Dear Editor,
Our country, almost overnight, as a result of the Exxon oil and gas find, is transitioning from a poor developing nation to one of the world’s richest per capita and a major oil producing country. There is another “curse” which poses an even greater challenge other than the infamous “resource curse” to a newly oil and gas rich country like ours, it’s the “attention curse”. Guyana, again, almost overnight, has become the beneficiary and the victim of world attention. Our newly found wealth brings with it, not only new investor attention, but also significantly increased media attention. Media, for instance, like the Vice Media Group, to whom Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, recently, in my view, mistakenly, granted an interview.
The Vice Media Group is not a mainstream media company. It is, however, a major international digital media organization with a substantial audience of young adults who prefer to get their news from online social media like the Vice Media Group, who have little or no respect for the traditional ethics of mainstream professional journalism but who flourish from sensational and questionable reporting. Media and Business Analyst at the Poynter Institute, renowned for its dedication to the ethics of professional journalism and its International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), described Vice News reporting as “raw and tasteless sometimes’ and more personal essays than balanced journalism”. It’s instructive that a major investor in Vice Media is the radical rightwing Rupert Murdoch owned 21st Century Fox, whose commentators continue to embrace the lie that Donald Trump was not defeated in the US election.
To understand the kind of reporting indulged in by the Vice Media Group, the Group, for instance, when reporting the Khmer Rouge Genocide, was forced to admit to having photoshopped images of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, photoshopping smiles onto the faces of the dead victims. As for those who own and operate the Vice Media Group, according to Wikipedia, in December 2017, “The New York Times reported that there have been four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. In addition, over twenty other women stated that they had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct….at the company”.
Clearly, the Vice Media Group journalist had an agenda, embroil Guyana’s Vice President in accusations of corruption with a personal accusation against him. The tactic is common. Throw enough mud at the target and some of it will stick. “What about within your government, do you accept bribes”, the reporter asked. The VP responds, “No, I don’t”. That should have been the end of the matter. But, no, the journalist rudely pursues the question disclosing an alleged source of information (something a professional journalist would never do), asking again, “do you need middlemen like Su in order to take money so you can keep your hands free”? At that point, the Vice President should have shown the journalist the door. We can expect these media to continue to rush to make news from our country. Vice President Jagdeo was a convenient target.
Sincerely,
Kit Nascimento
