It's the oldest trick in the book.

If you don't like what you're hearing, shoot the messenger.

That is what occurred in the House of Assembly on Friday when Government MPs criticised the media for the round of bad news it has been getting lately.

The fact that the Government may have some responsibility for the bad news is irrelevant. It's the media's fault for publicising it.

And after politicians criticise the media for the stories it covers, they ask the question of all governing parties everywhere ? why don't you cover the good, positive news?

This ignores the fact that the media in Bermuda does cover positive news. And it ignores the fact that media has a watchdog role in a democratic society to uncover wrongdoing, to hold the Island's leaders accountable for their actions and to ensure that the public's money is well spent.

There's nothing new in this. When the United Bermuda Party was in power, it made the same complaints ? ad nauseam.

And the same complaints come from political professionals everywhere ? former journalist and Tony Blair spin doctor Alastair Campbell has made a virtual cottage industry out of it since leaving Number Ten Downing Street last year.

The real question is whether the complaints have any validity. On Friday, Works Minister Ashfield DeVent spoke at length about a story which mangled a press release on GP cars. Mr. DeVent seemed to see a conspiracy in the story. There wasn't. The story was wrong, which this newspaper has acknowledged in today's newspaper.

Newspapers make mistakes ? and they admit them. Too often, politicians don't, preferring to attack the messenger instead.

Education Minister Terry Lister also criticised the Bermuda Sun for its "obsession" with Abdullah Ahad, the Education Department officials whose credentials have been questioned. Mr. Lister, who was questioned on the story at an unrelated event, felt reporter Meredith Ebbin should have ignored the seemingly never-ending probe into Dr. Ahad and reported on the seemingly never-ending series of National Training Board events instead.

But reporters have had an impossible time getting any officials to respond to the Ahad story, and Ms Ebbin was perfectly within her rights to question Mr. Lister on the issue when she had the opportunity.

And the comment Mr. Lister made shed light on just how he views the issue: "If he (Mr. Ahad) is doing the job and doing it well, why should I be concerned?"

There is an obvious answer to that, but if Mr. Lister doesn't know what it is, he should consider how many accounting audits would hold up if it turned out the accountants had lied about their credentials.

But that's not the point. Governments like good news and dislike bad news for equally obvious reasons (Hint: It has something to do with getting re-elected) Why let issues like truth or trying to find the facts without fear or favour get in the way when the Government would prefer the media to ignore them and instead accept a constant diet of force-fed good news instead?

And if that fails, then politicians can always fall back on the ultimate rejoinder.

The media, and in particular, is "evil and effectively racist", according to MP Derrick Burgess.

It is so much easier to accuse someone of racism, especially for a member of a predominantly black government, than to deal with the facts. If you are white and criticise the Government, you're a racist. If you're black and you criticise the Government, you are a "maidservant of the master" and therefore "effectively racist".

In a community where the wounds of segregation are still raw, it is so much easier to attack the media instead of deciding whether or not it is fair for a hotelier to completely renegotiate a lease having been awarded a tender.

It is so much easier than actually producing a receipt for a performance bond on a $100 million construction project.

But easy doesn't equal good government and nor does shooting the messenger.