The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

We have become seemingly obsessed with the proliferation of honorific and courtesy titles in public life, particularly when applied to current or former public servants.

Professional journalists the world over have adapted their craft to a set of guidelines over how to use these superfluous titles some of which come across as pompous buffoonery.

Radio and TV journalists (with those at the public broadcaster ZNS being the biggest abusers) trip all over themselves to pay homage to politicians.

There are very few people in this country who don’t know who the current Prime Minister is. And even fewer of them care that he is (a) a Doctor, or (b) not merely honourable but most honourable or even (c) that his name is Hubert Minnis.

But yet some news readers persist in constantly trotting out all of his honorific and professional titles which have absolutely nothing to do with qualifying what the man has to say.

He is not speaking to us as our doctor. When he is not in the House of Assembly, we don’t care who thinks he is honourable. We don’t even much care that his mother named him Hubert. He is our Prime Minister and it is in that capacity that we wish to hear from him.

How about the journalists drop their preoccupation with the use of honorific titles which comes across sometimes as sucking-up?

If someone is addressing a letter to the Prime Minister, then they can use as much verbiage as they wish. And if a civil society group has invited him to speak, then they can recite his resumé and his titles to their heart’s content.

But on the radio, just call him “the Prime Minister” or “Prime Minister Minnis”.

Some presenters even undertake the ultimate tongue twister of attempting to pronounce the multisyllabic name of politicians in far-away lands, as it matters to their listeners.

In the UK, their Prime Minister is officially styled the Right Honourable, but when last did you hear any British journalist call her that?

And we all know that the Sovereign (theirs and ours) has a list of titles that would stretch the length of Farm Road. She is Her Britannic Majesty, by the Grace of God Queen of The Bahamas and of her other Realms, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, aka Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

But most journalists shorten that to just “the Queen” and we all know who they mean. It doesn’t demean her one bit to have her long form title confined to high official occasions. For goodness sake, the woman’s own signature is short and sweet: Elizabeth R.

Our journalists could do well to acknowledge that short titles go in front of a person’s name. Longer titles go after the name. For example, they can report the recent news concerning Parliamentarian Reece Chipman. But when they plunge into details as to who he is or what he does/did, then the accepted style is: Reece Chipman, Member of Parliament for Centreville and former member of the Public Accounts Committee.

Those of us who strain to follow radio and TV news would appreciate this subtle difference. It makes the news easier to follow.

To avoid running the risk of mashing even more sensitive corns it is best to not even mention the complete dog’s breakfast that our journalists make when kowtowing to the religious elite and the many titled self-sanctified posers who feel they belong to that fraternity.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau

January 29, 2019