The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Marco City MP Michael Pintard is now leader of the Free National Movement (FNM), Her Majesty’s official Opposition. Over the past 29 years, the FNM has been elected to government four times. The FNM, in my opinion, carries as much political weight as the governing Progressive Liberal Party (PLP). Consequently, the swearing in of Pintard as FNM leader should be considered headline news by the Bahamian media fraternity. But it would appear that Eyewitness News Bahamas does not see it that way.

In its November 29 evening broadcast, the first news item was Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, during his supplementary budget debate in Parliament, announcing budget cuts in various government agencies, most notably at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.

The second on Eyewitness News was Davis’ revelation that the Parks and Beaches Authority had a budget increase of nearly 150 percent under the previous FNM administration.

The third was former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ criticism of the PLP’s budget and its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fourth was Minnis’ response to Sea Breeze MP Leslia Miller-Brice’s criticism of the Paradise Island land lease agreement.

The fifth item was House Speaker Patricia Deveaux chiding a group of unruly MPs.

The sixth item was Davis expressing his opposition to domestic abuse, as it was mentioned that Zonta Club members were in the gallery of the House of Assembly.

The seventh item was Pintard calling for the state to address the issue of marital rape.

The eighth item was the legal battle for the remains of Bella Walker.

The ninth item was the weather forecast.

The tenth item was news that Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin is acting-prime minister, as Davis is away on official business in Barbados.

The official swearing in of the Marco City MP was the eleventh news item on Eyewitness News. And so the news about Deveaux, Minnis, Miller-Brice, Hanna-Martin and the weather forecast, among other items, were considered to be more newsworthy than the official swearing-in of the FNM leader. I believe it was a slight towards the official Opposition and Pintard. Had a foreigner watched the broadcast, he would’ve automatically assumed that the FNM is a fringe political party like the Democratic National Alliance, Bahamian Evolution and the Bahamas Constitution Party. Had the Democratic Party elected a new leader during the former Republican President Donald Trump tenure, it would’ve been headline news on Fox News, especially with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.

Why? Because, notwithstanding the ideological and political differences between the two main political organisations in the US, conservative media organisations still recognise the Democratic Party as a formidable force in politics that has staying power.

I know this might come off sounding like a broken record, but it is important to remind the hundreds of employees at these private media organisations that their industry was essentially created by the Hubert Ingraham government subsequent to the August 19,1992 general election. Prior to that date, the only private electronic media house in The Bahamas was the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (ZNS).

And in order to work at ZNS at that time, one was assumed to have been a staunch PLP. Before 1992, there was no Eyewitness News; no JCN Channel 14; no ILTV Studios; no Love 97.5; no 100 JAMZ; no Peace 107.5; no Guardian Radio or Our News; no 102.9 Island FM; no Bahamas Christian Network and no Dove 103.7. I know the FNM has been put in the doghouse on September 16 by irate Bahamian voters. But with seven elected MPs and having governed The Bahamas in nineteen of the past 29 years, one would think that, at the very least, the Pintard swearing-in ceremony would’ve been within the first two items covered on the aforementioned Eyewitness News Bahamas broadcast.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama.

December 1, 2021.