News legend John Babb dies at 91

RETIRED journalist, editor and two-time national awardee John Babb died at the hospital on August 3.

He was 91.

Babb had over seven decades of experience in TT media, working in evening, daily and weekly newspapers before retiring in 2016.

He was a stickler for the facts, a master at shorthand, and a true role model for TT journalists, said several former colleagues and friends in tributes.

Babb helped establish Newsday in 1993 and grow its circulation.

“He was a well-loved mentor and father figure to generations of journalists,” Camille Moreno, Newsday editor-in-chief said.

“He was renowned for his coverage of local and global politics, and court reporting, where his shorthand skills made him a legend.

Babb received the Hummingbird Medal Silver in 1994 and Gold in 2012 for his contributions to the industry.

“His insightful commentaries on our music festivals shone the spotlight on many musicians and helped the event to gain prominence on our cultural calendar.

“He was a fearless, funny and inspiring person to have known.”

Babb was Newsday’s first news editor, serving under the paper’s first editor-in-chief Therese Mills in 1993, whom he had been friends with since working together at the Port of Spain Gazette in the 1950s. Mills died in 2014 at the age of 85.

Babb began his career as a reporter and reported extensively on TT’s first PM Dr Eric Williams.

In an interview, Babb said he had a better relationship with Williams than most other journalists.

Babb’s proficient shorthand allowed him to transcribe court proceedings quickly and accurately, to the envy of some of his counterparts.

Communications consultant and former journalist Francis Joseph said he was deeply saddened by Babb’s passing, having been instrumental in his career development.

Joseph said they met in 1977 when he joined as a rookie reporter and Babb reported on politics, where they worked together until 1993, when Babb moved over to Newsday, where he successfully helped build the newspaper. Joseph and Babb worked together at Newsday from 2000 to 2008.

Babb reported extensively on the 1996 trial of drug kingpin Dole Chadee and his gang, who were accused of killing four members of the Baboolal family in Williamsville in 1994.

His coverage has been credited with helping Newsday nearly quadruple its circulation.

“At Newsday, we worked very well because he was the news editor and I was the assignments editor and we gelled very good.

“But I think the challenge I had with him was the Dole Chadee trial. He was there covering it for Newsday and his shorthand propelled Newsday from a small to large circulation because his shorthand was verbatim.

“I tried my best (to do shorthand) but comparing the two, he had what people wanted to read – the full transcript of the trial.

“That is what I remembered him for because I used to read the Newsday, even in the trial to see how he wrote it compared (to me).

On a personal note, Francis said, “He was a very nice person. He taught me and many other journalists in the early days how to be respectful and always write the truth.”

Joseph said he was a man of integrity.

“From the day I joined him, he would always tell me to forget what people (say). Especially if you’re covering crime and court, like I did, you won’t get many friends there, because you’re supposed to write the truth.

“In business and politics, you can always write around it but (with court) you always have to write the truth and stick to it.

Joseph said Babb told all young journalists that keeping a straight path would ensure their integrity remained intact.

“Those who listened to him would (make it) to the top. People would have nothing bad to say about him.”

Former Newsday editor-in-chief and editorial consultant Jones P Madeira was in tears after hearing the news.

Madeira had been speaking about Babb the night before and again on the morning of August 3, not knowing he died.

Madeira said although they stayed in touch and laughed off conversations about mortality, he was never prepared to lose a friend he had known for 40-plus years.

“I know it’s inevitable that one of these days, you’ll hear the sound of the shovel and then, no more,” Madeira said.

He described Babb as a man of character.

Newsday journalist Sean Douglas wrote, “Mr Babb, known to his close peers as ‘JB,’ was a strict editor but in doing so he set high standards for TT journalists. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.”

Guardian Media Ltd deputy managing editor Sampson Nanton, who started his journalism career in 1996 at the Newsday, recalled one of his first interactions with Babb in a Facebook post:

"I'd been a journalist for grand total of five days and had covered a big story late Friday night. Green in the profession, I figured I'd write the story Monday morning, because I wasn't on duty that weekend. Mr Babb had the Sunday Guardian and Sunday Express in his right hand as he sat down to ask me what I was writing there. I cautiously told him it was the story I covered Friday, moments before he thunderously slammed the two newspapers down on my desk to reveal that the same story I was 'now' writing had been the lead story of our two competitors.

"'Take that (industrial language) and throw it in the bin,' he said, before getting up and dragging his chair back to his office. It was one of the few times in my seven years under him, that I saw him angry and it was one of those things you could either take in the chest or let break you."

Nanton said, "Here I am 28 years later, gratefully looking back to that day, when John Babb began making a journalist out of me."