IF you think that journalists are in crisis, then management in the media is equally horrid.

These days, anyone with a few years’ experience and whop has been exposed on the radio or TV, assumes that he/she is a manager.

After all, a good editor should be a good manager, a planner who has a vision if not a long-term view take a long-term view, a provider who has the authority or influence to acquire things which no one else in the team could and a protector to save members of his/her team from less enlightened managers.

But, in newsrooms across the board, all kinds of people have been put in positions which they cannot handle, but which they crave for the perks, salary and the rank,especially.

This, of course, starts from the top.

Bad managers at the top, need people with lesser ability in the middle, to be able to justify their positions.

Therefore a company is bound to suffer across the board.

But with a management crisis in Government and in almost every boardroom in T&T, the stupidity that is paraded in most news companies, is lost.

Take for example the case at CNC-3 newsroom, where things are not rosy, at all.

Head honcho, Rosemarie Sant badly needs to be sent to evening classes along with her counterpart in the Guardian, Dominic Kalipersad.

IMMEDIATELY after they were elected last Saturday
morning, some members of the new executive of
MATT got down to business. President JOANNE
BRIGGS and secretary JUHEL BROWN worked
on a press release which noted that the threat
to freedom of the press, as highlighted in the
Draft Constitution and the guidelines for
parliamentary reporting as issued by
Speaker BARRY SINANAN.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS (left) makes his comments
as MATT president WESLEY GIBBINGS listens.
FORMER Senate President, MICHAEL WILLIAMS
immediately found himself in hot waters with
journalists when he tried to justify the drastic
rules imposed on journalists covering the
parliament beat. Admitting that he was in
“the Chair” when the rules were formulated,
in line with the rest of the Commonwealth,
Williams believes that journalists should really
stick to reporting the business of the House.
When a few journalists spoke of the right to
accurately report what is happening in the
House, Williams sidestepped the issue to the
draft constitution and the threats to freedom
of the press contained therein.

An experienced CNC-3 staffer who was betrayed and cut up by the bosses was more sympathetic than bitter when he called me with the story last week.

“The management style of Rosemary Sant, is turning off a lot of people. “Imagine she is supposed to be a team leader but when she and someone has a disagreement she just ignores them and would not even speak with that person for months.

“They would be victimised and not sent on assignments if they do not toe the line and because they cannot pick up themselves and do what they want, it appears as if they are not working.

“Another major problem has to do with promises not being kept.

“The journalists there have been promised they will be paid overtime, yet after they work their fingers to the bone, management simply turns a blind eye.

“That is across the board at Trinidad Publishing Company which owns CNC-3 and D’Guardian has lost editors, Irving Ward, Camille Moreno, Judy Raymond and Wendy Campbell, in the latest exodus.

“People have been unhappy with performance of Dominic Kalipersad and have raised that issue with the big man, Grenfell Kissoon who has refused to even lend a listening ear.

“The journalists have no confidence in Dominic because he has no backbone and does not stand up for the newsroom.

“As everywhere else, it is about getting the maximum production for least money, but they do not treat people like people.

“Imagine there was an instance where a journalist, Golda Lee, worked for two months but she was only paid for three weeks because the management insisted that Rosemary could not hire people and that she did not go through the normal process.

“The woman did not get her money -- even though it was their fault.

“Naturally she has since moved to CNMG.

“Well, the truth is the same kind of oppression at TV6,” the source continued.

“These people are talking big about freedom of the press but that is only lip service.

“A young lady went for a job and was told that she must be available seven days a week and that there was no provision for sick leave and that kind of stuff, a source at TV6 explained.

“It’s a straight case of if you don’t work, you will not get paid.

“They definitely do not have any regard for people and because of the kind of politics that passes through the media, the Express was forced to hire an Englishman, Alan Geere, for two years, my source revealed.

Clearly that was a major diss on editor-at-large Keith Smith, who has been holding the fort for quite a while.

Truth is the management at all three major daily newspapers do not invest in training at any level, so the profession has suffered tremendously because of that.

In any event people who go overseas to train often stay away because the better salaries and perks are available outside.

Still, Craig Reynald and his people have no problems, paying a pound and a crown for an Englishman, who, ultimately, is no better than many others here in Trinidad.