From now on, the Beacon’s coverage of BVI Airways will be strictly positive, Editor Freeman Rogers promised yesterday.
The announcement was part of the newspaper’s desperate attempt to convince the government-subsidised airline to stop excluding the Beacon from its press releases and public events.
“A few months ago we published an article that included criticisms of BVIA, and we’re really, really sorry,” Mr. Rogers said in an exclusive interview as genuine tears of regret slid down his cheeks. “Since then, we’ve come to realise that our readers want to read only glowing puff pieces about how the airline plans to start flights ‘soon.’”
By all accounts, the Beacon was slow in coming to this realisation.
In March the newspaper published an in-depth report that questioned why the airline hadn’t launched in October as scheduled despite receiving more than $7 million of taxpayers’ money.
Shortly thereafter, a Beacon reporter was turned away from BVIA’s public open house at the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport even as other journalists were allowed to attend.
“Unfortunately — and it pains me to say this — we did not learn our lesson at the time,” Mr. Rogers explained. “We thought that being barred from the event must have been a mistake by the airline’s hardworking public relations team.”
Misguided
Thus, the newspaper continued reporting information from various sources in order to counterbalance the airline’s optimistic narrative, which was put forward mainly in ambiguous press releases full of vague promises.
Last week, however, reporters learned that the Beacon had been removed from BVIA’s mailing list.
“This was a devastating blow for us, and the newsroom panicked,” Mr. Rogers said. “Our readers are of course much more interested in reading BVIA’s latest spin than in learning about a realistic timeline for direct flights to Miami — and they certainly don’t care about how their $7 million was spent.”
Unfortunately for the newspaper’s bottom line, advertisers felt similarly.
“We’ve lost several ads over this, and now we’re in danger of going out of business entirely,” Mr. Rogers complained. “No one wants to be associated with a news outlet that is excluded from BVIA events and announcements.”
In a last-ditch effort to save itself from financial ruin, the newspaper is apologising profusely to BVI Airways and begging to be forgiven for its indiscretions.
“If they’ll only add us back to their mailing list, the Beacon will publish their press releases on every page of our newspaper if necessary,” Mr. Rogers said.
No negativity
He added that the Beacon will also refrain from publishing any more news that the airline might regard as “even slightly negative.”
“For example, we definitely won’t mention ever again in print that three BVIA officials were previously associated with Baltia Airlines, a New York-based company that hasn’t flown in nearly 30 years in spite of accepting millions from investors,” Mr. Rogers said. “Nor will we repeat the fact that a LinkedIn profile for one of those officials was removed from the internet the day after our reporter questioned apparently contradictory information provided by his publicist.”
The Beacon will also ignore any remarks made by BVIA critics such as Opposition Leader Andrew Fahie and competing airlines.
“We understand now that such voices have no place in good journalism,” Mr. Rogers said. “We were wrong to include them in the first place.”
Additionally, the newspaper plans to refrain from pointing out that BVIA’s ambiguous press releases often seem designed to create the appearance of progress without providing substantive updates.
“Instead of noting such points, we’ll simply print BVIA announcements verbatim without questioning their contents,” Mr. Rogers pledged. “We’ve learned that it is not our place to ask questions: It is our place to advertise BVIA and to vigorously support its investors and the elected leaders who turned over $7 million of taxpayer money.”
Fingers crossed
BVIA officials haven’t publicly accepted the Beacon’s apology or disclosed whether the newspaper will receive future press releases, but Mr. Rogers said he and his staff are ever hopeful.
“We’ve got our fingers crossed,” he said, “and in the meantime, we’re looking forward to bringing you news of BVIA’s many amazing successes!”
Disclaimer: Dateline: Paradise is a column and occasionally contains satirical “news” articles that are entirely fictional.
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