To the left of the photo was a smaller one-column article entitled 'A Cadillac for the PM'. The photo accompanied a story headed 'Policeman slain by gunman'. A typical Gleaner front page would include a four-column photograph of a blood-spattered policeman. Gruesome stories of murder and terror were featured prominently in the Daily Gleaner alongside pictures of Manley or his ministers illustrating another article.
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Recalling revelations of the CIA's use of El Mercurio to create an atmosphere of fear and instability in Chile prior to the 1973 overthrow of Salvador Allende's government, critics looked at the Gleaner's tactics.Īt the invitation of the Press Association of Jamaica, analyst Fred Landis of the Washington-based Cover Action Information Bulletin pieced together a series of startling parallels with El Mercurio. It was the 'systematic' aspect of the Gleaner's barrage that began to rouse suspicions among Manley supporters and those to his left. For myself, my one intention is to get this man Manley out of office by any means at hand.' Columnist John Hearne, one of the most vociferous Manley detractors, told Kopkind: 'It would be idle to pretend that there has not been a systematic attack on the government by the Gleaner. In last October's election the Gleaner pulled out all the stops to protect those two pillars of Jamaica's middle and upper class.
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Publisher Clarke told New York Village Voice reporter Andrew Kopkind, 'the business community here feels it is under siege from the government and it looks to the Gleaner to be its advocate for free enterprise and a Western style of life'. The award boosted the paper's public image and self-esteem just as it was preparing for a full-fledged attack on Manley's administration. The IAPA is also linked to the Cabot Prize Committee which awarded the Gleaner a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism special citation of merit in 1979. Gleaner publisher Oliver Clarke has been an active member of the US-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) for years. In fact, the newspaper's views and interpretations of events in Jamaica are accepted without question by major North American and British journals. It is considered to be the voice of Jamaica - a 145 year old cultural institution whose reach is so wide and authority so ingrained that travelling Jamaicans sometimes ask for a New York or Toronto 'gleaner'.ĭeserved or not, the Gleaner also has status outside the country. Except in the island's highly charged political atmosphere the Daily Gleaner is not just another newspaper. Politicians change their stripes and newspapers change their minds. Within a few short years of Manley's 1972 election the newspaper's highly-skilled columnists were taking daily potshots at the government's policies. His solution was democratic socialism: more state run businesses, better prices for basic commodity exports like sugar, bauxite and bananas, land reform and co-operation with other Third World countries demanding a New International Economic Order.įor the Gleaner the Prime Minister's volteface was tantamount to handing the country over to communism. For Manley the world-wide recession threw Jamaica's economic problems into bold relief. However, Manley's entente cordial with the pro-free enterprise Gleaner soon fell apart as the pellmell growth of the 1960s gave way to global economic gloom in the 1970s. Only eight years earlier the Gleaner's support helped vault Manley's People's National Party into office after a decade of rule by the Jamaica Labour Party.
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