So much for the “Media Roundtable” last night. More like the media getting the runaround.
Like him or hate him, it was a slick performance by Dr. Ewart Brown. I was only able to see part of the event (courtesy of Bernews’ inspired decision to trump the rest of the media by streaming it live) but from what I saw, the Premier – egged on by a partisan crowd – had little trouble in swatting away questions from an overly respectful media by getting in plenty of digs of his own and deflecting any potentially awkward questions with a crowd-pleasing quip. “We don’t stay in Motel 6 – if you don’t mind,” was a typical put-down to The Royal Gazette’s Tim Smith that effectively ended further questioning of Government $16,000 ground transportation expenses on a trip to Washington, DC.
If the event was a missed opportunity by the media, one wonders why – with the exception of acolyte LaVerne Furbert – they deigned to take part in this farce at all. Did they really think they would be able to skewer Dr. Brown in a circus of an environment in which the Premier played the consummate ringmaster?
Having said that, this was certainly not without risk for Dr. Brown. A more aggressive media could have made it a very uncomfortable and embarrassing evening for him and undermined the legacy he seems so desperate to burnish before he leaves office. But he gambled – correctly – that the media were on a hiding to nothing and that had they really pressed him, he could simply play the victim, being beset once more by the big bad media with their vindictive plantation questions and lies.
So what was in it for Dr. Brown – a Premier who has, for the most part, side-stepped the media with the aplomb of a contestant on Dancing With The Stars and who has been subjected to more media criticism than any other Bermuda Premier? And why now?
Breezeblog 