Malta Today – about as exasperating as the Labour Party

Published: April 14, 2012 at 6:53pm

My phone has beeped with yet ANOTHER tedious and unsolicited text message from Malta Today. I never subscribed and they don’t have an ‘unsubscribe’ facility.

To whom can I complain?

The text message says:

REVEALED – N Korean ambassador paid visit to Foreign Minister Tonio Borg.

I just want to lie down and weep, but I think I’ll take the dog for a walk instead and try not to think about idiots. Of course the North Korean ambassador paid a farewell visit to the foreign minister, you fools. I took that entirely for granted, didn’t you?

If he paid a farewell visit to the leader of the Opposition, it follows that he would have also paid a visit to the foreign minister. Had he called only on the president, we could have made no such assumption. But an ambassador does not call on the Opposition leader to bid farewell without FIRST calling on a representative of the government, which would be either the prime minister or the foreign minister.

The news peg in the stories yesterday about the North Korean ambassador’s meetings with Joseph Muscat and George Abela was not the visits themselves but what the North Korean news agency reported Muscat and Abela as having said.Both have since released statements to clear up the matter.

Malta Today remarked on the fact that the North Korean news agency did not report on the visit to the foreign, but only on the vists to the president and Opposition leader. Surely they are not implying a government of Malta/North Korea cover-up.

I can think of a very obvious reason why the visit to the foreign minister wasn’t reported: North Korea didn’t like what he said to its ambassador, or rather, there were no accolodates, specific or implied, to boast about.

The government’s condemnation of North Korea this morning couldn’t have been more forceful.




15 Comments Comment

  1. silvio says:

    According to Malta Today, a small tremor was recorded close to the coast of Palermo, NEAR THE ISLAND OF PANTALLERIA.

    Is it possible they can’t afford an atlas?

  2. Jozef says:

    So Tonio Borg is a communist revolutionary now,

    Where does he wear the little red badge, hidden away under his jacket lapel?

  3. Edward Caruana Galizia says:

    I have only seen the report of the President denying the statement. I haven’t read an article about the PL denying their statement. Did they?

    [Daphne – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120414/local/President-Muscat-clarify-N-Korean-news-reports.415349 ]

    • Not Tonight says:

      The PL statement only emphasizes the fact that they are against nuclear weapons. Nothing was said about the statement:

      “It added that Dr Muscat said he was convinced the Korean people would greet the centenary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung “with shining achievements in economic construction under the wise leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un”.

      Yes, the exact words are definitely the type of North Korean drivel that would be put on an official statement by their news agency, but the sentiment behind the words was not refuted in any way, at least according to The Times. Neither the fact that Malta wanted closer ties with North Korea. Do we? I certainly don’t!

    • Angus Black says:

      Are the Leader of the Opposition and H.E. the President then calling the N Koreans liars?

  4. Glorious Riff Raff who descended from Heaven and who is a perfect incarnation of the appearance that a riff raff should have says:

    Malta Today is an instrument of capitalist class rule and a weapon of big business.

  5. TROY says:

    North Korea’s missile/rocket went up in smoke. It was another failure for the commies, whose nuclear program has the condamnation of all the members of the UN council, for obvious reasons.

    Joseph Muscat said that the North Koreans have the right to carry on with their nuclear program as have other countries.

    Well said, Joseph. I’m sure the leaders of all those countries that oppose North Korea’s nuclear program will assess what you, in secret, said to the outgoing commie ambassador, and I hope they don’t come to the conclusion that all Maltese are as loony as you are.

  6. elephant says:

    Unconnected: Lino Spiteri, in The Sunday Times today, writes about Muscat’s “team”. I bet that if Lorry Sant (RIP) was alive, he would have been pulled in to form part of this formidable team.

    • TROY says:

      And today on the back page of The Times, Lino Spiteri came out in defence of the dinosaurs we hoped were extinct.

      He seems to be claiming that Dr. Jurassic Muscat and his dinos are on a mission to save Malta, and that it’s only devious election fever that’s trying to hamper their glorious mission.

  7. maryanne says:

    With Yana Bland as one of the team, Muscat is making great strides.

  8. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Oh well. Given the way everyone in our political class – government and opposition included – grovels up to foreign diplomats, Joseph Muscat’s words are a standard Maltese formula.

    I mean the alien from ‘Predator’ could be ripping away at Tonio Borg’s entrails, and the minister would be going on, between muffled screams, about how “Malta, while recognising the need to uphold international law, wishes to pursue its cordial and friendly relations with the Alien Nation….”

  9. Mario says:

    http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/unsubscribesms

    [Daphne – I tried that, and it tells me ‘error – mobile number not registered’]

  10. Joe Azzopardi says:

    Unsubscribe DOES not work. I’ve been trying or ages. But according to MaltaToday that’s freedom of speech – they shove their news down your throat whether you like it or not

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