MARKETS DON'T LEAD

Once again it was still the biggest news of the day, the upheaval in the markets.
How was it handled?
First to mention (and we use the word loosely) it was IETV. Giselle McIntyre gave us a short voice over at two minutes to seven, at the end of her half hour newscast.
CNC 3's first headline was that the Central Bank governor says more local people are growing food to offset high food prices.
TV6's first headline was that a Norwegian professor said there would be a continuing fall in the US dollar.
C News led with a murder.

CNC's first story focused on back yard gardening, and a review of financial literacy by the Central Bank governor.
TV6 actually began their newscast with the markets story.
Sasha Mohammed was up against a green screen shot of the Central Bank (the bank is a few blocks away, why not a live shot?).
And Sasha why was your lead in so long? Then you had a telephone interview with Robert Mayers of CMMB. Again, his office is a few blocks away from yours. What was the problem in getting him or someone from his office on camera?
And again you had a telephone interview with Ronald Ramkissoon speaking from Miami. You couldn't get anyone at all on camera to respond to this issue? The story had been brewing since 6am Tuesday.
But we have to give you some credit for being the only station to recover from the faux pas at noon, after we spelt it out in black and white.

Sasha's story had a soundbite from Mr Mayers saying the markets upheaval has repercussions for T&T, yet this was never mentioned in the headlines, and their very first headline was the tame one about the Norwegian professor.

Now despite the fact that all the reporters attended a session with the Central Bank governor that very morning, no one took it upon themselves to approach him for a one on one interview on this looming crisis?? And we know you did not try since there was no reference in any of your stories to Mr Williams not being reached for comment.

At 7.10pm C News looked at the fear of recession. But that should have been their lead story. They had an on camera interview with Brent Salvary, the GM of CMMB.

Later TV6's Nathalie Chrysostom had a package from the Central Bank governor talking about right spending choices. Nathalie did you attend the assignment or did your assignment editor just send a camera? Didn't you or anyone else think to pull the governor aside and ask about the market fears?

At 7:15 CNC ran a voice over about the federal reserve rate cut. Then they had a recorded telephone interview with Wain (sic) Iton, the GM of the Stock Exchange. His second soundbite said the local markets were not affected on Tuesday, but people should brace themselves. So the person who recorded that interview didn't bring it to the producer's attention as a potential lead story??
Then there was a package from Sampson Nanton. He had an on camera interview with Subhas Ramkhelawan, and his story was that fears were not misplaced, and effects would come eventually. Again, not lead story material?

Then Sampson did a stand up outside CMMB on Independence Square, asking exactly what we did, what is the impact on the man in the street? Don't think Mr Ramkhelawan answered the question.
Your stand up wasn't bad, but you needed to flip the entire story as the lead was buried just before your sign out.

All the stations have long packages on the financial planning seminar, but clearly no one was paying attention to the news of the markets. But by the time we made our post pointing out their deficiencies, the assignment with the Central Bank governor was over and he had already gone back to his cushy office.
Probably refused to answer his phone which must have begun to ring off the hook.

So yes, you all told us about financial planning for locals, but the biggest financial market in the world is seeing the possible start of a recession and that's not lead material?
Steups!