Press sec denies using journalist position to get govt job
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Press Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Clint Watson yesterday defended the government’s appointments and hiring of numerous veteran journalists and media personalities from various media organizations in the country.
He suggested those individuals made personal choices in the “best interest of their careers and their next level”.
I find it insulting that people would assume that they’re being gutted when these professionals have to make decisions for their career lives, their goals.
– Press Secretary Clint Watson
“Those who have come to work in the services of the government, I regard them all as professional people — highly qualified, highly skilled,” Watsons said.
“I find it insulting that people would assume that they’re being gutted when these professionals have to make decisions for their career lives, their goals.
“I find it insulting that we would think that they’re being fished from somewhere, rather than they are making decisions that they believe are in the best interest of their careers and their next level.
“…I think we do a disservice to our people when we insult the intelligence of our people to think that they’re being swayed or motivated by some underlying factor, rather than the fact that people make decisions for their life and their best interest, and they look for the opportunities to expand.”
Wendall Jones, the new ambassador to the United States; Nahaja Black; and Kyle Walkine were among the recent slate of well-known journalists to accept government-appointed positions.
Jones of Jones Communications previously hosted “Issues of the Day”.
Black hosted the popular radio talk show “Da Hit Back with Nahaja Black”.
Walkine was formerly a broadcaster and anchor for Cable Bahamas’ Our News.
But there are many more who have since joined the OPM, including broadcast journalists, videographers, graphic artists and editors from established media houses, as the OPM expands its communications arm.
Watson, who stepped down as director of Eyewitness News shortly after the September 16, 2021, general election to assume the role of press secretary for the government, said he made the move because he got tired of just telling the stories of the disenfranchised and wanted to become a part of the change.
He said it was disingenuous for some people to label his work as a journalist as an agenda to get a government job.
“That’s absolutely not true and I am grateful that my legacy can’t be erased by somebody’s pen,” he said.
He added: “When this opportunity came, I made a commitment that I would use the opportunity to help the Bahamian people; to be able to provide answers for them that they could not get answers to.
“I cannot tell you, because we don’t talk about it every day here, the amount of people every day that I spend taking their phone calls and they say: ‘Mr Watson, I can’t get this done; Mr Watson, I tried getting this service done, it didn’t happen.’
“My team and I, we find solutions and get people’s [problems] solved, get the answers to their problems and they walk away feeling happier.”
