Diaspora Speaks » Where Is The Journalism? : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

Where Is The Journalism?

The recent firing of the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica has some people concerned due to the reporting, or lack thereof in the national media. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, in seeking to establish that the remuneration of the Governor was too high, compared the base salary of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, to the compensation package of the BOJ Governor.

This however is an apples to oranges comparison and the two base salaries should have been compared, leading to an inconvenient truth that J$14.5 million is less than J$17 million confirming that the BOJ Governor’s salary is in fact LESS than Bernanke. Where are the journalists pointing out this fact to the public?

Another indication of the lack of quality investigative journalism relates to the fact that the PNP pointed out that contrary to the statements, inside Parliament of course, that the Governor’s contract was special and never seen before, the contract was the same as what was offered to past Governors dating back to the 1980′s, hence why it was never brought to cabinet.

Is this true? No journalist has yet confirmed or rubbished this story.

It is also damning that the press carried statements by politicians that the S&P downgrade was unwarranted without giving context and pointing out the massive revenue shortfalls experienced by the Government in September and for the year to date. These revenue shortfalls mean that the country either has to increase taxes/collections, borrow more money or cut costs (people and programmes) and the S&P took all of this into consideration, along with the firing of the Governor who was the lead negotiator with the IMF.

The Jamaican media seems to be lacking quality journalism and that should be a concern for all Jamaicans, on and off-island.

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4 Responses to “Where Is The Journalism?”

K. McDonald says:

November 11, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Indeed, this is a huge concern to this Jamaican-American. To sensor the media, intentionally or by lack of quality sources, is a travesty. Quality media helps to provide a check-and-balance system that is necessary to keep transparency, thus accountability, in an otherwise blatantly corrupt political system.
Dayahka says:

November 11, 2009 at 12:54 pm

One thing that should be considered is how to bring a halt to the sliding value of the Jamaican dollar. Would it not perhaps be a good idea to peg the value of the JD to the USD? This way, all existing JD money could continue to be used, but the USD would be considered the Jamaican monetary system. This would make for easy convertibility: 100 JD=1USD. Ecuador has done it, Panama has done it, and other states do it in practice if not in policy.
corve dacosta says:

November 13, 2009 at 7:58 am

The media here is lazy. They do not engage in investigative journalism which is sad.
On the other side the don’t talk mentality is also reflected in their work. They prefer to carry stories on crime and some other issues. Anything that challenges the status quo and challenges society they r quiet on it. I want to see graduates of CARIMAC and the other media schools here take the challenge and do investigative pieces. Part of the absence of this is also the unqualified and visionless managers who are in the top positions. It is sad.
enyad says:

November 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm

The quality journalism here (or lack thereof), is appalling, to say the least, and I do agree with the concerns raised here. Part of the problem is the way we are educated in this country…most of us are not taught how to think critically, for ourselves, for fear that we will be labeled partisan and otherwise. Another reason is that we seem to be incapable of thinking logically and apply simple things like mathematical principles in daily lives. Take for example how we love to compare things that are of two different denominators. Apparently when we were taught that in order to compare two fractions of two different denominators (when finding their sums and differences) we have to find a COMMON denominator…not many people realize that this basic mathematical principle also applies to everyday life. Even people who are known academics/educated people fall into this trap of comparing “apples with oranges”.

Then, there is our inability to build a logical argument…this is an anemia that plagues our intellect, it seems, just like sickle cell plagues our population. Our reasoning ability is so underdeveloped, just like our economy and the integrity of our public servants, is it any wonder that we do so dismally at mathematics at the Primary and Secondary school levels?