Politics as usual in our Bahamaland - "humorless hypocrites"

The Tribune, the Nassau Guardian and the Freeport News have announced a partnership for sales, purchases and printing production. It's called a Joint Operations Agreement (JOA). The Tribune and the Nassau Guardian have promised to remain independent of each other where their editorial policies are concerned.

This has caused a heated tirade from some of the leaders of the PLP. One of whom actually called for a boycott of the papers. It's as if this was a travesty for free speech in the country.

Of course even if the papers were to amalgamate their editorial teams, there are two other privately owned newspapers (The Punch and the Bahama Journal) that remain outside this JOA, so there is no need to fear.

However, we must take the newspapers at their word for now.

I'm reminded of how the PLP fervently promised to review the banking laws and labour bills that the FNM put in place, and how the FNM emphatically promised to downgrade the Bahamas Embassy in Cuba. Of course they both found reasons to change their minds once elected to office.

As Frank R. Kent, correspondent for the Baltimore Sun said in 1932:

"In politics it is difficult sometimes to decide whether the politicians are humorless hypocrites or hypocritical humorists; whether fooling the people they also fool themselves, which means that both the politicians and the people are stupid, or whether the politicians are smarter than the people and know exactly what they are doing. Probably the truth is the politicians are smarter, but not much smarter, and that both are without any humor whatever."

Your not so humble blogger would dare say that at any given point politicians can be "humorless hypocrites" and/or "hypocritical humorists" depending on the circumstances.

Before the recent general election the PLP were threatening The Tribune for its editorial stance. Now they are threatening The Tribune, the Nassau Guardian and the Freeport News because of some conspiracy theory that they might collaborate on their editorial stance even though they say they won't.

This go round the PLP appear to be "humorless hypocrites" measuring the newspapers by their standards of transparency or rather their lack thereof.