Jamaican politicians agree on almost nothing. But they all seem to feel the media is biased. Comrades, labourites and democrats are forever accusing the press of “distorting the facts”. As if the media is responsible for the government’s failure to control crime or maintain our roads. Or the opposition leader’s seeming inability to speak publicly in anything but an aggressively confrontational manner. Or the NDM’s lack of coherence.

As a political agnostic I find the Jamaican media pretty even handed, though rather cynical. The press here almost never gives praise, even on those admittedly rare occasions when it is due. But it copious criticisms respect no party. And considering how poorly most of them are paid, our journalists generally do an excellent job of reporting the facts. Sometimes follow up is lacking, with interesting stories often being forgotten before the final outcome is known. But on the whole Jamaicans cannot complain of being uninformed, for no nation of comparable size, age or income has a more vigorously independent media. Shows like the Breakfast Club, First Edition, Five to Seven Live, and Nationwide are as intelligent and incisive as any overseas counterparts.

Not all our commentators are unbiased, and some columnists and talk show hosts have obvious vested interests. Delroy Chuck is never going to criticize the JLP or praise the PNP. And Ronnie Thwaites is hardly likely to laud Seaga or condemn Patterson. For as members of parliament seeking re-election it is clearly in their self-interest to portray their party in the best possible light.

In my view everyone has the right to publicly air their views, no matter what their partialities. For the Jamaican public is intelligent enough to judge for itself how much of what anyone says it should believe. Mr. Chuck and Thwaites are probably only preaching to the converted. Because no independent observer could take their political utterances seriously.

And this likely also applies to other partisan commentators. For like a good son Daniel Thwaites has made his father’s cause his own. While Garnet Roper sees everything in shades of orange. Notwithstanding their former political connections however, Lloyd B Smith and Ken Chaplin are quite unbiased. While despite her well known comrade credentials Barbara Gloudon tries hard to seem impartial - though some say she doesn’t like anyone but herself to criticize this government!

Others like Michael Burke and Louis Moyston suffer from “the Drumblair syndrome”. They sometimes criticize this PNP government, but find it impossible to say anything bad about the Manleys, or anything good about those who opposed them.

Mutty Perkins and John Maxwell, the nation’s two senior practicing journalists, are what might be called “three quarter” objective. They criticize fearlessly and without compunction. But it will be a cold day in hell when Mr. Perkins compliments P.J. Patterson or Mr. Maxwell utters a positive sentiment about Edward Seaga.

Now based on what my lady friends say about his “Chupski” articles I would hesitate to ask Mark Wignall for advice about women. But as the current organizer of the Stone polls he probably has a better feel for the Jamaican electorate’s pulse than anyone else. And he calls it as he sees it, playing no favourites. Last year a JLP protest march accused him of vilifying the opposition leader. Yet a few months ago Omar Davis accused him of being a JLP lackey. Anyone journalist who so angers both political parties must be doing something right!

Now Mr. Wignall uses the polling methodologies devised by his mentor, the late Carl Stone. And both before and since his death the Stone polls have had a record second to none anywhere. Not once have they ever been outside the bounds of statistical error in their election predictions. Indeed when you compare pre-election numbers to actual results, the Stone polls may well have the world’s lowest margin of error.

So I found the recent Herald article by Bill Johnson attacking Mr. Wignall’s record completely ludicrous. On what basis other than partisanship could anyone question the reliability of the Stone polls? How can you argue with what has so far been a perfect score?

Now the latest Stone polls showed the JLP well ahead of the PNP. Mr. Johnson’s own findings suggest the opposite. Like most Jamaicans I give the Stone polls credence because they have never been wrong. Mr. Johnson however has no proven track record of accurately predicting elections in Jamaica, or anywhere else to my knowledge. So why should anyone believe that he can do a better job than Mr. Wignall? And seeing Mr. Johnson’s results so at variance with the Stone findings makes me think that they were either a) incompetently carried out or b) a blatant attempt to influence the public’s perception of the present political situation.

Now many governments try to influence the press into giving the “official” point of view special prominence. Some countries do this by censorship, others use monetary means. But press censorship is a thing of the past in Jamaica. And whatever their biases, I don’t think any of our prominent commentators can be bought. Though as I say this, Humbert Wolfe’s famous jibe comes to mind.

You cannot hope to bribe or twist

(thank God!) the British journalist.

But, seeing what the man will do

unbribed, there’s no occasion to.

But the recent fate of KLAS radio station and now the clearly agenda based pronouncements of Mr. Johnson make me wonder if the PNP government is trying to manipulate sections of the media to serve party interests. If this really is so, it is worse than a waste of time.

Because the Jamaican electorate is in a very angry mood. We are irate at having to choose between an incompetent government and inept opposition who both propagate violence by arming political thugs. Most people feel our present choice is between bad and worse. And we are not going to vote for anyone in the next election, we are going to vote against the party that irritates us the most. As someone recently said to me, whichever big group of orange or green shirts he first sees next election day, that is who will not get his vote.

In this climate only diehards are going to listen to political propaganda. While the ambivalent – and we are definitely in a majority today – will see it for what it is, an insult to our intelligence. Bill Johnson’s polls remind me of nothing so much as the 2 am road fixing on election morning in North East St Ann. And governments that treat voters like fools soon become the opposition. changkob@hotmail.com