amount of criticism when he warned Premier Jennifer Smith of the perils of ignoring the media.

In a speech, he cited a number of people who had chosen to fight the media, and The Royal Gazette in particular, and had ended up damaging their own careers. This part of his speech was taken by many to mean "if you disagree with us, we will destroy you''.

Mr. White has already defended himself and it is not this newspaper's job to do it for him.

But his point, which was also made eloquently by Meredith Ebbin last week in The Bermuda Sun, was not that the media will take revenge on people who ignore it, but that without the media, it is very difficult to get a message out and in the long run, that can do an individual more damage than good.

In the last few days, there has been a good example of how poor communication between the Press and public figures can damage both, with the ultimate loser being the public.

On Friday, The Royal Gazette reported that the owner of the Elbow Beach Hotel had said he would close his hotel unless the general manager was given a new work permit.

We also reported that an emergency Cabinet meeting was held to resolve the dispute and the work permit was granted, a development which we described as a climbdown by Government.

This story was based on information from reliable sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox, Premier Jennifer Smith and Tourism Minister David Allen chose not to respond to phone calls, despite the obvious national importance of the story.

Around noon on Saturday, Ms Cox -- who, to her credit, has traditionally been very accessible to the Press -- faxed a statement to the media which said Mr.

Shoaf's work permit had been renewed but two other work permits had been refused because qualified Bermudians had applied for the jobs.

She denied there had been any kind of "backdown'', although she described the hotel's actions as "unconscionable'' and said there were "some matters which needed to be addressed''.

Efforts to reach her the next day were unsuccessful, even after an Opposition MP had accused the Government of committing "business suicide''.

On Monday, we learned that the hotel's human resources director, Robert Calderon, who is also a member of the Immigration Board, had resigned. We reported that we understood that this had been a condition imposed by the hotel's owners. And we also reported that a source close to the talks had said intervention by Derrick Burgess and Mr. Allen had kept the hotel open -- after a "confrontation'' with Ms Cox. Once again, Ms Cox did not return repeated phone calls.

On Tuesday, Mr. Allen and Ms Cox held a press conference in which they denied there had been a confrontation and said some of the reporting had been "out of fantasyland''.

Ms Cox also denied that Mr. Calderon had been forced out, saying his name had never been mentioned in the talks with the hotel's owners.

So here is what is known: The Home Affairs Ministry was unwilling to grant Mr.

Shoaf a new work permit. Elbow Beach's owners said they would close the hotel.

Mr. Allen and Mr. Burgess, who was meeting with workers at the hotel, believed it should stay open and their point of view was agreed to by Cabinet, which granted a work permit for six months along with some conditions.

It seems clear there was no confrontation as such between Messrs Allen and Burgess and Ms Cox and we erred in describing it in that way, although it seems there were, naturally, different points of view about a very difficult situation.

Ms Cox says we were wrong in stating that Mr. Calderon's departure was a result of the talks. But it seems highly coincidental that he should resign on the same weekend.

Nonetheless, no-one has denied the main thrust of the story, which in the absence of any comments from Government officials, was reported on using sources. Now the Government wants to kill the messenger.

Better communication from the start would have enabled the Government to get its point of view across from the start.