Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 19, 2010 Letters
Dear Editor,
I am responding to comments made by Mr. Freddie Kissoon in recent columns that are preposterous to the tenets of journalism.
Anyone who studies journalism would know Kissoon does not understand journalism or even the ethics of the field and should best leave these matters to the experts – people like Annan Boodram or Anand Persaud or Adam Harris and others who are specialists in Journalism.
Mr. Kissoon said that news is the reporting of events that physically happened and does not deal with interpretations and conclusions and he also stated that what he writes is his own opinions and should not be mistaken for facts.
But Mr. Kissoon presents his opinions as though they are facts thereby misleading readers.
And most of the times, his comments do not accurately reflect the views or writings of others as we learn from his interpretations of so many scholars including Fareed Zakaria, Immanuel Kant, Jacques Rousseau, Plato, Freud, etc. And even when he responds to others, he distorts their positions.
Any journalist will tell Kissoon that news must be factual and opinion must be based on sound and reliable facts, not manufactured information.
Most of what Kissoon pens come from manufactured information. They have no bases of fact. Any philosopher will tell Kissoon that in order for opinions to have validity or to be salient and meaningful to a given situation, they must be based on verifiable facts. You can’t just write any “whacko” opinion; it must be sound and based on proper analysis and not misleading.
I also wish to advise Kissoon that there is no such “thing” as “obscurantist journalism”.
Some so labeled journalists pen “obscurant” (misleading, purposeful deceitful, unbalanced) views. Kissoon is one of them. He frequently takes information from others and distorts them for public consumption.
Kissoon is also wrong in lambasting SN for extracting views from Speaker Ralph Ramkarran and presenting them as news. Any journalist will tell Kissoon that the views of a policy maker or politician or well known personality could be rewritten as news – it just goes to show Kissoon just does not understand journalism.
A policy maker sets the course of events. He or she is a newsmaker. The practice of quoting from newsmakers is traditional practice in the media world and a basic component of news gathering and presentation – you can find many examples from Osama Bin Laden to Sarah Palin.
Academia, textbooks and media experts define news as information that is considered to be of interest to the targeted consumer group.
Within these parameters are newsmakers – people whose words and actions have an impact. In the context of Guyana, Ramkarran’s position as Speaker of the National Assembly, his standing within the leadership of the PPP and the fact that he is touted as a PPP presidential candidate and consequently a potential Guyana president makes him a newsmaker and his views newsworthy.
Naturally therefore his opinions fall within the context of information and thereby become news that can be included in any article relating to any topic on which he has expressed an opinion. And so would the views of the General Secretary Donald Ramoutar, Raphael Trotman and other politicians.
Vishnu Bisram
Vishnu Bisram
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