Monday, October 8, 2007

KAMLA STEALS THE SHOW

Kamla Persad Bissessar clearly stole the show at the UNC's presentation of candidates. But who recognised this?
The television producers did their viewers a disservice by not showing any reaction shots from the platform while Mrs Persad Bissessar was delivering her heart felt speech. They can argue that it was a paid political event and varied shots would have been limited during the live feed, but where were the news cameras to capture the shots that were needed for the news stories???

C News and CNC 3 produced packaged stories from the Opposition Leader's speech, but TV6 chose to give their viewers just one sound bite from Mrs Persad Bissessar, one from Basdeo Panday, then they went straight into soundbites from Patrick Manning and Prakash Ramadhar from the PNM and COP rallies on SATURDAY! What was the point of going back to those stale soundbites when they were already splashed across the newspapers? Twenty four hours too late TV6. And once again Cherise D'Abadie failed to indicate to her viewers that there was a shift in focus, as she went straight from Basdeo Panday to Patrick Manning speaking one day earlier without batting an eyelid.

A good follow up from CNC 3 was the farewell church service for Eddie Hart. They were the only ones with video and an interview with the outgoing MP.

Well Ria Taitt of the Newsday was way ahead of the pack in her reporting on the UNC rally. The front page picture showed the Opposition Leader with her upraised clenched fist with the headline "NO WOMAN, NO CRY", and Ria's story gave a good synopsis of her speech.
The Guardian had the same headline and a similar picture, but their main story was Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj being welcomed back into the UNC fold.
The Express however missed the boat. Their headline was "SWEET ORANGE" with a wraparound of crowd shots on the front, and ON THE BACK, a smaller shot of Mrs Persad Bissessar holding hands with Jack Warner and Basdeo Panday. Their main story as well was that Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj had returned to the party and was criticizing the COP.

TV6...a word to the wise. Maybe you need more resources out in the field as Sasha Mohammed found a novel way of indicating to Dr Tim Gopeesingh that she was ready to interview him at Mid Centre Mall during one of her few live segments. In the absence of a producer/assistant...she snapped her fingers at him. Unfortunately for her...the cameraman went to a wide shot and the director took the shot at the very moment she was snapping her fingers at Dr Gopeesingh. A little too casual, don't you think Sasha?