NO one can convince me that the Sunday Herald is not on its last gasp. I say this reluctantly, because I have the great fortune of being able to get published occasionally by a solid newspaper. The saying is ‘today for me, tomorrow for you’.

But then again, I wouldn’t be me if I did not state the things as I see it. Things have got progressively worse for the Sunday Herald, beginning with the departure of some of the outstanding journalists who had shares in it. I am talking about people like Mr Cliff Hughes and Mr Franklin McKnight.

The next sign was the decision of the tax authorities to claim from that newspaper what rightfully belongs to the people of Jamaica, even though they, irresponsibly and conveniently I might say, made it out to be an attack against press freedom.

The clearest sign to date of the continuing fall of the Sunday Herald is the decision of its new People’s National Party (PNP) owners, headed by chairman, Rev Garnett Roper, to have the once-hated Gleaner Company publish the paper for them. That is the greatest insult, to throw yourself on the mercy of your competitor. It shows the level of desperation that you have reached.

These days, the Sunday Herald has taken to publishing only articles in favour of the PNP. Obviously, the PNP still has its cronies in key areas of government and they feed confidential information to the Sunday Herald, which they then carry in a sensational manner. From my reading of it, they don’t even try to be fair to the parties they implicate. They are not pretending any longer to be a real newspaper.

Take for example their recent story about Daryl Vaz’s ex-partner being investigated. The article had nothing to do with Mr Vaz, yet his name was big in the headline. This unfair practice was followed by The Gleaner using Mr Andrew Holness’ name in their sensational story about his wife.

I hope that The Gleaner is not being corrupted by the bad practices of the Sunday Herald. If anything, it should be the opposite where The Gleaner influences the Sunday Herald to do better. At least The Gleaner apologised. The Herald has not yet had the decency to do so.

Another example is the story about politicians buying overseas properties. They only mentioned JLP ministers without saying if any PNP politicians had bought overseas properties. The readers were left with the impression that there was something untoward in that but no evidence of wrongdoing was presented.

Even more recently, the newspaper, in one of its disgracefully pro-PNP editorials, criticised Jampro for not pulling in great volumes of investment as promised when the new board was announced.

Yet the misguided editorial writer did not find it necessary to state where this investment is to come from in this time of international economic recession.

When the tax authorities call in for unpaid taxes, the Sunday Herald wants us to believe that it owed taxes because of the difficult economic situation. When the Jampro board was announced, the recession had not yet hit the world. Since then, every country, maybe with the exception of China, Brazil, Russia and India, has suffered greatly.

Most of our investors come from the United States, which has been one of the worst hit. The Herald must know this, but it cannot help itself. It needs to carry out the wishes of its PNP masters. He who owns the piper, calls the tune.