THA ELECTIONS AND DESHA

Here are a few comments on the THA election coverage, from 'trini media'.

"I was not entirely surprised that TV6 did nothing worthwhile for the THA election. For a company that is "national" in scope, has a lot of equipment at its disposal and not to mention, is currently the oldest television news media house in the country, the station has not been functioning as a serious media station. Is it that you feel so comfortable with the market share Dominic and others, that you think you can rest on your laurels and not get out there and do your work? Is there even an assignment editor there who knows what to do, when to do it and how to do it?

"Why didn't the station have a live feed from Tobago on election night? I'm terribly disappointed, but as I said, not entirely surprised. The station has an entirely new staff since the great walk-out of the Natalie Williams era from which it has never recovered and the juniors over there have no one to guide them whatsoever.

"CNMG, I admire your effort. I don't know that I'd go so far as to say that Charlene Ramdhanie and Golda Lee were amateurs. They brought us regular reports but it was clear that the station had no election-night plan in place. Again, a station with equipment to do live reports and nothing from Tobago on election night with the celebrations. What if the prime minister had indeed turned up? Anyone thought about the significance of that. What if the PNM had lost the election? No thought whatsoever.

"CNC3 can be forgiven for not having the equipment as yet to do live reports. But it's high time that changes. You have been on air long enough and have "gone national" a long time now. Get with the programme CNC3, live television reporting IS the order of the day. After all, the station does have, in my opinion, the best live presenters in the country -- Sampson Nanton, who actually saved the station some face with regular and well-informed updates from the PNM headquarters, Shelly Dass, with a natural on-air presence, Francesca Hawkins, an absolutely brilliant presenter, and Roger Sant, an experienced and collected anchor who gave us some excellent reports from Beijing. It goes without saying that if the station had the equipment to go live, it could have crushed the competition. Well done however, as Shelly continued to toss to Sampson at the right moments with regular updates. I do agree with A Williams that the graphics needed to come alive.

"Now to Desha Rambhajan at CNews. I don't know if it's because Charlene and Golda were in Tobago, but you got the much needed break in the 7pm newscast and I must say, you have taken on the role with absolute excellence and with an on-air presence that is completely captivating. I particularly loved your choice of outfit on Thursday night. It was a calming colour and yet stylish enough to catch the eye of the viewer. Take a bow Desha and I hope that those in charge at CNews would recognise that they have a good presenter in the making and use you some more.

"Finally, I'd like to throw out a little suggestion though. We have had media competitions sponsored by just about everyone. So I propose some competition here as well. Perhaps without all the criticisms and tongue-lashings, we can rate the week's best reporter, best presenter, best producer (based on the overall news presentation for the week), best head of news (based on the best news content for the week), and of course, the worse in each category.

"If I were to begin, I'd give Desha the best presenter, Sampson the best reporter (particularly for his reports from Tobago), CNews the best producer for the overall presentation of their newscasts and again CNews for best Head of News for overall content of their newscast. Come on CNC3, your content standard has always been high but you need to be always reminded, you're only as good as your last story. And as for TV6, the least said the better. They may very well take the worse category all by themselves."