Reminiscing legendary journalists of yesteryear
 Many
inimitable icons with uncanny news gathering skills came to mind reading
Premil Ratnayake’s recent recap of Lake House days gone by. Those
sleuths hunted like a bunch of voluptuous thoroughbreds hounding for
that story to tell. Their deadline fever was contagious. Few legends
flashed across memory lane: Clarence Fernando, Lionel Fernando and
Harold Peiris. They excelled rising above the humdrum with consummate
ease.
Clarence and Lionel were veteran newsmakers who pounded the beat as
no one else’s business, while Harold was a seasoned newsman waiting for
the story to break and pounced on it like a starved hyena. To the
anxious “ground troopers”, their voices were filling and reassuring, the
communications equivalent of fried potatoes and liver served at the
Press Club of yore by the master chef Simeon at the water-hole.
The trio often spoke to their regiments in the stick-to-the-ribs,
common sense argot of the hard-nosed master performers. They had become
fiercely competitive even if they originally hailed from more sober
climes of Mutwal, far away suburban Panadura or the Maha Nuga Gardens.
They got transplanted to some rare media oasis called Lake House. The
snappish instructions to the news staff were clear cut and still seemed
to reverberate: “a female hospital orderly had jumped off the
secretariat building. A politician was involved. You have a scoop there,
get it now.”
 |
 |
|
While the
news hounds were the key faces of a newspaper, others
contributed immensely to the depth of their contents. |
Everyone was on their toes chasing that scoop. Beneath the civil
exchange of greetings lied the scandal-ridden happenings awaiting
exposure. One hour later, the stop press order had been given as the
sub-editor rushed the copy for a lead story. Another time we were
rushing to work late and witnessed a crowd of protestors march towards
Parliament. The police barged in a battalion. Shots were heard. A bullet
ricocheted felling a monk instantaneously. There was pandemonium
everywhere.
As the new sleuths worked on it, the narrative became crisp and rich
in detail and received banner headlines in the evening Observer in time
for the office crowds leaving for home. The Observer was passed around
from seat to seat inside Parliament as MPs vied to get a glimpse of the
story.
Headlines to remember
The headlines that rolled out of the press were memorable. Once,
Clarence phoned in the outcome of Indo-Lanka talks from New Delhi, more
revealing than what the participants thought they knew: “India agrees to
take in 500,000 stateless people” Harry checked and treble checked the
story until it got fried like a piece of chicken in a heavily greased
pan. The famous Sirimavo-Indira summit in Colombo held behind closed
doors was scooped by the Daily News, a piece of superlative reporting.
And now they’re gone. Lionel, Clarence, and Harold, or-maybe you’d
want to throw in the names of Mervyn de Silva, B. J. B. (Bonnie)
Fernando and Ajith Samaranayake into the pot as well. Mervyn was the
suave news-features guru and the doyen of newspaper columnists, while
Bonnie was the news -eyed hawk who commanded respect for rare new
analysis penned with consummate skill. Ajith wrote some of the most
brilliant political prose in recent memory. Stalwarts like legendary D.
B. Dhanapala, Fred Silva, and Reggie Michael from the Times Group of
Newspapers - pardon my going outside to the other side-also kept
everyone geared up for the competition.
Clarence never lost the folksiness of his Mutwal surroundings and
Lionel always chased the story come rain or shine, workmanlike to his
finger tips. Harold never let even a semblence of a news hunch go waste.
Their association with a particular level of excellence gave them
access to a loyal built-in audience in a way that was very different
from the fleeting intimacy garnered by the free-floating,
everywhere-but-nowhere divas. They had a kind of a franchise on the
business.
They seemed peerless. Watching them at close range was a truly
exhilarating experience.
With the advent of the internet and today’s media culture of churn,
headlines disappeared every few hours and news gathering techniques
became more intense and stories vanished for good overnight. Celebrity
turnover swelled during the past few decades. We can hardly keep track
of their rise and fall. Authority figures took longer to build then.
While the news hounds were the key faces of a newspaper, others
contributed immensely to the depth of their contents. The features
staff, editorial writers, copywriters and the backroom boys, the
indispensible sub-editors occupied a special place in any newspaper of
repute. They provided variety and charm, and often the critical aspect
to journalism adding to the readability of a newspaper. Many skilled
professionals adorned the features desks, such as Vijitha Fernando,
Mallika Wanigasundera, Emmanual Candappa, Nihal Ratnaike, and Neville
Weeraratna, who were some of the best features wizards.
Among the sub editors, some of them legendary, many names came to
mind: Willie Silva, Soujah, Thawfeek, Vanderstraten, “Gompa” Gunatilake,
Clarence Perera, Yogarani Thevadasan, Dennis Fernando and Anton
Weerasinghe, just to name a few.
The sports writers and newsmen were another special breed. Some of
them had encyclopedic knowledge about the sports genre they came to
write about. Among the unforgettable were Christie Seneviratne, Carlton
Seneviratne, Vijitha Amarasinghe, T M K Samat, Gem Garnier, Eustace
Rulach and A C de Silva once again, just a few that came to mind.
Geniuses with cameras
This article would not be complete without writing about a group of
people who went about their business with marked professionalism. I am
referring to the staff photographers who had an equally daunting task
like their counterparts, the news hawks, to bring the news to the people
every day. They were the geniuses with cameras hanging from their necks.
To my batch of journalists who joined Lake House in the early
sixties, nothing was more welcoming than to meet the photographers like
Rienzie Wijeratne, W. Piyadasa, Hector Weeraratne, Neil Moses, Wally
Perera, Chandra Weerawardene, and L. E. Samararatne - the only one still
standing, again the few that came to mind immediately. As a rule they
had only a few fleeting moments to capture the passing scene and then
rush back to office and the dark room.
The photographers gave flesh and blood to a skeleton tirelessly
structured by the news staff.
We never had a dull moment due to the presence of these work horses.
They were often the co-pilots during the errands in search of news,
carrying all the necessary supplies, including the “good ole stuff, they
liked most, in the vehicle.
Photographers were constantly sought by politicians, who knew what a
photograph in the front page of the Daily News would do for them.
It is most appropriate that I end the article with a short reference
one of the stalwarts among photographers, Rienzie.
He moved with dignity among VIPs-prime ministers, heads of state and
the people of all walks of life. I had the good fortune like many of my
colleagues to befriend Rienzie the very first week I joined Lake House.
He never lost his common touch and remained approachable at all
times.
|
