So pathetic: a newspaper run as a personal hobby-horse rather than as a service to readers
Saviour, so much for your dreams
Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio invested in Malta today to fulfil their dreams of running their own newspaper without input or control by anyone else.
They talked and talked and talked about how their newspaper would be the best and the most investigative, going where no newspaper had dared go before.
And now they have come down to this: their newspaper is a personal axe-grinding machine with standards only marginally higher than those of Maltastar, and that’s only because of the spelling.
How sad.
Yes, I actually think it’s very sad. What a waste of time, money and effort…and dreams.
Yesterday, the newspaper which hounded then Police Commissioner George Grech for weeks after discovering he had had a brief affair with a tart who set him up, said nothing at all about my testimony under oath – not contested or challenged by the prosecuting officer or Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s lawyer – that she had a lengthy affair with police inspector (now superintendent) Dominic Micallef, who prosecuted cases before her, and that they both colluded in retrieving incriminating letters shortly before I was arrested and interrogated.
That shows just what sort of an independent, investigative newspaper Malta Today has become. It is so far gone that it is no longer providing its readers with the most fundamental service of giving them the news, if the news does not fit in with their agenda.
With every passing day it becomes more apparent that it is impossible to grow up in a Mintoffian household and escape the mentality. You might escape it for the interim youthful years when you still think you’re your own man, as in Saviour Balzan’s case, but in the full throes of middle age it’s back to your roots.
That’s what has happened to Saviour. The man who once spoke of ideals has turned his investment into the English-language newspaper the Labour Party never had. And Labour does not need to revamp Maltastar because it has Malta Today.
The Super One cameras which hounded me at the start of the Consuelo Herrera case, with her close personal friends Jason Micallef, Ronnie Pellegrini and Charlon Gouder clogging up the courtroom in support of her, were nowhere to be seen yesterday.
Not so keen to report on the case, now, are they? They should have seen that coming – but then why should they, when they believe that sort of behaviour is normal and acceptable?
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The more I read the more I become convinced that we are light years away from becoming a true deomcracy. The most depressing aspects of this story are:
– online commenters rubbishing the story as a catfight
– poor reportage by The Times while other newspapers simply ignore it
– not a single utterance from the lawyers’ and magistrates’ associations
By the way Daphne, is there a way how to check whether charity money collected at the magistrate’s parties found its way where it was intended?
If ever there was any doubt about Malta Today’s pro-PL bias, this has been amply confirmed by today’s online edition. Daphne’s testimony in court provided several stories which newspapers the like of Malta Today would relish. Yet, there isn’t a single word.
What is Malta Today’s agenda, to provide a service to its readers or to protect the interests of the Labour Party?
Media thugs pose a real threat to civilized living in our democracy…such abuse of the free expression in the media is not only pathetic, but is rather a disgusting and dangerous “journalism”. My support is for Daphne for her courageous stand for what she believes is right…and right she is.
Now let’s see what happens with Saviour if Labour wins the elections.
Already he tried to scheme a career change with John Dalli. Now is he betting on Muscat at the races?
Silly me. I thought he already had a horse.
Boycott Maltatoday, simple as that!
It is not only Malta Today’s silence which is shocking (though expected), but also Maltastar’s (ditto).
Having said that, I don’t believe that The Times made an issue of the prosecution not contesting or challenging any of the salient points in your testimony of yesterday.
“That shows just what sort of an independent, investigative newspaper Malta Today has become.” Well actually no, what it shows is that like the most of the country they don’t actually consider anything that comes out of your mouth news.
“Their newspaper is a personal axe-grinding machine with standards only marginally higher than those of Maltastar, and that’s only because of the spelling.” That’s really funny! I mean don’t you use your silly little column in the Independent for exactly the same axe-grinding purposes?
[Daphne – James Tyrrell, why do you bother calling yourself Beowulf? You’re sad, strange, and ridiculous, and surely life in Northern Ireland is not so boring that you have to pursue your obsession with the minutiae of life in Malta and one columnist in particular. Get yourself a blow-up doll.]
“Get yourself a blow-up doll.” – He’d need to give it a red wig, too.
Iccewwec, jew ahjar, cewcuh.
What does Tyrell the sad Irish man know about life in Malta?
Tyrell, concentrate on northern Ireland. There are enough problems there.
I gave up on Malta Today a long time ago. I cannot even be bothered to look at the on line edition.
Tyrell, do you know we have private investigators in Malta working on your past, your present and your future? What’s all this foreign interference in our country’s affairs?
So when a tourist comments on something said by queen Daphne it’s seen as ‘foreign interference.’ Wow! That’s interesting.
Private investigators working on my ‘future’??? Should I take that as a threat of some type? I suggest you check with Queen Daphne before you answer that one.
James Tyrell famously calls himself a ‘tourist’. So, Tyrell, why are you still hiding behind a pseudonym?