The dangers of botched reporting: online news gives new meaning to 'rushing to print'
Last night, after reading a late report on timesofmalta.com, I wrote the following:
“I hope there is something wrong with the reporting here, because if not, then I’m going to have to fall into despair.
timeofmalta.com, tonight:
Gonzi meets Libyan fighters who had defected to Malta
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi this evening announced that today he met the two Libyan pilots who landed in Malta on February 21, after refusing to bomb civilians.
Dr Gonzi said during a discussion on Libya at the Granaries in Floriana that the pilots told him they had been instructed to bomb a small village of 1,300 people.
——-
They’ve been in Malta for more than six months and the prime minister waited until today to meet them?
Why – because meeting them immediately they got here would have been in breach of our neutrality, in a way that meeting the Libyan PM after the beginning of hostilities was not?
Because it wasn’t prudent to meet them at once and greet them like the heroes they were, lest we be seen to be taking sides and end up with Gaddafi turning round and biting us in the arse?
This is unbelievable.
I really hope the reporting was botched, or that the prime minister meant to say that this was one of several meetings following his first with the pilots on 21st February.
I’ll find out in the morning. (…)”
———-
And yes, the reporting WAS botched, because this morning’s version is entirely different:
The Libyan Mirage pilots who defected to Malta on February 21 are still on the island and have met the Prime Minister on at least three occasions, the Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
Dr Gonzi said the two colonels were senior training pilots in Muammar Gaddafi’s air wing who defected to Malta after being ordered to attack a village with around 1,300 people.
The pilots, whose names still cannot be made public, flew close to sea level to be off the radar before requesting permission to land at Malta International Airport.
“As soon as they landed, they asked for political asylum, which we gave them immediately,” the Prime Minister said.
Dr Gonzi said he had met the pilots shortly after they landed, as well as on a more official level during the visit of National Transitional Council Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril a few weeks ago.
They are being kept in the Armed Forces’ headquarters in Safi, where they have been for the past seven months. It was there that Dr Gonzi met them again yesterday “to see if they needed anything”.
Shortly after that meeting, Dr Gonzi announced his visit at a Nationalist Party activity focusing on the Libyan revolution, as part of the annual independence celebrations.
“They’re worried about their families, but now that things are clearing up we’re looking forward for them to be reunited,” Dr Gonzi said later.
“We tried to make it as comfortable as possible for them,” Dr Gonzi said, thanking Brig. Martin Xuereb, senior army officials and head of defence Vanessa Frazier.
————
Unfortunately, because of the ‘let’s keep everyone happy’ behaviour of our political leaders in this crisis, the first timesofmalta.com report last night rang true.
I doubted it not because of the government’s track record, but because of the prime minister’s character. I couldn’t imagine him, at a personal level, not visiting those pilots at once. That was the false note in the report.
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The government’s attitude, on the other hand, is pretty much encapsulated by foreign minister Tonio Borg’s words quoted in the same report of the debate on Libya, held last night:
Earlier during the activity, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said that at the beginning of the Libyan revolution, the country was “using every excuse” not to return the fighter jets to Libya prior to the international sanctions against Col Gaddafi’s regime.
Using every excuse? Is he aware of just how limp-wristed that sounds?
Saying that the government of Malta would not return them was apparently not the prudent or neutral option, but the foreign minister appears to have forgotten that from day one we were told that the government REFUSED to return the planes.
Refusing to return them implies a statement of outright refusal made to the government of Libya, and means that a principled stand was taken, for which the government rightly expected – and got – admiration.
Now the foreign minister has given the game away and has said that the Libyan government was fobbed off repeatedly.
I’d like to hear what those excuses were.
Sorry, but we’re run out of fuel.
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
I’m in a meeting.
Now is not a good time.
The pilots have the flu.
The dog ate my homework.
They’ve got a puncture.
Oh dear, I missed your call.
The foreign minister isn’t in. Can I take a message?
He’ll ring you right back.
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Our small island mentality is a massive noose around our neck when it comes to politics. Now that the war is over our esteemed members are strutting about with inflated chests – ‘tal biki’ .
Turkey contributed next to nothing to the Nato effort and yet the Turkish PM gets a hero’s welcome in Tripoli. He visited a day after the visit of the British PM and the French President.
The position taken by Malta was the right one and has nothing to do with ‘small island mentality’. I disagree with those who give the impression that Malta will be disadvantaged in the rebuilding of Libya.
Aha! Inadvertently, you have pointed the way to a solution. Turkey is a NATO member. This was a NATO operation. So Turkey WAS involved, even if it was only by voting on the NATO Council. Malta is a member of bugger all. For Malta, geopolitics is just something that happens to other people.
The heading gives the impression that Gonzi met the jets not the pilots. I think they meant Libyan jet fighter pilots.
Il-Prim Ministru tkellem ukoll dwar laqgħa li kellu maż-żewġ piloti Libjani li fil-bidu tal-kunflitt ħarbu lejn Malta bl-ajruplani Mirage. Iż-żewġ piloti ħadu r-riskju li jaħarbu minn pajjiżhom wara li ddeċidew li ma jobdux l-ordnijiet biex jeqridu raħal sħiħ.
Lawrence Gonzi qal li jħossu kburi li, għalkemm kienet deċiżjoni iebsa, għażel li jagħti kenn liż-żewġ piloti u baqa’ iebes fid-deċiżjoni tiegħu meta saret pressjoni minn Gaddafi u uffiċjali oħra tar-reġim Libjan biex il-piloti jintbagħtu lura.
The fact that the planes were not returned to Gaddafi and that the pilots were granted asylum is the most important thing.
Why should the Prime Minister find time to meet the Libyan Refusniks then when he probably had detailed reports and then decided to grant them asylum?
[Daphne – Of course he should have met them, and what do we know, it turns out that he did.]
The important decisions were taken in February when they landed. There’s no need to bang your head on the table and (almost) despair!
[Daphne – There is every need to do so, John. And I’m not going to rehash all the arguments we had back in March.]
Dear Daphne,
I am so surprised to read that you were going to fall off your chair after readying The Times report.
What for? The Times of Malta has changed in content, editorial and news value. I wrote to that effect ‘if only Mabel was still alive’.
Of course these remarks get censored.
Some Maltastar gems.
‘Shweyga Mulla is spending her first day in Mater Dei hospital receiving real treatment for the wounds’
‘Real treatment’ – Ahna Malta naghtu trijtment ta’ vera.
‘In Malta she will receive … psychological treatment to help her go through the trauma she suffered in past months.
‘help her go through a trauma’ – another one?
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=16557
It seems it’s all down to the usual amateurish reporting – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110917/local/Mirage-pilots-still-in-Malta.385011
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_main/news/edward%20scicluna.jpg
I read this piece and re-read it.
Why does Professor Scicluna treat us this way? ” The island’s maximum growth rate will only be that of 2% according to IMF estimates.”
This is good news which he is twisting it into some kind of bad omen, for the simple reason that our economy did not scrape the bottom. We cannot go up at the same RATE because we will be further up than the other economies.
I’m not claiming that this is a bed of roses, but we are in a nearly bad situation while others are in a worse one.
Does the PL need its MEPs in Brussels to talk about the economy?
Aren’t Leo Brincat, Charlie Mangion and Karmenu Vella the speakers on such matters? Aren’t they up to scratch?
Perhaps Professor Scicluna is another Super Candidate for the next general election. That would be good news: at least we would have some kind of car with good brakes when Joseph is elected PM of Malta.
Talking about RATES, yesterday ONE News stated that our tourism had a decline in GROWTH RATE – in other words, last year after the recession dip we had an increase of say 5% and this year tourists increased by say 4% over last year.
“Talking about RATES, yesterday ONE News…”
Growth is Up, except in the Land of Down, where less growth (still up) is always DOWN for anything government related (PN).
Fact: The name of the PL game has been and is exclusively marketing (forget reason and rational analysis), while the PL wait for the electoral clock to tick down.
Objective Fact: How can anything (or any political Party) based upon illusion provide the country with anything other then disaster, if they should be elected to government?
Opinion: If austerity is the best medium-term prognosis for the best of governments in the months and years ahead, what depression (economic and psychological) lies ahead (for another generation, at least, considering the potential for damage it seems to me), if Dr. Joseph (the PL-Moses leading his fractious tribes to the Promised Land) should get to imagine his way into a Maltese PM-postmanship?
Opinion: Dr. Joseph as “Son of Sant” and “worshiper of Dom” seems to me very likely to be a far worse combination (along with any of their potential cabinet of Antiquarians, Moderates, and Progressives) than any previous MLP government to wreck its havoc in the last 50 years.
Opinion: The prospect would be far worse than the current (or continuing) PN government (with its mixed bag of religious conservatives, moderates, and socially-liberal progressives).
Fact: But I sure wish that a true and safe alternative to PN government were possible in my lifetime, as a normal political process. Opinion: Maybe there will be an alternative, perhaps if I should live another 20 years?
Opinion: It seems that the PL simply hope that PN and AD people are tired (and not principled) of their not-voting-MLP/PL–and that the electorate is essentially irrational. There appears to be no worry among the PL leadership about a potential majority of traditional MLP/PL voters, for whom voting is the same thing as blind faith.
Facts: To test the (PL) political hypothesis about election campaigns, we’ll need an election to determine the issue: is the margin of rationality greater than the weight of emotion and desire? Alfred Sant clearly had placed his bets on desire (which only lasted for 22 months)–and this pretty much is the PL bet today: their still betting on desire (yes, it is like a football match).
Fact: There are unhappy folks on both sides of the political divide [yes, the world situation is a bit chaotic right now].
Empirical question: but for the majority of Maltese voters [who have looked beyond the belly-button center of the Mediterranean], is reason stronger than disappointment?
It depends: Can government communicate its achievements and its potential for the future of the country? Will the PL be allowed to get by without having any policies or a workable plan? No 15-year vision is necessary; but immediate two-year priorities clearly spelled out within a five-year objective is necessary.
In a dynamic and inter-dependent world, no one has absolute control over their future [although many socialist and authoritarian mindsets presume that governments control and provide benefits and wealth at their largess: we can look at contemporary Greece for the irrationality of that assumption.]
The bailouts required from several national governments because of poorly controlled capitalism in the US also have undermined world economic growth. In turn, this situation has impoverished many millions and the hopes of many of young and not-so-young, the present would-be-working-if-I-only-could-find-a-job generation.
Human resource development and assistance is part of the solution; a sound economy is the rest of the solution. But our futures, both as a nation and as individuals, are made more secure by rational policy; prudent attention to history; openness to truth and the correction of present errors; and responsible decision making.
At present none of these characteristics feature clearly as PL traits. Nor do I have any confidence in their realization for a Party that cannot define itself coherently and honestly.
I have every reason to ‘dispair’ when I read recent comments and compare the rants about Tonio Borg and the government in general, to those of last February, March and ensuing months.
We all expect that the government and the various Ministries to report, on a daily business, the goings on in diplomatic circles about affairs of national security.
What obligation was Dr. Gonzi, Prime Minister, to go and visit the two defectors when they landed and on two other occasions? – None. He visited them, and I am only guessing, for one reason – he wanted to hear first hand what was really happening in Libya and perhaps made the scale tip in the direction of some measures taken by the government.
The probability of Cameron or Sarkozy meeting personally two Libyan defectors would be slim to zilch. That is where the Secret Service, the army and other national security personnel enter into the picture.
The government could have briefed the Press with details about every decision taken as it was taken, but what would the benefit have been? Just to feed the often referred to ‘amateur reporters’? To give them more ammo to twist and take phrases out of context in order to translate them into anything but the truth? Daphne Caruana Galizia has first hand experiences from the hands of the media from the left.
The problem here is that anyone with the slightest problem expects to be able to lift the telephone and speak directly with a Minister or, indeed with the Prime MInister himself! Where, in the whole world, is this done, or even possible without going through endless hoops?
Those who often accuse us of having ‘an island mentality’ are right after all, but reading some arguments and comments here, to me, the accusers seem to reveal their own ‘island mentality’.
Where in the whole world does the prime minister of a country turn up, Sunday after Sunday, in some village kazin?
Rather than lifting the telephone, someone with the slightest problem can go one better – find out where the PM is giving his little talk and have a tete-à-tete.
Impossible. He’s surrounded by a wall of big bellies and arses. The sad thing is the people love him. No really, they do. Ghax ragel sewwa.
As I always say The Times are hitting rock-bottom. This morning we had the encouraging news that exports are booming. In just a few hours this news items vanished from the home page, but then some silly reply by Labour criticising the government stays stuck there until the next day.
Of course, there is no way of knowing which report is the true one, is there?
Try EuroStat – or is that also fiction, if the LP says so?
I once went to a MLP meeting – ages ago – at Tigne sea-front. I arrived in the middle of a sentence by Dom Mintoff and the crowd was clapping and screaming.
I asked a clapping man what Mintoff had said as I had arrived late. He said “How should I know what he said?” This man had a vote and I believe he still has that vote for the coming election.