Some time ago I suggested in this newspaper that the Sunday Herald had given up all pretence at being a credible newspaper and was a tool of the People’s National Party (PNP).

If anyone still had any doubt, all they need do is look at Sunday’s paper with the sensational headline “Sweetheart tax proposal – Vaz negotiates generous agreement with tax department”.

Firstly, the Herald should be the very last one to be writing about other people and their tax problems. The Herald having owed so many millions in unpaid taxes, has lost the moral right to be expressing angst, as it did in its related editorial. It has no credibility because all it is doing is campaigning to justify its own situation and hoping to use journalism to get away from living up to its national obligations.

We are all aware that nearly every criminal pleads innocent, sometimes even after the incontrovertible evidence of their guilt is staring all and sundry in the face. Only the evidence can prove this innocence or guilt. The Herald cannot plead its own case. Being a newspaper does not give it any more right than anyone else to flout the tax laws.

Secondly, it is unethical to use a minister, albeit of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as cannon fodder, in pursuit of the Herald’s own case. Here again, I’m amazed that the media fraternity allows the newspaper to get away with this terrible practice. Does The Gleaner not know that it bears some responsibility for what is in the Herald, because it is the printer, though not the owner, of the paper?

Thirdly, the Herald does not say that Mr Daryl Vaz received a “sweetheart deal”. It says there is a “proposal”. Somehow a proposal is reported as a fact that the minister has received a sweetheart deal, which is in itself a suggestion of corruption. This again is unfair journalism.

Fourthly, the Herald knows that the Tax Administration Department maintains a policy of confidentiality when dealing with its clients. The department is therefore hard-pressed to respond in any detailed way to the allegations. Mr Vaz will be deemed to be guilty without a trial or even an explanation.

The Herald should be more careful. One day, the PNP people who are feeding them information from their key positions in the civil service, will make a serious mistake. If the Herald cannot pay its taxes, how much worse off will they be when more libel suits reach them?