Politicians have put a big target on Jamaican media houses’ backs and are taking aim.

This week, the attacks have been particularly vicious with JLP supporters calling out the RJR/Gleaner Group and its chairman Joseph Matalon as being biased and supporters of the Opposition party, the PNP.

AI-generated attack bullets have gone out on social media calling out senior Gleaner reporters  Erica Virtue, Jovan Johnson and Kimone Francis as agents of the PNP.

This is dangerous and in effect discredits their work and gives the impression they can’t be trusted, so dismiss anything they have to say. All of them are proven, fine reporters.

One can already see the upcoming general election taking place in a febrile environment with daggers drawn and throats being cut. There is a lot at stake here with the PNP closing the gap and the JLP having to dig deep and fend off the resurgent “ Comrades”.

Attacks on media houses by political parties are not new. One only has to hear the scathing attacks on CNN and MSNBC by former President Donald Trump. In the 70s, the Gleaner came under attack from  Michael Manley and the PNP who claimed the “ Old Lady of North Street” was not fair and balanced and had an agenda to bring down the government.

Today, the current Chairman of the Gleaner, Joseph Matalon has been accused of steering the editorial team to write unflattering stories about the Andrew Holness-led JLP administration. There is no evidence to support this and Matalon is being wrongly maligned. He does not interfere in the operations of  and content created by the newsroom.

The Integrity Commission has put the spotlight on the Prime Minister’s financial affairs and he has taken umbrage with that. This has contributed to ratcheting up tensions with the Government’s supporters going into defence mode. They are pointing the finger at those perceived not to be in the JLP’s corner. We have seen the first salvo of AI-generated attacks levelled at media houses. It will only get uglier as the general election draws nearer.

Speaking at the JLP Sherwood Content Divisional Conference in Trelawny on Sunday night, the MP for St Catherine South Western, Everald Warmington said: “ The media and the PNP destroyed Edward Seaga; the media and the PNP destroyed Bruce Golding; the media and the PNP set themselves now to destroy the greatest leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, Andrew Holness.

“As I said before and said years ago, and was chastised by some of them, the Gleaner Company and RJR are seeking to destroy Andrew Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party.” 

Battle lines have been drawn and both The Gleaner and RJR have been identified as the enemy. Both media entities can expect retribution and no help from a JLP Government in ameliorating their financial woes.

Let’s be blunt here, the Gleaner and the RJR Group will not be drinking from the JLP’s advertising tap come election time, a traditional happy hunting ground for media houses. 

Warmington’s broadside has set off a firestorm and the Gleaner and the RJR Group has come out to refute his claims.

So what can be gleaned from the mist of time?

Some will recall that Edward Seaga was vanquished by those within his own party. Having to serve almost two decades in opposition, the younger cadre of the party formed by Alexander Bustamante feared this would be a perpetual state and moved to do something about it. They felt the JLP had become too stolid, too one-dimensional and that it needed to change course in order to be victorious. “ The Young Turks” – some of them who went on to hold senior government positions, staged a coup.  They said that Edward Seaga’s leadership style was too unyielding, too obstinate. Like Caesar in Shakespeare’s play, he was stabbed in the back by those he thought he could trust, (including Brutus and Cassius).  Caesar was murdered because of a conspiracy.

In the afterlife, Seaga must be taking comfort in what his protege has been able to achieve, primarily making the JLP a political force in Jamaica again. Andrew Holness is a populist Prime Minister and the party has rallied around him. There is no discernible dissension and disgruntlement about how he steers and leads the party. He is the party’s trump card in a way that Seaga was not.

Seaga was visionary and had the acumen but he lacked what all successful politicians must have that connective tissue with the people. “The Young Turks” knew this to be true and in an effort to rescue the JLP, saw fit to jettison Seaga.

Come a new decade, a new century, the “ Young Turks” challenged the status quo – the young lions ran off the presiding old lion, banishing him to the wilderness. 

In a twist of fate, some of these “ Young Turks” and Bruce Golding went on to fall a foul of the ultimate power in Jamaica, the United States, incurring its opprobrium. Don’t mess with Uncle Sam. 

Warmington needs his memory refreshed. He is old enough to remember exactly why Edward Seaga was consigned to political history, clearing a path for both Bruce Golding and Andrew Holness. He knows whose hands were on the blade and it was not that of Jamaican media houses. 

Seaga failed to heed the lesson learned by Michael Corleone from his father -“ Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.”  He didn’t see the shaft coming, he did not countenance the betrayal from his very own party members.

“The Young Turks” in effect engineered a putsch – the media as it should, placed it on record.