Archive for August 23rd, 2011
Bush paying Dr Frank
(CNS): The premier’s office has confirmed that McKeeva Bush is personally paying “a stipend to the on air talent of Community Voices talk show on Radio Cayman,” the new talk show which the publicly owned radio station was “directed” to be aired by the premier. The show is hosted by former minister and UDP party member, Dr Frank McField, along with local personality, Lorna Bush. According to a letter sent by Radio Cayman to the independent member for North Side, the new show is not a Radio Cayman production and neither of the hosts were paid or employed by the station but it is providing the air time, it confirmed.
“Radio Cayman received verbal directives from the Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Development,” the information manager told Ezzard Miller in response to an FOI request about the details of the business case to launch a second talk show on the heels of the long running Talk Today programme, as well as the details of the recruitment process for the hosts.
Radio Cayman does not fall under the premier’s ministry but is the remit of Deputy Premier and Minister for District Administration, Works and Communication, Juliana O’Connor Connolly. However, this is not the first time that the premier has handled issues from his deputy’s ministry.
As a result of the ForCayman Alliance with the Dart Group, Bush also overrode her ministry’s recent announcement that the future of waste-management would be handled through a waste-to-energy solution by Wheelabrator, the winning bidders, following a request for proposal process last December via the Central Tenders Committee.
Speaking at a press briefing last week, Miller said that he had concerns that Community Voices, the new radio talk show now being broadcast in the late afternoon immediately after Talk Today, was party political propaganda and being aired during ‘drive time’, as the time slot is referred to — a prime time slot. The independent member said that government resources should not be used to promote party politics. He pointed out that the premier was using a known party operative to promote himself through the public’s radio station.
The premier has for some time being seeking ways to promote his government’s agenda via the media and has explored several ideas for creating a UDP newsletter or promotional website. When the premier came to office he continued the weekly televised government press briefings for only a short time. The briefings had been started under the PPM administration and acted as a forum for them to push out government’s message and allow the press to probe policy and other issues,
He reduced the frequency and then stopped the meetings altogether as he accused the media of twisting government’s message. He began issuing statements in recorded televised radio broadcasts instead or from the Legislative Assembly floor when the House was sitting, when there is no opportunity for debate and only questions of clarification.
Earlier this year he announced that he had plans to televise the proceedings in Legislative Assembly, government’s policy position and emergency information on a new government television channel, which would allow the public to see the House in action and not distorted by the media. Bush had stated at a public meeting in North Side in April that the TV station would be launched in June.
He indicated at the time that WestStar TV had agreed to supply the channel free of charge and it would be added to customers’ packages. Bush said his government had to be able to get its message out and important information across to the people. “We will also televise the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly,” he said. “There will be a regular news broadcast of government information. The policy and position of the elected government on issues will also be communicated on this channel,” the premier added, stating that the country could not continue to rely on the skewed reports of CNS.
The opposition has criticised the premier for dropping the regular press briefings and Alden McLaughlin, the PPM leader, said he understood the premier needed “all the ‘PR’ he could get” but the show – Community Voices- was inappropriate as public resources should not be used for propaganda.
See letter from Radio Cayman re Miller's FOI request