Oswald Brown WRITES!

By OSWALD T. BROWN

Every commentary and letter that I have written over the past year or so I have sent to The Tribune, using the e-mail address of The Tribune’s editor and publisher Eileen Carron, but The Tribune has never published one of them. The Guardian has done so occasionally; so have The PUNCH and The Bahaman Journal.

I know that Mrs. Carron can’t possibly claim that my letters contain some form of libel, because having been involved in this business for more than 50 years and having served as editor of both The Nassau Guardian and The Freeport News, I know the laws of libel better than most lawyers.

In case you are wondering why I’m making an issue out of Eileen Carron’s refusal to publish my letters, I’ve noticed that since Sharon Turner, who was Hubert Ingraham’s personal photographer and PR person, among other duties, started writing commentaries and sending them as “Letters To The Editor” to the various media houses, The Tribune publishes them within a day of receiving what Turner writes.

It did so again today in publishing Turner’s comments on the “political” remarks made by American entertainer BeBe Winans at the concert held as part of the celebratory activities held in conjunction with the renaming of the Paradise Island Bridge in honour of Sir Sidney Poitier.

Let me state at the outset that I totally agree with Turner’s conclusion that “national events should always be apolitical, meaning no political party should at any time be the focal point or muse for such events.” Indeed, it is unfortunate that Winans chose to “inject” in his on-stage comments that he is a supporter of the PLP, and Turner was absolutely correct to rebuke him for doing so.

But the fact that Mrs. Carron decided to publish that letter within a day after receiving it is what I’m taking issue with. However, her decision to do so is not surprising, given the fact that Eileen Carron is known to be probably the most avid “senior citizen” groupie of Hubert Ingraham’s, so much so that after the Bahamian electorate totally rejected Ingraham in the May 7 general election, she wrote an editorial accusing Bahamian voters of being ungrateful, claiming that there “is no wound so painful as man’s ingratitude.”

The fact that Mrs. Carron chose to run an earlier “letter” written by Turner in which she launched a bitter attack on FNM leader Dr. Hubert Minnis within a day after she received it confirmed that she too was offended by Dr. Minnis’ audacity in declaring that Ingraham’s days as leader of the FNM were over. In my view, she is too “old” to be one of Ingraham’s groupies based on his seemingly irresistible masculine appeal, but her devotion to him clearly could be because she fully expected that she would have received the honour of being made a “Dame,” the female version of a Knighthood, had the FNM won the May 7 general election.

I was a young reporter at The Tribune when Mrs. Carron returned from law school with her late husband Roger Carron, and although her outlook on racial matters were always somewhat different from some of her siblings, I’ve always had the highest respect for her personally and for her journalistic stewardship of The Tribune after the editor and publisher “torch” was passed to her by his father, Sir Etienne Dupuch, who in my view was a truly great Bahamian who has not been fully recognized for all that he did positively for this country.

Let me go on record now, however, as saying that I absolutely no longer have any respect for Eileen Carron and her obvious decision to abuse her power as editor and publisher of The Tribune by being so blatantly biased in determining what letters are published in The Tribune. Nonetheless, Mrs. Carron, I shall still continue to send you my letters so at least you will see that I did indeed learn something from your father, who was one of the two individuals, the other being Sir Arthur Foulkes, that I credit with being responsible for whatever success I have attained as a journalist.