There is no doubt what the real news is right now

Attempts by the government to shift the news agenda, and the inability of some newsrooms to understand – perhaps deliberately – what the real news is right now, and where the interest of the public lies, are not changing the facts.

People are transfixed by Panamagate. The issue has percolated through all levels of society and is now being discussed everywhere, including on the factory shop-floor and at the vegetable truck. The story has its own jokes and memes and it’s going nowhere fast.

This morning, those newspapers which had Panamagate-related stories on the front page, most notably The Malta Independent, sold out early, leaving behind piles of other newspapers which had decided that other news was more important.