Glen Lall looking for sympathy after snitching on his drug buddies

Kaieteur News seeking sympathy

The recent behav­ior by the Kaieteur News, more specifically its pub­lisher Glen Lall and his edi­tor-in-chief, the former PNC New Nation/Chronicle Edi­tor Adam Harris, falls in just such a category.

For months on end, those behind the Kaieteur News were licking their lips awaiting the dooms day Wikileaks cables on their arch enemy, the govern­ment and more specifically President Bharrat Jagdeo. What they did not count on were the damaging rev­elations about the alleged ‘underworld’ links with the newspaper and its publisher and the admission by the US Embassy that the Kai­eteur News was more of a ‘sensationalist’ rather than substance.

It is too numerous to men­tion the number of times the Kaieteur News has splashed huge headlines across its front page, with only a few supporting reference lines of no substance, just to entice the public to purchase the paper. Some would say this amounts’ to a ‘con’ by the paper deliberately setting out to deceive the public. Then there is the grotesque images splashed across its pages.

Added to that is the penchant for the tabloid to engross itself in rumor mon­gering and using these as headline stories. Everyone has lost track of apologies and retractions by this vi­cious anti-government en­tity and the numerous libel cases filed against it.

So it was rather funny when Lall used his editor-in-chief to embark on a damage control campaign following the Wikileaks ex­posure and speculation of his alleged ‘underworld’ dealings and unexplained accumulation of wealth.

Kaieteur News began to preach journalism ethics to a fellow private newspaper and the state paper for pub­lishing unsubstantiated alle­gations as contained in the leaked US cables against its boss man and even more so by using sensationalist head­lines. As usual it descended to its gutter style buse-out of who is a homosexual and who does what with whom. One wonders where are the voices of organizations such as the Guyana Human Rights Association, SASOD and the other groups, who are usually keen on scream­ing publicly about people’s rights, when a national news­paper such as the Kaieteur News publicly engages in and encourages homopho­bia behavior in society?

Such crude behavior by Kaieteur News clearly illus­trates that the ones behind it were caught off guard by the harsh assessment towards them by the local US embas­sy. No doubt their impression prior to the Wikileaks revela­tion was that they were off the US radar and even more so, since the reports have revealed the alleged conver­sations the Kaieteur News publisher had with both US authorities and through in­termediaries, where he re­portedly accused some local businessmen of having links with drug dealers.

One businessman, Om­prakash Shivraj, who was identified by name in that ca­ble, has since come out with a public statement defending and disclosing the nature of financing he acquired from the local banks to establish the hotel at Providence, EBD and accused Lall of having a personal vendetta against him.

If the US embassy cable is true, then it would clearly illustrate that Glen Lall de­liberately lied and misled the US administration about a legitimate businessman.

One now has to wonder if there were other such indi­viduals he accused of being corrupt and what the nature of his allegations was. Sadly, were it not for the revelations in the cable, the business­man would not have had the opportunity to defend himself as he was not aware of what was being said about him by Lall to the diplomatic com­munity.

While the diplomat’s did not object to Lall’s machina­tions for obvious reasons, it is clear what were their thoughts of him as the very cable described him as hav­ing a sketchy past.

The narcissistic be­havior of the entity’s publish­er has no doubt taken a mas­sive hit by this allegation.
Following this, in a most amazing about turn, Kaieteur News, which has gone out of its way to use selective bits of Wikileaks cables to push its anti-government cam­paign, appealed to the public through an editorial to not be­lieve what was contained in the US cables about Lall.

Such is the brazen hypo­critical nature of this media entity.

However, it is clear their initial eagerness at the impending release of the Wikileaks cables has now been deflated and has turned into contortion, as it is a strong possibility that more such cables even more damning about those behind Kaieteur News may very well come to the fore.

This could have very well be the reason why the newspaper recently pub­lished a front page comment that it feared efforts will be made to prosecute those as­sociated with the entity and as usual trying to put itself as the victim.

One wonders if Kaieteur News is so concerned that it may be prosecuted, what does it know that it has not told the public?