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For Singh, a former Senator, Minister and all purpose chairman, it is a propitious and unthinkable crash and burn. But who is to blame? Singh for his looses lips, or the journalist for leaking an entire phone conversion which he never said that he was recording? Jules Vasquez looked at this today:

Aaron Humes, Reporter
"Good afternoon."

Doug Singh
"Yes Mr. Humes."

Aaron Humes, Reporter
"This is Mr. Singh, no?"

Doug Singh
"Correct."

Aaron Humes, Reporter
"This is Aaron, how are you doing?"

Jules Vasquez reporting
The interview whipped around WhatsApp yesterday evening at the speed of sound - leaving listeners agog:

Doug Singh
"To listen to people complain when you are giving them something for free..."

What was going on was this powerful man, a 5 star general in the Barrow Administration was way too candid, cavalier and callous in his remarks to Aaron Humes from Breaking Belize News, a reporter with whom he did not have a personal friendship or a relationship of trust. I spoke to my colleague Renee Trujillo about it:

Renee Trujillo, News Director, Love FM
"I've contacted Mr. Singh right away and he basically explained to me that he wasn't aware that the phone call was recorded. The first thing that came into my mind was that was done so incorrectly, the entire phone call. I spoke to Aaron this morning and he explained to me the entire situation how everything unfolded and basically his biggest mistake was putting it in that chat group."

Jules Vasquez, 7News Director
"It is unethical to record someone as a journalist without their knowledge. Why is it unethical? Because it's not transparent, it's sneaky and how can we demand transparency of others when we do not hold that standard for ourselves. Second: I accept and know that people do record calls, but it is a gross error in judgement to put an uncut unpermitted recorded call into a group where there are other actors and to think that that would be okay. My point is that Doug ultimately is to blame. In truth all politicians should expect, yes we have relationships of trust, but from the fact that Doug told me he did not even know who he was calling back and missed a call and then he call and found out its Aaron and that's Aaron account as well that Doug called him. That means you and him do not have a relationship. In my mind Aaron was technically wrong, was ethically wrong to not disclose that he was recording and then circulate the recording. He made a gross error in judgement in putting it into a chat group, but ultimately Doug is the public figure who always has to expect that he's being quoted and he was way to hell out of line."

And that is how a titan of the government and the private sector, was taken down - perhaps inadvertently, but oh so effortlessly, by a journeyman reporter, Aaron Humes, who turned Singhâ€â„¢s public portfolio to fumes in under an hour.

A curious historical moment in the upside down Corona world, but perhaps not so good for journalism:

Renee Trujillo, News Director, Love FM
"In this business you have to have that trust. If you want to get to the bottom of a story, if you really want to have that network where you can pick up the phone and say hey you know what I'm looking into this story I need your comment, I need... The last thing you need to become is strong in this industry. That's the last thing you need and the last thing we need as a media on a whole is to have not anybody not wanting to talk to us for fear that something like this happens to them."

Jules Vasquez, 7News Director
"I think it puts a chill on some level of media operation, because you know people will always as now "you di record mi"."

We reached out to Singh for a post resignation interview today, but he declined, as did his unlikely nemesis, Aaron Humes.