An article with the headline `Hutson says clubs happy with his performance’ written by me and which was published on Sunday, seems to have ruffled the feathers of Kaieteur News’ reporters Edison Jefford and Rawle Welch.
I must make it clear from the inception that if it actually did, the outcome was clearly not my intention. My objective is also not to create a tit-for-tat scenario where I would be responding to any other missive on this subject.
However, I find it prudent to, at least, set the record straight as my name and that of Stabroek News and its editors have been caught up in a journalistic whirlpool created by the two aforementioned gentlemen.
The question and answer piece with president of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), Aubrey Hutson, ahead of Sunday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), seems to have led to the teaming up of Messer’s Jefford and Welch to pen a surprising and comical article yesterday with the headline “Sport Administrators are using certain media houses to attack Kaieteur News.”
Their warped interpretation of my report is grossly misleading and contradictory at best.
Facts
In their laughable and petty account, it is stated several times that Hutson referred to them as ‘barking dogs’.
This is simply untrue and misleading to the public.
What Hutson said was, and I quote: “These criticisms, some of them are written by people who I wonder if they really know about the sport and for that I sometimes think it’s personal. A journalist once sent me a quote that says if in your travel to your destination, you have to stop and throw stones at every dog that barks at you then it will take you a really long time to get there. I have to thank God for my faith and I know not everyone is going to like you and so I’m ignoring the dogs that are barking at me, I have one goal in this sport which is to develop the athletes and I will focus straight ahead on getting that done.”
Facts: The words ‘barking dogs’ were never mentioned. These two individuals, who continue to lose respect and credibility among members of the Fourth Estate and readers each time their misinformed articles appear in the newspapers, then went on to write that: “We sincerely hope that other media houses would have been gatekeepers of the sacred role to provide the public with factual information, but unfortunately the profession of journalism and its essential values have been sacrificed on the altar of nepotism and opportunism. It cannot be a good day for journalism in Guyana.”
They must have been talking about themselves since the information they provided to the public was clearly ambiguous.
Welch and Jefford, who have written several articles critiquing Hutson then described me as ‘inexperienced’ and added that my lone article amounted to a “concentrated emphasis on our professional work” and “was nothing short of a public relations stunt aimed at halting any analysis into the tenure of Hutson.”
If one published interview with Hutson written by me can be deemed concentrated emphasis and can halt the duo’s so-called ‘professional and analytical focused articles’ over the years, it says a lot about the impact of this ‘inexperienced’ writer and more so about the lack of influence and effect of their articles.
It begs me to question why these two grown men are so sensitive and take their time to nitpick at everything or anyone who do not say or do things to their liking?
Makes me wonder if their disgruntlement stems from their failed campaign against K. A Juman-Yassin which fell on deaf ears and led to his re-election as head the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) unopposed.
However, I digress, back to the topic. I was simply quoting Hutson during the interview. It was not an opinion piece so why the personal attack on the writer who was shown smiling and sporting a chiseled mid-section on stage?
They also stated:“Further it is the emergence of an authoritarian instinct that threatens freedom of speech.”
Really! Perhaps freedom of speech is only for Jefford and Welch, certainly not for Juman-Yassin and certainly not for Hutson, for Tamica Garnett nor myself, or for that matter, for anyone else. Many times it is not what is written, but what is interpreted. For me, a three-time Sports Journalist-of-the-Year, there will always be noise in the market but I always stay focussed and check my change.
