Here are some high remarks for Nazma Muller of the Express.
"Martine,
"I want to commend Nazma Muller for her brave and insightful interview with an anonymous drug dealer. It's about time someone tried to find out what the problem is, rather than just complaining about it."
"GWTO"
We also understand I95's Marcia Braveboy did an interview with a former gang member that's been getting extra airplay.
Kudos to both of you for giving your readers and listeners some insight into those worlds.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
WHERE WERE THE TV STATIONS ON SUNDAY?
This reader of the Guardian posted this comment on the lack of day-time television coverage on Sunday of Jizelle Salandy's death.
"In a country with eight TV stations not one all day Sunday gave you any news on the tragic death of our Boxing Icon, what a waste; these TV stations are nothing more than DVD players transmitting American junk. The OJT reporters were either looking for free drinks somewhere or just did not know what is real news, and the lone TV station which boasts of having 100 per cent local content also had nothing to say.
"We had to wait until the 7pm news to get any information. It was a total shame, those DVD players that call themselves TV stations, are a total waste. The Media Association should hide their face because their members were a total failure and the TTPBA because of cheapness to hire professional(s) or pay their reporters must also hide in shame."
"Rawlins Boodan"
"Longdenville"
"In a country with eight TV stations not one all day Sunday gave you any news on the tragic death of our Boxing Icon, what a waste; these TV stations are nothing more than DVD players transmitting American junk. The OJT reporters were either looking for free drinks somewhere or just did not know what is real news, and the lone TV station which boasts of having 100 per cent local content also had nothing to say.
"We had to wait until the 7pm news to get any information. It was a total shame, those DVD players that call themselves TV stations, are a total waste. The Media Association should hide their face because their members were a total failure and the TTPBA because of cheapness to hire professional(s) or pay their reporters must also hide in shame."
"Rawlins Boodan"
"Longdenville"
Monday, January 5, 2009
NEW YEAR....SAME TIEFING
Maybe the Trinidad Guardian has an arrangement with the UK Guardian to copy everything (down to web page design) they print, but it would be nice if the Trinidad Guardian editors or copy and pasters would tell us where an article was first published.
Case in point: "Scotland bids fond farewell to Latapy", published in the Saturday edition. The story sounded suspiciously foreign: "But Scottish football’s purists will have cause for a heavy heart when the little Trinidadian departs these shores (Scotland) for the last time in the next couple of weeks."; and again: "A hero in his native country, not to mention a two-time winner of the Portuguese SuperLiga,...".
So we did some checking and found that the story had been published word for word on Friday January 2nd in the UK Guardian, under the heading "Scotland bids fond farewell to the talents of Latapy".
The only difference between the two stories is the photo. Why? Well as one person commented on the UK Guardian's website: "Are you having a laugh?!? Yet again the Guardians (sic) contempt for Scottish football is displayed for all to see - that's a picture of Didier Agathe not Russell Latapy, even I know that & I'm a jambo!"
Come on TT Guardian. How hard is it to let your readers know where a story was first published and not palm it off as original work? It's done all the time at reputable newspapers the world over.
Case in point: "Scotland bids fond farewell to Latapy", published in the Saturday edition. The story sounded suspiciously foreign: "But Scottish football’s purists will have cause for a heavy heart when the little Trinidadian departs these shores (Scotland) for the last time in the next couple of weeks."; and again: "A hero in his native country, not to mention a two-time winner of the Portuguese SuperLiga,...".
So we did some checking and found that the story had been published word for word on Friday January 2nd in the UK Guardian, under the heading "Scotland bids fond farewell to the talents of Latapy".
The only difference between the two stories is the photo. Why? Well as one person commented on the UK Guardian's website: "Are you having a laugh?!? Yet again the Guardians (sic) contempt for Scottish football is displayed for all to see - that's a picture of Didier Agathe not Russell Latapy, even I know that & I'm a jambo!"
Come on TT Guardian. How hard is it to let your readers know where a story was first published and not palm it off as original work? It's done all the time at reputable newspapers the world over.
EQUAL HEIGHTS FOR ALL
This reader is just as disturbed as we are about the disparity in height of some presenters.
"CNC3 didn't start the height equality thing, photo-shopping the statuesque Odeka O'Neil down to the height of her vertically challenged colleagues. When Francesca Hawkins was at TV6, she appeared at the same seating level of her towering male announcer, whose name escapes me now (Nigel?).
"I would like to see Odeka, Francesca, C News' diminutive Desha Rambhajan and Charlene Ramdhanie appear on a panel discussion lineup with NCC's hulking morning presenter, just to see the glaring disparities in height!"
"Mirthrandir The Laughing Wizard"
"CNC3 didn't start the height equality thing, photo-shopping the statuesque Odeka O'Neil down to the height of her vertically challenged colleagues. When Francesca Hawkins was at TV6, she appeared at the same seating level of her towering male announcer, whose name escapes me now (Nigel?).
"I would like to see Odeka, Francesca, C News' diminutive Desha Rambhajan and Charlene Ramdhanie appear on a panel discussion lineup with NCC's hulking morning presenter, just to see the glaring disparities in height!"
"Mirthrandir The Laughing Wizard"
JIZELLE WAS A 'ROLED' MODEL?
It seems that every tv reporter is their own producer and editor. Otherwise some of the presentation mistakes that are uttered on air would not be allowed to pass.
Take for example Miss Nadine Hackett of IETV. On Monday evening, Miss Hackett told her audience that Jizelle Salandy was a "roled" model. How that passed the editor we don't know.
Then in his story on Miss Salandy, Robin Morais said "...the young pugilist...". OK Robin. Kudos for using a big word for boxer. You have probably been waiting a long time to use that word on air. But do you think 90% of your audience figured out what you were talking about? They probably said to themselves, "A young what? But I thought she was a boxer!?"
Then Melissa Wong pronounced the shortlisted male DPP candidate's name as Roger "Gaspurd". Steups. Again, do you have a deaf editor?
And we can't quite recall who did the story on Riana Pariag, the young woman who was kidnapped (it was really forgettable), but the main impression of that story was that there seemed to be no indication that the body of Devika Lalman had been found.
Why do we say that? Well when we saw the same story on CNC 3, C News and TV6, the first thing they said was that Miss Lalman's body had been found, and all the stories included soundbites from the dead girl's sister. They also included secondary soundbites from Miss Pariag's mother.
But the IE story focussed solely on Miss Pariag's mother and did not carry any soundbites from Miss Lalman's sister, and there seemed no obvious clue that Miss Lalman's body had been found. Please correct us if we are wrong.
Otto Carrington of CNC 3, why did your cameraman ask the young woman from St Jude's home to pose with her boxing gloves in her school uniform and pretend that she was sparring with that hanging thing boxers practice with (do you Otto know the name of it?)?
The shot looked so staged, and especially since we caught the young woman glancing at the camera as if she was awaiting more instructions from the cameraman. Maybe he should take up movie directing.
And on the same issue, Vinod Narwani, please ask your editor to be more careful as the soundbites from Buxo Potts and Harry Ragoonanan were mixed up. Your intro to Buxo's soundbite was this: "So what will become of her belts?" Yet the soundbite that comes up is that of Mr Ragoonanan telling us Jizelle had a half glass of champagne.
Then you gave an intro to that soundbite, but Mr Potts came up telling us about the belts.
And your colleague James Saunders sounded only fractionally slower for his piece on foreign football, but unfortunately he said something about "fort round clashes".
Staying with sport...the game of media musical chairs has begun as Kent Fuentes (formerly of CNC 3's sports desk) is now reporting for C News. He's spreading his wings out from under Roger Sant. Well Kent make sure you ask Charlene Ramdhanie for some pointers on how to sound less staccato. Your story (on St Jude's?) wasn't bad, but every sentence sounded like a story by itself. Miss Ramdhanie had the same problem some years ago, but it seems that she's learned to read with a more conversational tone.
But then again we haven't seen or heard Miss Ramdhanie in a while. Is she still at C News? Anyway Kent you get the drift.
So Roger Sant who is left at your sports desk? Just Astil Renn? Wow, you and Mrs Sant need to do some hard recruiting, and fast.
As an aside, can anyone remember when Laura (her name was pronounced Abjornsen) by either Miss Maharaj at IE (or was it Golda Lee at C News?) was the weather presenter at TTT? Now she's got a big post as the Communications Director at Caribbean Airlines.
So there's hope yet for Eric Mackie, Ean Wallace and Damian Salandy?
Take for example Miss Nadine Hackett of IETV. On Monday evening, Miss Hackett told her audience that Jizelle Salandy was a "roled" model. How that passed the editor we don't know.
Then in his story on Miss Salandy, Robin Morais said "...the young pugilist...". OK Robin. Kudos for using a big word for boxer. You have probably been waiting a long time to use that word on air. But do you think 90% of your audience figured out what you were talking about? They probably said to themselves, "A young what? But I thought she was a boxer!?"
Then Melissa Wong pronounced the shortlisted male DPP candidate's name as Roger "Gaspurd". Steups. Again, do you have a deaf editor?
And we can't quite recall who did the story on Riana Pariag, the young woman who was kidnapped (it was really forgettable), but the main impression of that story was that there seemed to be no indication that the body of Devika Lalman had been found.
Why do we say that? Well when we saw the same story on CNC 3, C News and TV6, the first thing they said was that Miss Lalman's body had been found, and all the stories included soundbites from the dead girl's sister. They also included secondary soundbites from Miss Pariag's mother.
But the IE story focussed solely on Miss Pariag's mother and did not carry any soundbites from Miss Lalman's sister, and there seemed no obvious clue that Miss Lalman's body had been found. Please correct us if we are wrong.
Otto Carrington of CNC 3, why did your cameraman ask the young woman from St Jude's home to pose with her boxing gloves in her school uniform and pretend that she was sparring with that hanging thing boxers practice with (do you Otto know the name of it?)?
The shot looked so staged, and especially since we caught the young woman glancing at the camera as if she was awaiting more instructions from the cameraman. Maybe he should take up movie directing.
And on the same issue, Vinod Narwani, please ask your editor to be more careful as the soundbites from Buxo Potts and Harry Ragoonanan were mixed up. Your intro to Buxo's soundbite was this: "So what will become of her belts?" Yet the soundbite that comes up is that of Mr Ragoonanan telling us Jizelle had a half glass of champagne.
Then you gave an intro to that soundbite, but Mr Potts came up telling us about the belts.
And your colleague James Saunders sounded only fractionally slower for his piece on foreign football, but unfortunately he said something about "fort round clashes".
Staying with sport...the game of media musical chairs has begun as Kent Fuentes (formerly of CNC 3's sports desk) is now reporting for C News. He's spreading his wings out from under Roger Sant. Well Kent make sure you ask Charlene Ramdhanie for some pointers on how to sound less staccato. Your story (on St Jude's?) wasn't bad, but every sentence sounded like a story by itself. Miss Ramdhanie had the same problem some years ago, but it seems that she's learned to read with a more conversational tone.
But then again we haven't seen or heard Miss Ramdhanie in a while. Is she still at C News? Anyway Kent you get the drift.
So Roger Sant who is left at your sports desk? Just Astil Renn? Wow, you and Mrs Sant need to do some hard recruiting, and fast.
As an aside, can anyone remember when Laura (her name was pronounced Abjornsen) by either Miss Maharaj at IE (or was it Golda Lee at C News?) was the weather presenter at TTT? Now she's got a big post as the Communications Director at Caribbean Airlines.
So there's hope yet for Eric Mackie, Ean Wallace and Damian Salandy?
"NO WARRANT, NO SEARCH"
It's strange and interesting at the same time that the editors at the Express gave Anna Ramdass the task of interviewing Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal on the issue of the police searches of private homes without warrants.
This comes on the heels of Ms Ramdass' home being searched by police last week.
We can't say that there is anything blatantly wrong with it, but on seeing the story it just smacked of himself doing a story on himself using the company's resources (of course with permission) in a roundabout sort of way.
Mind you, in Miss Ramdass' story there is no actual reference to the police raid on her home. We just have various quotes from Miss Seetahal and her book, titled 'Commonwealth Caribbean Practice and Procedure' on the general issue: "Senior Counsel and Independent Senator Dana Seetahal has said police must present a search warrant obtained from a magistrate or justice of the peace before searching anyone's premises. Speaking to the Express yesterday Seetahal...explained the process."
One of the persons who commented on the story on the Express website had this to say: "Ms Seetahal this thing been happening before you were born. Why only now you decide to speak out? I guess is because it is an Express reporter."
Did other reporters do stories similar to incidents that happened to them? Did Sasha Mohammed suddenly take up the plight of the kidnapped when her brother was abducted? We do recall that when Vaughn Salandy passed away some years ago suddenly there was a lot of interest in how suicides are reported.
Hmmmmmmm. What are your thoughts?
This comes on the heels of Ms Ramdass' home being searched by police last week.
We can't say that there is anything blatantly wrong with it, but on seeing the story it just smacked of himself doing a story on himself using the company's resources (of course with permission) in a roundabout sort of way.
Mind you, in Miss Ramdass' story there is no actual reference to the police raid on her home. We just have various quotes from Miss Seetahal and her book, titled 'Commonwealth Caribbean Practice and Procedure' on the general issue: "Senior Counsel and Independent Senator Dana Seetahal has said police must present a search warrant obtained from a magistrate or justice of the peace before searching anyone's premises. Speaking to the Express yesterday Seetahal...explained the process."
One of the persons who commented on the story on the Express website had this to say: "Ms Seetahal this thing been happening before you were born. Why only now you decide to speak out? I guess is because it is an Express reporter."
Did other reporters do stories similar to incidents that happened to them? Did Sasha Mohammed suddenly take up the plight of the kidnapped when her brother was abducted? We do recall that when Vaughn Salandy passed away some years ago suddenly there was a lot of interest in how suicides are reported.
Hmmmmmmm. What are your thoughts?
"WHO ARE THE MORONS..."
We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
A reader of the Guardian posted this comment to their website on the headline about Jizelle's death.
"Who are the morons who came up with and approved that atrocious headline about Jizelle being 'knocked out' ??!?!? Are there no editors, no one with sense or sensitivity enough to know that that headline is completely inappropriate?! What on earth are you all thinking?!? So many people are hurt with the news of Jizelle's passing and apparently all the Guardian could think about was coming up with a crass and inappropriate one-liner masquerading as a headline? I am so disgusted with the Guardian this morning - you all are an embarrassment! Jizelle Salandy deserved better than that!
"Rest in peace, Jizelle, God bless you!"
In truth...who are the morons? Feel free to let us know. We promise not to reveal our sources.
A reader of the Guardian posted this comment to their website on the headline about Jizelle's death.
"Who are the morons who came up with and approved that atrocious headline about Jizelle being 'knocked out' ??!?!? Are there no editors, no one with sense or sensitivity enough to know that that headline is completely inappropriate?! What on earth are you all thinking?!? So many people are hurt with the news of Jizelle's passing and apparently all the Guardian could think about was coming up with a crass and inappropriate one-liner masquerading as a headline? I am so disgusted with the Guardian this morning - you all are an embarrassment! Jizelle Salandy deserved better than that!
"Rest in peace, Jizelle, God bless you!"
In truth...who are the morons? Feel free to let us know. We promise not to reveal our sources.
WIKI-WASHY 7
The 'discussion' continues. Feel free to refute.
"RE -'WIKI WASHY'
"Thanks PW for recognising that constructive criticism is what this terrific blog is about. 'Trini' seems to realise that when he's bashing TV6 (I see he has revealed he is a 'man') but does not have the same rules for other stations.
But then again, that's very understandable, since we've been reliably informed by a Gayelle worker that 'Trini' is really Robert Clarke. The husband of Ms Dass and the rated reporter of a station nobody watches.
(On hearing this we did tune in...we didn't stick around to find out if his work met the standards this blog upholds). But that loyalty explains why he's so intent on defending Ms Dass. Your call and right, but it doesn't mean everybody else is immune to her numerous flaws.
"And 'Kay Hernandez'. Really. Come on Shelly, get a better pseudonym. Anyway, again, to the bloggers, keep up the great work in 2009."
"Cheers"
"AD"
"PS..
I'm calling names because it's time that you silly media workers are unmasked on this blog. If you want to use the blog to unfairly criticize your competition because of envy or whatever, then do so with cajones..ie..use your real names. But stop trying to mask as readers and followers of the media..you all are really transparent.
Make it your new year's resolution to keep it real in every sense of the word.
Again, Martine, keep up the great work. You, at least, are credible."
"RE -'WIKI WASHY'
"Thanks PW for recognising that constructive criticism is what this terrific blog is about. 'Trini' seems to realise that when he's bashing TV6 (I see he has revealed he is a 'man') but does not have the same rules for other stations.
But then again, that's very understandable, since we've been reliably informed by a Gayelle worker that 'Trini' is really Robert Clarke. The husband of Ms Dass and the rated reporter of a station nobody watches.
(On hearing this we did tune in...we didn't stick around to find out if his work met the standards this blog upholds). But that loyalty explains why he's so intent on defending Ms Dass. Your call and right, but it doesn't mean everybody else is immune to her numerous flaws.
"And 'Kay Hernandez'. Really. Come on Shelly, get a better pseudonym. Anyway, again, to the bloggers, keep up the great work in 2009."
"Cheers"
"AD"
"PS..
I'm calling names because it's time that you silly media workers are unmasked on this blog. If you want to use the blog to unfairly criticize your competition because of envy or whatever, then do so with cajones..ie..use your real names. But stop trying to mask as readers and followers of the media..you all are really transparent.
Make it your new year's resolution to keep it real in every sense of the word.
Again, Martine, keep up the great work. You, at least, are credible."
Sunday, January 4, 2009
EXTRA LONG STORY
Some advice for one of TV6's producers.
"Patrice Manradge over at TV6 your story on the Red Cross Society on Saturday night was too too long. It went on and on without stop. Just like CNMG's Desha Rambhajan's classical 'unfinishing' pieces. Only that CNMG engineers are smarter than TV6's it seems, they very often cut her stories on their own accord.
"I can see Fabien Pierre was literally falling asleep on your story when the camera went back to him. Aren't you supposed to be a producer at TV6 Patrice? If as producer you can do this, what do you expect of your reporting team?
"And Fabien it is nice to see you taking the criticisms in good light and have decided to seem less cocky on set."
"PH"
"Patrice Manradge over at TV6 your story on the Red Cross Society on Saturday night was too too long. It went on and on without stop. Just like CNMG's Desha Rambhajan's classical 'unfinishing' pieces. Only that CNMG engineers are smarter than TV6's it seems, they very often cut her stories on their own accord.
"I can see Fabien Pierre was literally falling asleep on your story when the camera went back to him. Aren't you supposed to be a producer at TV6 Patrice? If as producer you can do this, what do you expect of your reporting team?
"And Fabien it is nice to see you taking the criticisms in good light and have decided to seem less cocky on set."
"PH"
BOXING STAR DIES
It's fortunate that the Guardian decided to update its online edition to reflect the latest news on the death of Jizelle Salandy.
C News also updated their website to reflect the latest details.
C News also updated their website to reflect the latest details.
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