Kevin Baldeosingh
I believe it is incumbent on all responsible citizens to pay close attention when the President of the Republic of T&T proffers free advice, especially with every purchase of a bottle of wine. And, in his Republic Day address, President Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona explained to media practitioners exactly what constitutes excellent journalism.
First, he presented role models that journalists should emulate: George John, Hazel Ward, Therese Mills, Holly Betaudier, John Babb and Owen Baptiste. In other words, every journalist should aspire to be dead or over 80 years old. Then he listed the qualities of superior media. "Their stewardship was marked by civility, probity, comity, simple good manners and decency," President Carmona said.
Now, generally, reporters are taught to avoid repetition, since this bores readers and makes them look at cooking shows instead. But President Carmona adheres to the principle of using big words that mean the same thing, because what he in effect said was "Their stewardship was marked by manners, decency, manners, simple good manners, and decency." So, in order to assist President Carmona, as I have tried to do since his famous powers-I-have and-don't-have inaugural speech, I am today providing working definitions of these terms.
I shall start with "civility", which is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "politeness and courtesy." Thus, a civil commentator will never describe those who hold a different view as "holding on to the Devil's tail," because that would imply that such people are evil just because their belief system, as distinct from their actions, is not the same as the commentator's.
To apply this principle to an actual issue, all questions about whether President Carmona got a monthly rent allowance of $28,000, for example, should adhere to the following format: "Excuse me, Mr President, might I ask you to explain, if it's not too much trouble, whether you are getting a rent allowance for your rent-free State accommodation and, sorry for asking, if it was stopped, if you don't mind providing an answer, Mr President sir." If the President tells the reporter to hold his holiness, the civil response is, "Thank you very much for your sagacious advice, Mr President."
Then there is "probity," which the OED defines as "honesty and decency." In adhering to the first value, a responsible commentator would not accuse other people of suspect credentials and a dubious past unless he specifies exactly who and what he means, since this would verge on slander and may have a different meaning for the audience. Certainly, President Carmona and the dictionary have differing definitions of "decency."
The OED's is "conforming with generally accepted standards of morality and respectability," but President Carmona defines "offence" as an antonym of "decency" since in his Republic Day speech he said that "offensive is in and decency is out." This means that a responsible journalist will never ask for an honest response from the President as to whether he used State funds to buy jewelry for his wife, since such a query would offend the President and therefore reflect a lack of
decency.
Finally, we come to the standard of "comity," which the OED defines as "courtesy and considerate behaviour towards others." Obviously, anyone who's courteous and considerate would never denigrate other people as bad examples for our children and the youth of this nation just because they have different views about socialism, gender and paying your mother-in-law to live in the same house with you.
There is, however, a Carmona caveat to this presidential principle. In another speech delivered earlier on Republic Day, President Carmona advised: "The common denominator of national dialogue must be compassion, empathy, understanding and tolerance." However, he made it clear that this denominator doesn't apply to non-believers, agnostics and doubting Thomases, whom President Carmona demonised because such reprobates don't believe in miracles and, as everyone knows, God only performs miracles if people believe in them and Him. "We believe that in fact there is a God that will bring miracles to this land of ours," Carmona told the Roman Catholics of Mercy Village.
So when in his national address he said that "Everyone is special and has a rightful place in this Republic," he really meant everyone except atheists, drama queens and people with sex lives. And once all media personnel adhere to these standards, journalists will never offend anyone, hence attracting larger audiences and pleasing advertisers. This will ensure that journalism soon reaches the level preferred by T&T's leading citizen.
Email: kevin.baldeosingh@zoho.com
Kevin Baldeosingh is a professional writer, author of three novels, and co-author of a Caribbean history textbook.