Why punish Rishi, TTT?

THE EDITOR: See what happens when the media insist on foisting untrained, young journalists upon the public?

See what happens when the media insist on recruiting cheap, inexperienced on-air talent?

See what happens when talent is mistaken for media management competence?

Young Rishi Kenneth Harrynanan has been taken off the air for his awkward attempt at humour in conducting an interview with a comedian on TTT’s new morning show, clumsily called Now, on Thursday.

His interviewing style was regarded by some as insulting to the comedian.

First thing on the show on Friday morning, TTT’s young acting chief executive officer, Lisa Wickham, who manages to also co-host the show, announced that Harrynanan “will be off air at this time.” She then had the young reporter cum show co-host face the camera and apologise for what she described as “an unfortunate incident,” and said subsequently that he “will be trained” accordingly.

Given that Wickham admitted that the comedian “was not upset,” and her implied admission that Harrynanan was not adequately trained for the job, why was his public humiliation so necessary?

By her own admission, she knew that young Harrynanan “is someone who gives a lot of picong” as “those who watch the show on a regular basis would know.”

In my view, TTT had every right to decide whether or not to apologise if it felt such action was required. The station, however, had no right to publicly humiliate Harrynanan and possibly ruin his television career.

If it felt that he was not sufficiently trained to conduct interviews, it is the fault of Wickham. After all, it is she who put him on Now in the first place.

The real questions that arise are: Does Wickham have the competency to run a multi-million dollar state-owned media company? Can she be relied upon to make sound decisions during the day after hosting an early morning show? Does she have the ability to shed her desire to remain an on-air talent and not sacrifice the time she should be dedicating to the management of TTT?

After all, with taxpayers’ money injected into the state-funded company, we cannot afford to let the busy Wickham lead TTT into failure again.

EDITH MCINTYRE, Trincity

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"Why punish Rishi, TTT?"

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