No longer what its name suggests

 

Having some data allowance spare at the end of the month I downloaded pdf versions of all the island newspapers for my archive. 

I don’t buy the “Independent” (as it calls itself, even though it isn’t) but scanning through the pdfs I noticed just how much effort it had put into persuading readers that the recommendations of the “Governance Commission” (the body of people carefully selected by the Governor to tell him to do what he wanted to do anyway) were the right way forward for the island, the best ideas available on the planet and, indeed, the best ideas humanity had ever come up with since climbing down from the trees and standing upright.

Of course, it should be noted that the editor of the “Independent” is also a member of this undemocratic and wholly unrepresentative “Commission”, so I suppose he would agree with its report, wouldn’t he? 

I looked but couldn’t find in any of the articles anywhere where he declared his obvious conflict of interest.  A professional journalist would, of course, have done so, or better still would have refrained from using his newspaper to sell his own work.

I remember the days of old when the Independent (which it then was) took a sceptical approach to Government, challenging it to do better.  No longer so, it seems.

They say people buy a newspaper not to be informed but to have their prejudices confirmed.  That being the case, the people who buy the “Independent” these days must believe that everything our Governor and his government does is wonderful, appropriate and in the best interests of the people of St Helena.

I don’t, because I don’t.