I must confess that I’m still peeved that the General Manager of Newstalk proved to be such a lubricated conduit for the Broadcasting Commission (BC) by instantly firing me because of a complaint by Cordel Green, executive Gestapo director of the BC for my interview with Ragashanti on March 16, 2011.
My crime was expressing the view that Raga was being unfairly targeted by the BC; that the BC was engaged in censorship under the guise of protecting children; and, that I allowed Raga to libel the BC when he accused them of having committed a “criminal act” against him. This idea that to describe an incident but perhaps use the wrong word (criminal in this case) as being libelous is laughable. I have commented on that elsewhere, so I won’t waste time responding to that. But it does go to the heart of a bigger issue, which is the question of suppressing the right to use language creatively, and official discrimination against the Jamaican vernacular. I will come back to that.
The more immediate point, though, is that it was not the BC listener vigilantes who called to complain. (The BC actively encourages people to listen and call them to make reports). It was Cordel Green, who had cowardly declined to be on the programme, but who lay in waiting to hear what was being said, who was the one who called the GM because he felt offended.
Cowardly Cordel was behaving like the policeman who goes to an adult entertainment event and hauls off an artiste to jail because he says bomboclate. In a case like this, it is the policeman’s morals who is offended, which is not what the law requires. The patrons paid their money to possibly hear and enjoy a lot of bomboclates -- they were not offended. (See video of Peter Tosh singing Oh Bomboclate below). Indeed, most would rather if the policeman kept away from their event. The policeman cannot substitute his own morals for the people. And, by the way, no bomboclate was cussed by Raga apart from referring to Cordel and Hopeton Dunn as dutty conqueror. That might have ticked him off but was legal, and being ticked off cannot be a pretext to corruptly use one's powers to abuse.
So not only was Cordel, the Cowardly Policeman offended, he didn't bother to follow the BC’s own guidelines by writing the offending party and making a complaint etc. He decided instead to instantly call an apparently familiar, lubricated GM conduit to complain.
Now let’s move on to what is apparently the bigger agenda for Cordel Green, Hopeton Dunn and the Broadcasting Commission. Withiout knowing anything personal about these two gentlemen who are running the Broadcasting Commission, it is obvious that they are of a very conservative political persuasion and they intend to use the power they wield through the BC to carry out their conservative agenda.
Raga in trying to make sense of their politics blurted out that Dunn was once a member of the communist WPJ. I stopped him short by saying that that was of no consequence. All of these former communists have turned their backs on anything that they once stood for that was progressive, and it is debatable as to what was ever progressive about their politics
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I recommend a 2007 Gleaner interview by Earl Moxam with Hopeton Dunn. Says Dunn: “we are not a censorship body” (could have fooled me) and, even though “we are about to get very aggressive” (haven't they?) there is no intention “to stifle freedom of expression”: So Dr Dunn: why at the instigation of Cordel Green was I fired from Newstalk? Not because of censorhip? Not because I facilitated a loose cannon to challenge your quest to be dutty conqueror? .
There can be no doubt that the constant ragging by Raga of these gentlemen, was an irritation and had gotten under their skins and only served to inflame their determination to get rid of him. By collateral damage extension, the fact that Newstalk supposedly lost “confidence” in my sense of balance, meant that I could not be allowed to facilitate another attack on the Broadcasting Commission. In that sense Newstalk was correct. I could give them no guarantee even if it had been demanded.
Since this happening a few things have become more apparent to me in terms of the various ways the Broadcasting Commission wields its power. A radio station that was interested in hiring me declined after listening to the Raga interview: not because there was anything objectionable in what was said, but once again because they found it objectionable that I facilitated an unbalanced attack on the Broadcasting Commission. Said the sales executive to me: “We have no problem with the Broadcasting Commission. We make money from the Broadcasting Commission!!!!”
He was referring to an outside broadcast apparently facilitated (paid for) by the BC in which there was a long interview with Cordel Green, portions of which I was lucky to have heard. Surprise, surprise, Cordel came across as a Christian fundamentalist. This missionary zeal to protect the airwaves could only be proven to be wrong, he said, if at Church he ever heard the preacher/Imam/Rabbi/priest (take your pick) use a bad word. What a bomboclate! If that ever occurs he said, then it would be time for the Broadcasting Commission to change its position! So once again the Church or the excuse of the Church is used as their moral yardstick. God help those of us who couldn’t care less about Church morality. So straight laced is Mr Green he said that he would not like to be walking on the beach with his young child and see anyone nude as is allowed in some parts of Europe. What a calamity that would be.
Cordel’s child I guess has never seen his or her parents nude; has never heard his or her parents cuss a bad word; obviously goes to a school run by nuns and priests; and so WE the people of Jamaica, by extension, adults and children, are Cordel and Hopeton Dunn’s children to whom they have committed themselves to protect from ungodly bad word cussers, from people who make ungodly sexual innuendoes on the air. And if their trap ensnares others who are making critical social analysis then so be it. What a repressive, misguided and dangerous set of individuals.
The Broadcasting Commission is using a great deal of public resources to run expensive ads in the media, and in the process is able to corrupt those media houses who hanker after a shrinking advertising dollar. Don’t forget that 80% of the public believes that public officials are corrupt. It can happen anywhere.
The Charter of Rights has finally been passed. But this Charter fails to acknowledge that Jamaica is a bi-lingual nation and that there is discrimination against patwa speakers. Visit the courts and witness how standard English is oppressively used to deny justice to non-standard English speakers.
The Broadcasting Commission, an arm of the state, practices its own variation of this type of class prejudice and class discrimination. Where employment is concerned, it is a godsend for careerists, overqualified to be street policemen, but only too happy to serve a police role in business suits. Simply put, the Broadcasting Commission is an extension of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which doesn’t have a good reputation where human rights are concerned.
But does any one care?
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