Not to be outdone by Oprah Winfrey’s launch of her eponymous network, OWN, Prime Minister Christie has so captivated the ZNS Evening News that it might be rebranded, the Christie News Network or CNN.
Ad nauseum, week after week, Christie is featured, story after story. Some have taken to betting on the number of reports that will showcase the Prime Minister: two, three, four?
To boost ratings, Oprah is prominently featured on OWN. Perhaps Christie’s mandarins decided to further capitalize on his razzle-dazzle celebrity; in this instance, to jazz-up the evening news. As Bahamians are mesmerized by his every utterance, ZNS may consider a nightly commentary by him on the weather.
After Basil Dean’s forecast, Christie might comment on whether we may expect: fair to mild, partly cloudy or thunderstorms. Given Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the country’s long-term outlook from stable to negative, the finance minister’s thoughts would be welcome on the inclement weather relative of public finances.
The strategy at the Christie News Network is, “Show Me Your Motion”, recording Christie in constant motion, in contrast to his previous term. At play is the illusion that public relations equals substance.
Rewind
Let’s rewind to May 7, to the genesis of what has quickly become an imperial prime ministership, a sequel titled: “Christie 2.0.” In Christie’s imagining he is an underestimated conquering hero who vanquished Hubert Ingraham. Of course, the story doesn’t fully go so.
The PLP failed to win a majority of the popular vote, winning in spite of Christie, an acceptable enough face whose poster-image as party leader was not widely displayed as is customary. The FNM lost for various reasons. Christie is not atop that list of reasons.
Still, he should savor the victory. But victory not tempered turns to self-aggrandizement, smugness and strutting. If the rarefied atmosphere of the Cabinet room swells the heads and balloons the egos of many a minister, imagine the more intoxicating trappings of the Office of the Prime Minister.
Many are dissatisfied with what feels like a rerun of Christie’s previous term. There is gobbledygook and doublespeak. There is also Christie-speak: The practice of repeating the obvious in as many words as possible, and speaking at length though saying little that is substantive.
Consider this gem and verbal labyrinth typical of the prime minister:
“Another reason why I am optimistic is there is every reason to believe that as we speak, meet, talk and discuss and continue to do those things we are becoming increasingly encouraged by the reality, that there are people in the world who see The Bahamas as a significant place to invest and that our job is to find them and ensure that the development is compatible with the best interests of The Bahamas and to release them to be able to do that work and as a result of that, create employment.”
The prime minister fancies himself as an orator, “an eloquent and skilled public speaker”. But talking is no more oration than karaoke is professional singing. There are child prodigies in music. There are no such child prodigies in writing and oratory because these necessitate reading, reflection and considerable practice.
Talker
Over the decades, Christie has proven more a talker than an orator. He did not lack the potential for the latter. Yet, he failed to invest the time, and hone the skills required of an accomplished speaker.
Genuine orators prepare diligently, eschewing the impromptu, typically favored by Christie. One imagines that early in his political career he plucked from a dictionary a jumble of words that he carries in his pocket. At the podium, he grabs some of them from his pocket and throws them onto the lectern.
His listeners then endure a sort of one-man scrabble game as he furiously strings together as many words as possible in an attempt to score as many points as possible: “Another reason why I am optimistic is there is every reason to believe that as we speak, meet, talk and discuss”.
The ramshackle result is a monotony of clichés, platitudes and shop-worn stories. Orators from Demosthenes to Frederick Douglass assiduously prepared for their audiences. Bewilderingly, Christie’s conceit is his belief that despite scant or no preparation he can dazzle his audiences. Recall W. C. Fields’ witticism: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance”.
Orators employ modulation and pitch, which typically elude Christie, who bargains that an exaggerated, high-pitched and overly dramatic performance, no matter the occasion, makes for great oratory. It doesn’t.
Mute the sound as he speaks. Just watch. One might conclude that Christie is rehearsing a highly-charged soliloquy from a Shakespearean tragedy such as Macbeth or Hamlet. During and after he speaks, he seems possessed by his cleverness, scanning the audience with ersatz passion, self-congratulation and satisfaction.
For Christie’s listeners, most of his remarks are like fleeting dreams. One may hear what he says in the moment and experience certain emotions. But these quickly fade. His words evaporate because they are typically forgettable boilerplate, unwritten ramblings, instead of well-prepared remarks or texts. So vague and content-free are most of his remarks, that soon thereafter many are left wondering what he said.
Bond
Speeches constitute a bond between citizens and their representatives. When well-crafted, they demonstrate discernment of vision, deliberation of policy, and the discipline of good governance.
Words matter, launching wars and codifying peace. Sticks and stones which break one’s bones are enlisted into battle by words that cause more than hurt. Serious leaders take the art and discipline of speech-making seriously.
Disappointingly, Prime Minister Christie mostly treats his audiences with benign contempt, often delivering glib remarks lacking in seriousness of purpose and thought. Yet, on matters like campaign finance, oil exploration, a national lottery, et al, our garrulous head of government is evasive, lost for words. He does not educate or inspire his audiences. Instead he panders and equivocates.
While Christie’s kitchen cabinet and minders may get him to more appointments on time, there are responsibilities they cannot fulfil. Routinely, after leaving the Oval Office, and following dinner with his family, Barack Obama spends several hours in his office in the private residence at the White House.
There, after packed days, he studies various briefs, delves into policy options, and weighs the ideas and words that will give voice to his presidency. The Bahamian prime minister has a similar obligation of discernment and communication. A leader who fails to grow intellectually through reading and study is like a doctor who fails to remain current in his or her specialty.
Continuously disappointed by his hackneyed routine, many are hoping for greater substance from Christie. He would be unwise to conclude that it is only opposition supporters piqued by the direction of the ZNS evening news.
Even PLPs and nonaligned voters who recently voted PLP are frustrated by a public station broadcast now more dedicated to a single personality than to serving as the people’s station. After all, there is only one Oprah.
Finding the gusher of ZNS evening news reports on Christie’s speechifying, tedious and at times farcical, and enjoying alternative news sources, viewers are tuning him out. There is more bad news for Christie: Many are simply bored by his rhetorical shtick, a terrible fate for any performer or network.
By: Simon
Author of the Front Porch column
in the Nassau Guardian
