One of the most entertaining, and simultaneously repulsive, thing about many politicians is their conscious decision to shape perception in the face of reality. Some are quite good at it.
Case in point, this bit from an article in today's Gazette:
"I saw the story in the Royal Gazette and let me tell you it is very rare I see a story in the Royal Gazette that makes me happy," joked the Premier, as he explained to Ms Bean why he wanted to visit her new business.
This is a very common theme from the Premier and the PLP, that the media is hopelessly biased against them and only write negative stories. It's the same nonsense that the Republicans, led by George Bush, peddle about the media in the US to avoid scrutiny and deflect criticism (Iraq war anyone?).
The idea is to present only glowingly positive stories as objective, and anything that questions them as biased (of course racially in Bermuda). The Republicans and the PLP have this shtick down quite well.
While the Republicans attack the New York Times, the PLP constantly - particularly in Parliament - talk about the Royal Gazette (and the Mid Ocean News, but more on them another time) as under the thumb of the UBP.
The Premier often calls the Gazette 'their [the UBP's] newspaper'.
But back to the quote (joke or not) about it being rare for the Premier to find an article he likes in the Gazette.
His party's website certainly doesn't have that problem.
They generate easily 2/3rds of their daily content from The Royal Gazette. Today they linked to two (including the one the with the swipe at the Gazette) on their front page. Yesterday they linked to three articles. On average it's probably two or three a day, lately it's been packed with Gazette stories.
Take a look at their 'Latest News' page. It's content is almost entirely quoted, summarised and linked Royal Gazette articles, with a few Bermuda Sun ones sprinkled in - 214 in just four and a half months (since April).
Rare to find a story he likes, huh. Such hypocrisy.
Politicians around the world complain about the press, that's an occupational hazard and nothing new. But this is different in its intensity and the orchestrated and persistent nature of the campaign.
This media bias theme is designed to perpetuate a perception despite reality, intimidate the media into treating them with kid gloves while trying to discredit negative stories and amplify positive ones.
The Gazette in particular has been extremely busy lately trying to prove themselves to the PLP in the stories they write, lawsuit over the leaked corruption investigation files notwithstanding.
The Bermuda Sun generally is very deferential in their coverage of the PLP.
Hott 107.5 is clearly the PLP's radio station, they don't even pretend not to be.
(The Mid Ocean on the other hand just doesn't care about criticism. They've got a few things wrong, and apologised, but an awful lot right - not to mention their pro-PLP columnists. And let's not forget that they were brutal to the UBP in the late 90's over independence and McDonalds.)
But it's the Gazette in particular takes the brunt of the anti-PLP criticism - mostly because it largely sets the news agenda, but also because of history.
Regardless, it's not hard to prove that the Gazette isn't doing the UBP's bidding, they're actually working hard to prove that they don't have it out for the PLP and tiptoe around a number of issues they should really chase down aggressively.
Let's get real. If the Gazette was in any way owned, controlled or even influenced by the UBP, would a damaging (and incorrectly quoted) headline like "UBP doomed to lose next election" run as I talked about this morning?
Would their senior political reporter constantly use disgruntled former UBP-now-back-in-the-PLP Jamahl Simmons and PLP candidate and party pollster Walton Brown as his primary sources for commentary on the UBP?
Would the Gazette give Maxwell Burgess prominent placement to criticise his party?
Of course it wouldn't.
But that's all irrelevant in the politics of this. The daily drumbeat against the Gazette and the media in general by the PLP is a determined effort to shape perception and keep people believing that the media are biased; to keep people thinking that the PLP are the underdog, not the establishment party that they are with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, dozens of public relations officers, and thousands of civil servants at their disposal (versus the UBP who have, last time I checked one PR person and a couple of office staff).
But don't expect the criticism to stop. George Bush still wants people to believe that the US is winning the war in Iraq. At least the media over there have largely woken up to their responsibilites as the Fourth Estate. When will ours?
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy