The proper format for this kind of thing is a press conference, not an address to the nation
So the prime minister and his advisers think that the proper format for communicating with electors on the government’s 100th day in office is an address to the nation.
It isn’t.
The proper format is a press conference, televised live, from the Office of the Prime Minister. That’s what his predecessors used to do – Lawrence Gonzi, Eddie Fenech Adami, and yes, even Alfred Sant.
It was Mintoff who gave ‘xandiriet lin-nazzjon’, and he did so for the very same reason that Muscat gave his: to avoid questions from the massed press and especially, to avoid those questions on live television.
On his 100th day in office, the prime minister shouldn’t have given us a propaganda video, edited and recorded and totally controlled. He should have faced the press and answered our questions, and he should have done so live on television.
Now we’re on the subject of that propaganda video – who made it? Who scripted it, filmed it, edited, produced it and packaged it for release?
When Muscat was starring in propaganda videos for the Labour Party, that question could perhaps have been called irrelevant. But this is not a Labour Party propaganda video. This is a government propaganda video. Was it produced by the government’s Department of Information, was it made by the same people who work for One TV, or was it farmed out to a private production house?
Now the question is not just relevant. It is legitimate and has to be answered.
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Reply to ciccio Click here to cancel reply
Has the PN filed a protest with the Broadcasting Authority?
We also need to know the cost of that propaganda video, and who paid for it.
I have always felt that Muscat has been playing to the nostalgia that runs riot within the PL, nostalgia for the golden years, which he apologized for but then spoke highly of almost days apart if I’m not mistaken.
Muscat wants to be like Mintoff because that is the brand he knows will work to keep him popular. And it is all about popular with him.
“Malta Taghna Ilkoll”, was and is whatever you want it to be, a revival of the Mintoff spirit, the right to think you can be nasty to foreigners, the right to do what you like, a job- anything. Something good happens and it’s Malta taghna Ilkoll, finally get a job at the age of 60 “Malta Taghna Ilkoll”.
But that is just those individuals who think that. Muscat was never explicit about what it meant, and even if he did allude to any real definition, it still didn’t hit home with anyone of his supporters because they didn’t care. They were just drunk on the whole Prozac Taghna Ilkoll.
He will keep on using Mintoff’s brand as it were. And he will continue to be whatever people think he is.
However, when one slogan means 250 000 different things to 250 000 different people, a big percentage of them will realize that they are wrong and will feel betrayed. And when many look at that Mintoff wannabe and realize he’s not really like Mintoff because he cares about the constitution (one hopes) they realize he’s putting on a show.
They are part of a lie at the moment, which they will think is very clever until they realize that they were the fools to believe it.
I am seriously beginning to wonder whether Muscat has got balls. He can’t face journalists without being evasive.
He’s not fit for purpose. He is afraid of saying something he shouldn’t.
Always remember that there is Michelle watching and something tells me that he is afraid of her criticism.
It is time for Claudette Buttigieg to table another parliamentary question about Michelle Muscat’s office in Castille, her salary and her commitments in detail.
Maybe an independent TV production house did it pro bono, to preserve state finances and its own business.
One thing is for sure, however, no matter how competent the producer, there is not much that one can do when the only person featured in the video is a dead loss in appearance, style, diction, and content of the message delivered.
To show us how cool he is, Joseph Muscat will broadcast his next address to the nation from the Spinach Gym, as he pretends to pump iron.
or while he is preparing the kids’ lunch boxes for school.
Or maybe while he watches the morning cartoons with the kids.
Pajjiz immexxi minn prim ministru li jara l-Mickey Mouse.
Dear Daphne, who do you think you are, Dr. Muscat is the Prime Minister of Malta now. Please wake up.
[Daphne – Yawn. I just did.]
Some one should see and comment on the photoes in this month’s STYLE magazine, of the Maltese Prime minister’s missus modelling clothes, shoes, jewellery and flashing ghastly toothy grimaces for the camera.
Carla Bruni, move over.
It seems to me it’s the same guys who prepared PL’s propaganda videos prior to the election: same editing technique used, artwork and angles of shots.
Just this time aired on national TV. What a farce.
He sounds less convincing than my old religious teachers. Poor ordinary Joe in the near future.
I take it this means marriage, adoption and IVF for gay couples then? Shame he isn’t as liberal on freedom of speech.