Vexed Bermoothes

The Bermuda Government has hired a TV correspondent from a San Francisco Fox affiliate to head the snoring CITV mouthpiece (which seems to be trying on a new branding as BermudaVision these days).

What’s interesting is her job description:

Renee Kemp has left KTVU-TV, in San Francisco, California, announced the station, to become general manager at CITV, where she will oversee operations, host her own talk show and report on local news.

This sounds like CITV aims to compete with the private television stations (aka taxpayers) across the broad spectrum of programming rather than to focus on “public information” as originally promised:

CITV’s mission is to serve Bermudians, keeping them informed about their government and programs which exist to benefit them. To inspire pride in Bermudian culture, history and identity and to encourage Bermudians to vote and participate in their government.

I’d imagine luring an Emmy-winning TV reporter from the west coast must be costing a pretty penny – on top of the paid mentoring from WQED in Pittsburgh.  (Why not hire a Bermudian?)

Only politics make this make sense; the desire to have a controlled news channel to counter the criticism that arises in the Free Press.  The 2009 budget for CITV should be interesting.