part in National Prayer Day and his nomination of Bishop Lambe as head of the BIC. Methinks P doth protest too much? Once again, using religion for political capital. Does Bermuda's religious faction see this?
"The Lord works in mysterious ways", he said of the email finding its way to Tony Brannon. If the Lord gave us a Premier who can't work a Blackberry, and then a heathen I shall remain.
But he did agree it was inappropriate of him to make such comments to a civil servant, and to use a piece of Government equipment to do so. Considering he's often seen as a public relations master, P sure does have trouble maintaining boundaries - sending inappropriate emails to his director of communmications, using Government departments to conduct party business, and having the PLP spokesman present at the BIC report press conference. It was a Government press conference, wasn't it? So what was the party spokesman doing there?
Then there's the threadbare accusation that the RG is being divisive. Especially amusing in this case due to the RG's notable lack of coverage on this whole email issue - not even a story saying "A response from the Premier has not yet been obtained by this newspaper". That's a story, right there. But they didn't do it. Fortunately Plea Court still got covered.
P even hearkened back to Grant Gibbons' eunuch comment. That was my story, and I don't even remember when I wrote it, it was so long ago. I couldn't believe the big deal they made about it - especially since it wasn't the RG that called him a eunuch. It was Grant Gibbons. We print it; they accuse us of being divisive. We don't print it; they could then legitimately accuse us of presenting a biased view or suppressing information. Not to mention that, as previously noted, it must've been made about a year ago. Get over it, P! Welcome to politics!
Either way the RG is used to being shot, boring and repetitive as it used to get for me when I worked there. I don't want to speak on their behalf, and I know the newspaper shouldn't be drawn into the fray, but it's so frustrating sometimes, especially when after two years of working there and being given pretty much totally free reign to do what I wanted (except for, again, wasting far too much time on good ol' Plea Court), I know from experience how off base the accusations now are.
It's a vicious cycle: yes, historically there was a bias towards the UBP. Therefore the PLP doesn't trust the paper. Therefore they hate talking to it. Therefore the young, new reporters - all those reporters from England who really don't care about the UBP or the PLP, and even us young Bermudian reporters who also don't care (someone start a third party soon, PLEASE!) -end up doing more UBP stories out of necessity. The UBP can't get enough of the Gazette, they are calling all the time. For my part, most of the time they were calling with legitimate stories, so I did them. When I thought they weren't legit, I didn't do them. And so more UBP stories are churned out because the UBP will talk to the Gazette while the PLP won't, and next thing you know RG reporters who weren't even around last year are accused of bias. Round and round we go.
As for him going on about Phil Wells' satirical column again, this is where I really start to lose my patience. He's got to be joking. As a wise man once said to me, when our leaders get to the point where they cannot take criticism, we are in serious trouble. Has P checked out The Onion lately? Watched The Daily Show? I suppose that if Conan O'Brien were to do a Alex Scott impression instead of his spot-on George Bush impression, P would want to pull Late Night also. I would just love to see Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's reaction to that.
“It is time now for a frank and candid look at the pervasive negative behaviours of not only those we are eager to identify on Court Street, but those who we tend to want to ignore on ‘high’ street," he apparently says in today's advertisement (note that once again the PLP have elected to choose taking out an ad rather than do an interview with the paper. They can't work with you if you won't work with them, Mr. Scott - one day a PLP politician is going to have to have the testicular fortitude to work with the new generation of the media, despite losing all the political capital they get from casting the media as the villian. By the way, who paid for the ad?).
That statement, coupled with Scott Simmons' statements about examining the media after Limey's article came out, are the bits that really, really bug me. Are they listening to themselves? What are they going to do, try to shut down the Gazette - a newspaper that, especially in this case, has barely said anything anyway? Are they really suggesting it's time to put restrictions on the media? To put a cap on freedom of speech?
It's this kind of thing that makes me almost wish I was back at That Place and in a position to actually challenge them on these views. Come on, media - hold them accountable!
I can't wait to hear the Throne Speech now.
That being said, the comment was made in Bermuda by a Bermudian Premier, a member of Ms Webb's party, the party which clearly buys into the "looks like me" concept. So perhaps it has more racial undertone than outsiders might believe.
Even so, I'm going to be daring and leave the race issue aside entirely - mostly because I'm sick of it. I don't remember it being like this when I was younger - but let's not get started.
First, there's P's ever-strengthening links with religion. I actually defended the state joining with the Church on National Prayer Day to friends who were up in arms about it. I saw it as a way for a significant proportion of Bermuda's community to feel a sense of unity in the face of increasing social chaos. I stopped defending him on that issue after the press conference releasing the BIC report, however, when a smug Premier announced to the media that on National Prayer Day he had turned to Wayne Furbert of the UBP and told him he loved him, "and there wasn't a thing he could do about it". I am a heathen, yes, but even I could see the ideological chasm between actually believing in religion as a tool for unity, and using it as a way to get your political opponent's goat - and then bragging about it on national TV. Perhaps he was just trying to be funny, but isn't that belittling the whole purpose of National Prayer Day?
He also blew up Tony B's comments to take them as criticism for his part in National Prayer Day and his nomination of Bishop Lambe as head of the BIC. Methinks P doth protest too much? Once again, using religion for political capital. Does Bermuda's religious faction see this?
"The Lord works in mysterious ways", he said of the email finding its way to Tony Brannon. If the Lord gave us a Premier who can't work a Blackberry, and then a heathen I shall remain.
But he did agree it was inappropriate of him to make such comments to a civil servant, and to use a piece of Government equipment to do so. Considering he's often seen as a public relations master, P sure does have trouble maintaining boundaries - sending inappropriate emails to his director of communmications, using Government departments to conduct party business, and having the PLP spokesman present at the BIC report press conference. It was a Government press conference, wasn't it? So what was the party spokesman doing there?
Then there's the threadbare accusation that the RG is being divisive. Especially amusing in this case due to the RG's notable lack of coverage on this whole email issue - not even a story saying "A response from the Premier has not yet been obtained by this newspaper". That's a story, right there. But they didn't do it. Fortunately Plea Court still got covered.
P even hearkened back to Grant Gibbons' eunuch comment. That was my story, and I don't even remember when I wrote it, it was so long ago. I couldn't believe the big deal they made about it - especially since it wasn't the RG that called him a eunuch. It was Grant Gibbons. We print it; they accuse us of being divisive. We don't print it; they could then legitimately accuse us of presenting a biased view or suppressing information. Not to mention that, as previously noted, it must've been made about a year ago. Get over it, P! Welcome to politics!
Either way the RG is used to being shot, boring and repetitive as it used to get for me when I worked there. I don't want to speak on their behalf, and I know the newspaper shouldn't be drawn into the fray, but it's so frustrating sometimes, especially when after two years of working there and being given pretty much totally free reign to do what I wanted (except for, again, wasting far too much time on good ol' Plea Court), I know from experience how off base the accusations now are.
It's a vicious cycle: yes, historically there was a bias towards the UBP. Therefore the PLP doesn't trust the paper. Therefore they hate talking to it. Therefore the young, new reporters - all those reporters from England who really don't care about the UBP or the PLP, and even us young Bermudian reporters who also don't care (someone start a third party soon, PLEASE!) -end up doing more UBP stories out of necessity. The UBP can't get enough of the Gazette, they are calling all the time. For my part, most of the time they were calling with legitimate stories, so I did them. When I thought they weren't legit, I didn't do them. And so more UBP stories are churned out because the UBP will talk to the Gazette while the PLP won't, and next thing you know RG reporters who weren't even around last year are accused of bias. Round and round we go.
As for him going on about Phil Wells' satirical column again, this is where I really start to lose my patience. He's got to be joking. As a wise man once said to me, when our leaders get to the point where they cannot take criticism, we are in serious trouble. Has P checked out The Onion lately? Watched The Daily Show? I suppose that if Conan O'Brien were to do a Alex Scott impression instead of his spot-on George Bush impression, P would want to pull Late Night also. I would just love to see Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's reaction to that.
“It is time now for a frank and candid look at the pervasive negative behaviours of not only those we are eager to identify on Court Street, but those who we tend to want to ignore on ‘high’ street," he apparently says in today's advertisement (note that once again the PLP have elected to choose taking out an ad rather than do an interview with the paper. They can't work with you if you won't work with them, Mr. Scott - one day a PLP politician is going to have to have the testicular fortitude to work with the new generation of the media, despite losing all the political capital they get from casting the media as the villian. By the way, who paid for the ad?).
That statement, coupled with Scott Simmons' statements about examining the media after Limey's article came out, are the bits that really, really bug me. Are they listening to themselves? What are they going to do, try to shut down the Gazette - a newspaper that, especially in this case, has barely said anything anyway? Are they really suggesting it's time to put restrictions on the media? To put a cap on freedom of speech?
It's this kind of thing that makes me almost wish I was back at That Place and in a position to actually challenge them on these views. Come on, media - hold them accountable!
I can't wait to hear the Throne Speech now.
posted by SarahT at 1:27 pm
2 Comments:
This is ridiculous, ST. I really can't believe that they still haven't figured out how to play the media! And then he wants to turn around and ask for respect. Although, I can feel for him in respect to his e-mail foibles (thanks, thanks a lot) I'm not the Premier. I'm allowed to make those mistakes (OK after the first time I really should have learnt my lesson) but come on! I can't respect a man who blames his own divisivness on the newepaper.
P.S. you need to get some spammer busting comment system going. check out blogger's help section or go to www.haloscan.com so you can stop those spammy comments :-)
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