Veteran Reporter Michael Sharpe Transitions to the Heavens of Journalism

We woke up to the news that veteran journalist Michael Sharpe 65 has transitioned this morning Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Sharpe was hospitalized for ailment said associated with the COVID 19 pandemic.  The latest report we had was that Sharpe was on the mend.  So this dramatic turn of events has taken many by surprise.

Media Fraternity

Michael Sharpe’s passing has plunged the media landscape into deep mourning. Leading media practitioners have reacted as follows:

Cliff Hughes, NNN reacts to Sharpe’s death said inter alia:

“He died this morning in hospital. He has been a reporter and broadcast journalist for about 40 years.”

Career

At the time of his death he was Operations Manager of

Jamaica News Network (JNN)

” On a personal note he interviewed me at the RJR on one of his night programmes ‘Sharpe Talk’. We also worked at JNN just before I left there in the early 2000s. Sharpe was also a lecturer and district constable (local Police).

Continuing Cliff Hughes, Ex. Director of NNN also said inter alia:

“In 1986 when I entered the media landscape I worked with Michael Sharpe who was himself a relatively new media practitioner. Sharpe was the last breed of broadcast journalist who saw the work of journalism not as a job , but as a career. He was very street savvy and did a lot of politics and crime. It is a huge loss. This pandemic is robbing us of all across the board in academia law etc. It does not discriminate. We thought he was on the mend”. This is a devastating news for all of us.”

Nationwide played the song gone too soon after Hughes’s tribute.

“Gone too soon.”

The Managing director of the RJR group Gary Allen also paid tribute to Sharpe.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a veteran journalist who has been saddened at Sharpe’s passing.

Sharpe was 65. He died today at April 20, 2021. His family expressed thanks for outpouring of support. Sharpe in 1983 went to Grenada at the time of the US Invasion of Grenada. He went into Trinidad when there was an attempted overthrow of the Trinidadian government by a Muslin group. He was also a Parliamentary reporter and a talk show host.  On “Sharpe Talk” as host. He was also a mentor. Gary Allen also said in 1983 I worked with him when I joined the RJR group. He was also an Anchor on Prime Time news.

Arthur Hall, Editor at Large at the Jamaica Observer Newspaper. 

“Sharpe was a very good journalist. He was a wonderful person. He interviewed gangsters of the feared Andem Gang, and Dudus Coke to name a few. He got them all”

PM Holness said he is saddened at Sharpe’s passing. (Late item). A full release follow soon.

 Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a poet, elegist, and veteran journalist who has International exposure.