he s promising because he speaks your foul language daphne. i d rather be praised by the devil than by you.

Daphne, when a TV host declares his opinion on the same programme , he would be credible.You know where you are.

There are people who don’t read blogs, but watch TV.

[Daphne – John, you would be amazed how many people are perfectly confident that I am an anti-Labour witched who spews venom on their father’s graves, without ever having once read anything I’ve written, or knowing where it is published.]

Inviting someone to your programme without expressing the same stand about him written on your blog,is just not on.

I can think of another reason why Bondi had to renounce his blog. There could have been some arm twisting:

http://loubondi.blogspot.com/2011/11/setting-record-straight.html

Time will tell.

[Daphne – Obviously there was some arm-twisting. And we are never going to agree on this one, so let’s just let it go.]

There was a recent headline in some e-newspaper (forgot which it was) that stated that Minister Cristina had told Bondi to tone down on his blogs.
The scenario – Cristina is responsible for PBS. Bondi and Where’s everybody are PBS contractors. Gino Cauchi and the PL recently raised hell about Bondi and PBS. Joe Grima keeps grouching about the ‘tnaqqir fid-demokrazija’ and other similar crap. Bondi’s motto has always been ‘gurnalizmu fuq kollox.’

The minister announces that her meeting with Bondi was not ‘confrontational’.

Does this sequence of facts tell you anything?

I will not try to defend Mr.Bondi on anything – he’s perfectly capable of doing that himself. But I will state that our society has a very big debt with Mr.Bondi for the way he managed to transform TV journalism. Thank you Mr.Bondi.

So that’s why Anglu Farrugia says Tuks Forss. It’s because Lou Bondi votes Nationalist.

David, there are two criteria for selecting programmes to be aired on the state’s TV station. One is popularity among viewers (brings in revenue from advertising), while the other is the quality of the programme (educational value, professional production etc). Having a pro-Labour for each pro-Nationalist presenter should never factor in.

Anthony, perception is the name of the game.

If a TV host is perceived as being biased against a cause, and presents a programme which is supposed to be balanced on the same subject , the people would lose trust in the station on which the program is presented.PBS is the contractor for the Broadcasting Authority. That’s why it’s our National TV station.

[Daphne – Tum te tum. It’s the STATE BROADCASTER or PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTER, not the national television station. There is no such thing, or rather, all Maltese television stations are national because they are not local.]

I’d rather have a TV presenter hosting a programme where s/he declares her/his agenda ON THE SAME PROGRAMME than someone posing as a neutral person who then manipulates the programme to suite his agenda.

[Daphne – You have just contradicted yourself, John.]

A glaring example was the divorce issue: we all know that Where’s Everybody were all out in favour of divorce, they always wanted to push in religion in the argument knowing fully well that the Church was not preaching fire and brimstone.

[Daphne – Actually, John, what I remember most of Where’s Everybody’s programmes about the divorce issue was Lou Bondi doing something I’d never seen him do before – instructing his production people on air to turn off Jeffrey’s microphone when he went out of control. How does that fit in with your view?]

At the end of the referendum campaign small pressure groups and ‘preachers’ started to mushroom all over Malta. One of them was the classic bible basher who was shown to us on Xarabank, opening his arms and preaching at us with a pious nauseating soft drone “What would you tell Jesus at the golden gates of heaven when you die?”

[Daphne – Ah, I see. So you think these people, who are real and exist, should have been kept hidden so as to protect the cause of the anti-divorce movement? I don’t think so. They were part of the story. Nothing tipped the scales in favour of the Yes vote except normal common sense, John. Common sense won out. End of story. I know you don’t like the result, but exactly how has divorce legislation changed the country since? ]

THAT TV appearance tipped the scales in favour of divorce! That’s how the media is manipulated by the media people to push their agendas.

And she looks beyond the confines of this horrible Sicilian village. Bondì doesn’t. Especially since he teamed up with Joe Azzopardi.

[Daphne – Sigh.]

I think it’s an unfair comparison. Maybe Lou Bondi is somewhat inferior to Daphne as a writer, but that’s because he’s more than that – he’s also a TV presenter, something Daphne isn’t and probably never will be.

[Daphne – Yes, I am totally inferior to Lou on that score and have absolutely no desire to enter the field. But the same remains that we are both direct and this is alien in Maltese discourse, which is why it jars with so many people.]

Actually, his blog, if you leave out the sometimes lame metaphors, was a good-enough read. However, I fully agree with his decision to stop — though his views and opinions remained always consistent, the tone at which he conveyed them differed vastly between his blog and his TV show.

Sometimes, it almost felt like there were 2 Lou Bondis, and Malta isn’t big enough for both.