National Alliance (NA) candidate number 10 Rene Violenus in Friday’s Breakfast Show on the Voice of St. Maarten called this newspaper “antagonistic” towards his party. To illustrate the point, he mentioned their press releases being relegated to page 8 and those of “sitting ministers” ending up on the Opinion Pages.
As a politician he obviously has a lot to learn. Where articles are placed depends on their newsworthiness and not so much on whom they came from. A message that a cabinet member may want to get out is not necessarily considered news, but can still be relayed to the public as a letter.
But there are other factors. Only a few (usually three or four) stories can make the front page and – unless they are very short – will run over to the interior pages. If there is another story (for example, a reaction) on the same or a similar topic it will often end up near the run-over part because that makes sense for those reading them.
Rest assured, persons from different parties have complained over the placement of articles, coverage given to their events, etc. As they all do so at one time or another, The Daily Herald figures it must be doing something right.
The truth is that white, black (formerly green and red), blue, brown, grey or orange, it doesn’t really matter when it comes to informing the people. The publication’s loyalty lies first and foremost with its readers and their best interest, nobody else.
If that means stepping on a few toes here and there every once in a while, so be it.
