Hurst was never ‘banned’ from Observer – Serpent

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While the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst has been removed from a weekly prime-time Observer Radio slot, he has not been “banned” from the station’s airwaves.

That’s the word from Observer boss Algernon ‘Serpent’ Watts who told yesterday’s ‘Connecting with Dave Lester Payne’ show that the ABLP stalwart was “free to call in and contribute like everyone else”.

Controversy erupted over the weekend after Watts told his Saturday afternoon radio show that he was fed up with Hurst’s “lies” during the Chief of Staff’s long-standing Monday morning interview on the Observer AM show.

“I’ve had enough of him, he nah come back here,” said Watts, who is running for the opposition UPP party as a candidate in the next general election.

His comment was promptly picked up by another local media house which ran the audio clip under the headline ‘Max Hurst banned from Observer Radio’.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne was quick to retort that Hurst was the ruling ABLP party’s designated spokesman, and that it was not for Observer to decide who was “carrying the Labour Party message”.

“Max is the Chief of Staff, he sits in the Cabinet, he’s au fait with our issues. If they ban Max, they are banning the Labour Party,” Browne said.

The furore also prompted a number of ABLP ministers to declare their intention to shun all of Observer’s platforms and its reporters in protest.

However, Watts said on Monday that his comments had been taken out of context.

“Max is free to call in and contribute like everyone else. He had a prime-time slot on Observer where he comes and spreads his manure. And I just said ‘enough of that’,” Watts, the company’s managing director and ‘Snakepit’ show host, said.

“It wasn’t even a solo decision,” Watts continued, adding that if Cabinet ministers wanted to boycott Observer it would be to “their detriment, not ours”.

“We have without question the largest listenership,” he said.

“Observer will survive. Observer has survived your constant daily attacks, your sabotage. We survive everything you throw at us.

“And we will survive by the grace of God and the good people out there who are willing to stand and fight with us,” Watts pledged.

He added that, despite his bid for the St George constituency, he had “never intervened” editorially with Observer’s news team or its show hosts. — OBSERVER Newsco

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16 COMMENTS

  1. SERPENT is a DAMN LYAD. Play the clip. That is why We shall kick Serpent Ass to the curb in St. George. Serpent and Franz will cut off anyone from ABLP. I heard FRANZ cut off Tanny ROSE last week. LYAD SERPENT.

  2. After ANR broke the story, the snake is now backpeddling! What a wimp and crybaby. This is what happens when you dont take the advice of your former editor and do the right thing.

    “Immediately, a clear and concise statement from Serpent indicating he is an owner and programme host, but he will be REMVED FROM PROGRAMMING AND NEWSROOM DECISIONS, and BE SEEN TO BE REMOVED from these programming decisions, should happen. And then he should let his word be his bond.

    “The Daily Observer itself needs an editorial statement and they need to RECOMMIT TO FAIR AND BALANCED NEWS PROCESS and they need to be seen to be doing that REGARDLESS OF WHERE THE OWNER SITS and what their editorial i.e. their opinion is,” Brann added.

    https://antiguanewsroom.com/video-serpent-unleashed/

    The snake cannot take the heat and nothing even start yet. He suddenly has a problem with Max Hurst now that he is running on the UPP ticket.

  3. Observer is so “independent” that they did NOT carry the news story of Algernon Watts and his *26 ACRES* of farmland. If it was a candidate from another party, it would have been carried in both paper and radio news. It would have been discussed on the Big Issues. Kieran Murdoch are you being muzzled too? Why didnt you invite your panel of “experts” to discuss this issue that made headlines that week? If it was the PM having the land in such a state, boy we would not have heard the end of it.

    And you have the nerve to proclaim yourself as the “ONLY INDEPENDENT MEDIA” in Antigua?

    https://antiguanewsroom.com/marshall-says-serpent-is-a-shame-to-the-farming-community-with-26-acres-of-abandoned-farm-land/

    so shameful and embarassing that not even Charles Tabor could try to spin and defend the snake. oh the HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!

  4. LIAR LIAR pants on fire fire

    Serpent is giving KING LYADD LOVELL LIMPY JOE a run for his money.

    Same way he lied about saying that the housing allowance is for a specific house only.

    “Aya yai aya yai we ketch dem a lie”

    Wilmoth Daniel knew what he was saying when he made those remarks about you on radio: “I have never met a more…..”

  5. Listened to the audio and serpent banned him. “HE NAR KOOM BACK YA”

    “AND THATS WHY HE NAR KOOM BACK YA. HAD ENUFF OF HIM. HAD ENUFF OF HIM. HAD ENUFF OF HIM. HE NAR KOOM BACK YAH, HAD ENUFF OF HIM. SPENCE ME NAH HAB DEM FANCY WORDS…HE A WAN LIAR. HE A WAN LIAR, FRANZ FOOD ARFTANOON. HAD ENUFF OF HIM. I´VE BEEN PATIENT, EXTREMELY PATIENT AND TOLERANT OVER THE YEARS RIGHT? THERE COMES A TIME, SPENCE ME MIGHT BE SLOW TO ACT BUT WHEN ME ACT, ME DECISIVE. YOU SEE? MANY TIME PEOPLE A SAY “SPERPENT YOU SHOULD..AND SERPENT” AND ME JUS IGNORE DEM, ME IGNORE DEM, ME IGNORE THEM, JUS LET IT SLIDE. AND LET THE PEOPLE TALK – YOU HAVE YOUR SAY, THEY HAVE THEIR SAY. YOU HAVE NO MORE SAY, YOU HAVE NO MORE SAY. DONE!”

  6. F**K Newsco.

    Let them report third-hand.

    One radio station done ruin. Some assholes are doing a good job at ruining another.

    A nuff Max Hurst and the A.B.L.P. nuff.

    Tek dat in are you nen nen A.B.L.P.

    • Beef you are such an ass, why don’t you go back and spread your manure on rumshop radio. They will soon kick your ass off their station again if you step out of line and stop drinking the Coolaid, as they did during the CCJ saga.
      Anyway don’t expect anything better from Dods Joseph pickny.

    • @ BEEF

      Beef is correct. SERPENT and DAVE LESTER PAYNE behave like They control the MEDIA in Antigua. ABLP should pull all commercials and let OBSERVER announce third class news. OBSERVER AWFUL RADIO STATION.

    • BEEF I cannot believe that comment is coming from you a proclaimed Adventist and practicing Christian. Why doesn’t the government use ABS, the national radio station, in the way it is supposed to be used? All government reports and pronouncements should first be aired on the national station. Since the government has not be following that policy (which is the correct one), Gaston Browne can have Max Hurst present the cabinet notes on Pointe FM.

      • way to deflect. Will the same Observer dare to celebrate World Press Freedom Day this year? Imagine a UPP candidate can’t deal with a spokesperson from an opposing party being interviewed on the media. “Let There Be Light” eh? For YEARSSSSSSSSS Max has been interviewed by DMW and there was no issue, but now that UPP runner, Algernon “Managing Director” Watts is hoping to contest the general elections, he is allowing his political bias to cloud his judgement.

        Btw you are yet to comment on his *26 ACRES* of farmland. Why so quiet on that particular topic?

  7. Ban the deceptive Serpant

    Ban he from the 26 acres
    Ban he from FARMING fool
    Ban he from governing this country

  8. From a distance, my Antigua is looking like many countries described as corrupt, and without much governance, steeped in political tribalism and where undrinkable water is running through the domestic pipes of the people, illustrated recently on a feed I read less than three weeks ago.

    We now have a serious case of freedom of speech being tampered with and which will put the country under the status of censorship under the spotlight. If not challenged, this will escalate into more serious forms of governance under the opposition party, should they win the next election.

    “No man is an island” was penned by John Donne, and could not be be appropriate at this time.

  9. @POPS,you say: The ABLP should pull all Commercials from Observer. What Commercials do they have on Observer Radio? If those Statutory Organizations have Commercials on Observer Radio. It is not the Labor Party’s Money. Those monies belong to the People,not Gaston Browne,his Minions and Moon Bats.I for one would not missed Linohel and those lying dry mouthed,twisted lips,Cabinet Notes from him and Melford.You all did not and still do make any contributions to Observer.
    BEEF JOSEPH,ONCE YOU DID WORK FOR OBSERVER.BACK THEN WHEN PERSONS CALLED INTO VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.YOU KNEW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THE LABOR PARTY AND GASTON BROWNE.THEN YOU LEFT OBSERVER AND ACCIDENTALLY,FELL IN THE ARMS OF THE LABOR PARTY OF GASTON BROWNE.YOU ARE A SPINE-LESS,BALLS-LESS MAN OF STRAW.

Comments are closed.