The media vacuum
The jury is out on whether this is an appropriate way for a magistrate to comport herself
One of Fr Joe Borg’s essential points, in an article published in The Sunday Times last Sunday and his blog on timesofmalta.com, is that the Magistrate Scerri Herrera/Robert Musumeci saga is taking place in a sort of media vacuum.
Everyone, everywhere is talking about it, but the media are not covering it.
Malta Today is ‘covering it’ by sticking up for the magistrate, having decided already that what I wrote are nothing but vile lies – though how Saviour Balzan would know that is beyond me, given that he and the magistrate have only just met.
But even that ‘coverage’ should take an interesting turn now that Robert Musumeci has sold Saviour Balzan down the river by insisting into a very public microphone that the prime minister never asked him not to contest the casual election, as Malta Today’s giant front page story – which everyone assumes was leaked by him – claimed.
To give you some indication of the interest this story has generated, despite (or rather, I imagine because of) the lack of coverage elsewhere, since I first began writing about it on 30 January until early this morning (just under three weeks), this blog has had 1,630,148 views.
For comparison purposes, in the 23 months before that (from start-up date), the blog received 3,886,447 views, and that included the week of the general election.
Three weeks of the magistrate and the politician: 1,630,148 views
23 months of everything else, including a general election: 3,886,447 views
6 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
DAPHNE YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I sometimes feel that the Arrigo/Vella and Musumeci/Consuelo Pilar Scerri Herrera affairs are just only the tip of the iceberg and we are sitting on the top of a volcano filled with s*&t on the point of eruption.
Stupidity sells, especially when liberally mixed with smut and infidelity. Check out Tiger.
I trust that this affair is not going to be swept under the carpet and that it is in fact the beginning of a clean-out, thanks to your tenacity, D, and the importance you gave to the whole issue.
I cannot imagine anyone having the grinta to have initiated and persisted so much on such a hot issue, despite the opposition and difficulties you’ve had to overcome. Please don’t let go. Insomma as if you need us to remind you.
The authorities need to boot out these cowboys.
Which just goes to show the concept of news value for our media. Our mediascape is so institution-oriented that information is filtered through how it will help/hurt a particular institution (eg: political party) rather than how that piece of news/commentary can make life better for the citizen.
When items are published which can empower the citizen to demand better standards, the authors and media are normally hounded out of the scene.
That is why Fr. Borg’s article is significant and perhaps that is why TVM felt the need to make some stand for Joe Public. That is why Daphne should get support for outing the story, even if perhaps the language used is somewhat OTT.
[Daphne – Society and the law are not concerned with language, but with facts. ‘Consuelo shagged Robert’ has exactly the same meaning as ‘Consuelo engaged in sexual intercourse with Robert’. It is the behaviour described, and not the language used to describe it, which is offensive. By describing the language as offensive, people are projecting their feelings about the actions described onto the language used to describe it, so that they don’t have to confront the reality of what was said and deal with it.]
FYI:
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=60573