Two people are dead – have some consideration for the living
I think the online newspapers should do the decent thing and disable the comments function beneath their stories on the Sliema New Year’s Day tragedy.
Yes, it’s a tragedy.
Two men are dead in terrible circumstances, there is a great deal of confusion and grieving, and the public speculation as to what happened, by people who couldn’t possibly know and whose theories are deeply hurtful to those involved, is in the worst possible taste and hopelessly insensitive.
The online newspapers themselves should stop adding to the speculation and stick to the hard facts, of which there are very few. Only one person knows what happened, and she hasn’t yet spoken to the press, nor will she, one would think.
So any ‘facts’ the newspapers think they have about who stabbed who and where and how the man came to be in the flat are obviously rubbish, and readers should treat them as such.
The malicious pleasure some people seem to be taking in all this just turns my stomach. All I can think of is the suffering, which will be lifelong, of the families of the dead. They can’t possibly ever recover, and the catty remarks and gossip which some sites are allowing for upload are only making the situation worse.
The Press Ethics Commission, instead of faffing around Julia Farrugia’s skirt, should concern itself with more serious matters like this: the absolutely disgusting insinuations on the Labour Party’s news site, Maltastar, that the two men were romantically involved with each other.
How could the Labour Party know any such thing? Why jump to this least obvious conclusion and suggest it to your readers, when as the future party of government you should be showing responsibility, care, compassion and above all, restraint?
This kind of hateful behaviour is sadly typical of the Labour Party. I would suggest to Joseph Muscat that he makes a point of intervening personally in this instance to stop it at once. He cannot call himself liberal and progressive and allow his party’s news site to behave like this.
Heaven (hell?) knows what the Labour Party’s agenda might be in behaving so indecently. It is no stranger to shameful and shameless behaviour, but surely somebody in that party knows the proper place to draw the line.
Perhaps it is too much to expect decent behaviour from the Labour media, so I’ll address myself to the civilised newspapers instead: speculation on an internet comments-board is not like gossip round the office water-cooler because it is internationally public and also permanent.
Either disable comments for those stories or give careful consideration to the sort of comments you approve for upload. It is a disgraceful act to allow slanderous speculation about the newly dead, on the grounds that they cannot sue you, contributing to the immense pain and suffering of those they’ve left behind, who are in no psychologically sound position to defend them.
I’m sickened by some of what I’ve read, truly sickened. The comments-boards have become a gathering-ground for people who have lost all sense of empathy, if they ever had any in the first place. They are like meeting-places for psychopaths and sociopaths.
Malta Today is working on being the worst offender where this story is concerned. It has now repeated Maltastar’s appalling insinuations on the grounds that it is ‘reporting what Maltastar said’.
And Malta Today is exercising no control at all over the vicious comments, which appear to be going straight through to upload without prior vetting – at least, I hope that this is the case, so that I don’t have to contend with the knowledge that the ghastly Matthew Vella is reading them and approving them for upload.
Take this one, for instance, which I am repeating here to show the abysmal level to which Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio have allowed their ‘newspaper’ to plummet.
POSTED BY: catlover — 03/01/2012 10:54:48[REPORT POST]
If it walks like a duck,quacks like a duck… It’s a duck! Sometimes people with money think they can have it all.Was this the case? Picture perfect marriage,or was it??? a porche, twins , a fancy hotel owned and run. Life is good. Or is it? I heard they tried to have kids for years with no luck……. hmmmmm Sad to say but something money can’t buy. Even with a rich daddy you can’t bring back the dead :(
What sort of vicious bitch even thinks like this in reaction to a tragedy of these proportions, still less sits down and types her unsavoury thoughts for public consumption?
And how awful must Malta Today be to upload this?
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Well said – we have had TV crews with cameras here in the streets close to where one of the deceased lived, asking whether we knew him or not.
I was not one of those approached – I would have given them all a piece of my mind.
Can’t we leave the families of the dead alone to grieve without stupid and sometimes hateful remarks?
Are these the same Maltese people that go up to Holy Communion every Sunday? Kollha Oqbra imbajda!
Sean, do not repeat the same mistake and jump to conclusions by being harsh by your same comment.
I agree with Daphne in suggesting that The Times deactivates comments on these stories for the sake of family, relatives and friends alike in this most difficult moment or at least filtered as rightly so Daphne does.
100 per cent agree.
You asked for the comments to be disabled and yet here I am commenting on the matter….
Let’s wait and see what people say here.
[Daphne – You won’t necessarily know, because my moderation standards are different. To disable my own comments function would be like saying that I don’t trust myself not to upload indecent comments.]
Malta Today is one of the worst offenders. They didn’t publish the story themselves but took the cheap route of quoting Maltastar at length, and published several spiteful comments.
Malta Today should never ever have reported Maltastar`s base and horrid insinuations – unless it doesn`t mind sinking to the same level as that rag .
There are so many theories one could mention. Did they have to report as a fact the most vile?
[Daphne – Newspapers shouldn’t report theories, but facts.]
They are suggesting that they were intimate? How can say such a thing? An elve went into his room and searched?
I’m not sure, but I get the impression that Maltastar didn’t mean “intimate” as in romantically involved, but as close friends. Saying that, whether they meant it or not it’s an outrage that a “news” portal can make such a mistake, especially considering the nature of the article – especially if they don’t at least have the decency of correcting their mistake (it’s still on their website).
Evarist Bartolo is in charge. What else can you expect?
Never mind whether Maltastar meant ‘friends’ or ‘lovers’. They’re reporting as fact something that is merely speculative. The police have not issued any official statement so either Maltastar is making it all up or their police contacts loosened their tongues for money.
Why the Labour PartY Press only?
Why do you keep seeing RED?
I agree with you on thing – Two people are dead – have some consideration for the living
And YOU too and stop giving political twists to murder…..Two people are dead – have some consideration for the living !
Other publications and media outlets are criticised here, not just the Labour media.
The reason Maltastar is highlighted is because it was Maltastar that published an outrageous insinuation as ‘fact’.
Just compare how L-orizzont is reporting the progress in police investigations into the motive with the insinuations made by Maltastar and Maltatoday and you’ll get the point.
Well said, Daphne.
Prosit Daphne. Some of the comments I read are unfair to both families. One person even commented to ridicule the way the penthouse in Sliema, was built. The usual idiocies.
As if the break-in had anything to do with the way the apartment in Falcon House was designed. An intruder, who knows how to break in, will enter any building, whether its an expensive apartment in Sliema or some dump in god only knows where.
How stupid.
Even online expressions of condolence are meaningless and in bad taste. Those who know the families personally can contact them to express their sympathy privately. Otherwise they should just shut up.
I’m not sure what’s worse … the ones leaving messages on Duncan Zammit’s Facebook wall, or the neighbours in the block where the murders (because they were both, after all, murders) took place posting inanities on Facebook at the height of the police investigation … with the police vans still under their balconies.
The three wise monkeys come to mind.
You can’t possibly know they were both murders.
Granted. Such is the influence of the media.
I feel exactly the same. When I had heard of my cousin’s death, I went through all the babble in my messages and texts, barely giving them any heed. It’s frankly rude, and quite often, prying for information.
Amen!
Most if the comments under immigration-related stories are typically as disgusting.
The comments boards are mostly populated by people who have nothing to do with their time or who are looking for an opportunity to vent off their frustrations.
I am more surprised at people who should know better who ring up newsrooms like Malta Today with an excitable voice, as one decades-long Amery Street resident did this morning (though he erroneously rang me up instead).
God bless you Daphne for producing the above post. As if both families don’t have enough to contend with. What happened to common decency?
Everyone keeps on quoting “both families”. Let us not forget that besides Clare Xuereb and the Zammits, there are also Gera’s family who are, no doubt, going through hell at the moment too ..
That is what I intended and said. The Zammit/Xuereb extended family as well as the Geras. May all of them find solace and peace in this very trying hour. May they also find solidarity instead of wagging tongues.
Maltatoday is doing the rounds and comparing online updates, the uploaded comments gleefully misogynistic.
Shame.
Well said, Daphne. Be the first and disable the comments-board for this article.
[Daphne – I don’t have to, because I moderate it tightly.]
Thank you, Daphne, so much for this post.
Elly, Duncan Zammit’s sister-in-law
Daphne, I could not agree more. All of what you have written here simply had to be said by someone.
Truly Catholic! Any chance of uploading your Sunday article? Should start a good discussion.
I agree. The newspapers are there to report facts and not speculation or gossip.
At the moment the facts are few and far between, so they should not be reporting anything and they should most certainly not be uploading the horrible comments people are making.
Have some compassion for the families left behind, who are still trying to come to terms with what has happened, without having to see all the hurtful and in most cases wrong suppositions being spread around.
It’s at times like this when our Catholic beliefs should be most present and unfortunately it is at times like these when we see just how hypocritical people are.
Agreed 100% !
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16390429
When you consider what the Germans have been through in the last 60 years…really gets one thinking. Perhaps another startling example of how “Protestant Europe” has outrun the rest.
Comment boards should be removed once and for all by online papers. They add no value to the reports and provide a small group with a national platform to vent their deranged outlook on life in general and on particular issues.
Let us not forget that more often than not English is used, making them understood by foreigners removed from the Maltese context thus unable to understand that these commenters are nothing but an unrepresentative small group of delusional loons.
These seemingly unmoderated comment-boards have become an embarrassment to the readers of these English newspapers and also to the nation.
Very well said S. Camilleri. Unmoderated comment-boards have become a shame to the nation.
THAT’S WHAT I SAID THIS MORNING ON THE F.B. AND THEY TOLD ME I AM IGNORANT.
Very well said! I was truly sickened and disgusted earlier when I read some of the comments posted, particularly on Malta Today’s boards. What a bunch of morons.
I beg to differ. They are only moronic when it suits their agenda.
The rest of the time they are just ‘a public vehicle for private envy’. I am sure Mr.Bondi will forgive my plagiarism.
Well written. It’s incredible how this nation can go from a show of solidarity to a show of inconsideration and irresponsibility in just a few hours. Suddenly, everyone has the investigative skills of Sherlock and the forensic expertise of CSI.
Thank you Daphne for this,
Elly Zammit
Very well thought and written. You truly are a beacon of light in this jungle of thought.
@ flash
Why the Labour Party?
Because only Maltastar and Super One got all their facts wrong and maliciously fabricated a story for a sensational headline.
Don’t know any of the two persons that died, but my new year was deeply saddened by thoughts, related to the event and to the relatives of both men.
I made the mistake of logging onto timesofmalta.com, and the sadness was compounded by utter disgust and anger at the report itself and the comments that followed.
Very well written and very well said….
Couldn’t agree more, Daphne.
May God be with the families of both the deceased especially at this terrible time for them.
The children will never know their father, and that is bad enough, but worse, will be explaining to them under what circumstances their dad died, when they start asking questions.
Both mother and children and the two respective families need all the support they can get now and for a long time to come.
I am flabbergasted by that odious comment at the end of this article. Oh my God.
* Sorry in case I haven’t explained myself properly, the one by ‘catlover’. I can’t find the words to express my disgust.
I agree. That is the most shocking comment by far, and could only have been made by somebody who has been morbidly jealous of Ms Zammit Xuereb for many years.
Agreed Theresa. Catlover’s level of ”lanzit” is beyond anything I have ever witnessed. To sink to such a level in such tragic circumstances leads me to one conclusion. Catlover should seek psychiatric help a.s.a.p.
CATLOVER – maybe if the same thing happened to a cat this person might be slightly sympathetic. My god! I’m flabbergasted to say the least!
I am glad to have read this article and comments – gives me a sigh of relief to know that there are Maltese people out there with compassion, morals and sanity.
Well done, Daphne!
Agreed Theresa – the poster’s comments are disgusting inferior and as evil as evil itself. She’s just happy about what happened and that it didn’t happen to her.
I agree with you completely.
On New Year ’s Day in the morning, I phoned timesofmalta.com and asked to be put through to the on-line editor. The editor wasn’t available, and I spoke to someone else in the office instead.
I suggested that the newspaper’s policy should be to disable the comments facility when tragedies are reported. Even genuine condolences should not be expressed online.
There are certain rules of common decency which are quite simple to follow – if one is close to the family of the deceased, call/visit at the right time (and respect their wishes if they don’t feel up to meeting people) or send a note by post.
If one is an acquaintance or a stranger who still wishes to express sympathy, send a note by post. I also feel that text messages to express sympathy are inappropriate in most cases, and sad ‘smileys’ are in bad taste.
Just two days before Christmas, Maltastar’s opinion piece was calling Angelo Xuereb a “Nationalist entrepreneur” and saying that Claire Zammit Xuereb was on a political pogrom. Very harsh words by any standard in my opinion.
Here’s the link: http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=18725
I disagree that the comments boards should be disabled but I definitely agree that they need to be moderated better. That’s not just for this story but permanently. The online newspapers seem to be going for quantity rather than quality.
After this disgraceful ‘reporting’ on Maltastar, will the Great Leader personally call the families of the dead to say how sorry he is about their loss, and will he be visiting the mother and twins with a bouquet of flowers?
Hypocrites, the lot of them.
People are bound to speculate when the victim’s father-in-law says that he recieved a call at 6.30, and the police state that they were informed at 7.15. Unless of course, the two have been misquoted.
[Daphne – My objection is not to speculation, which is normal, but to speculation in public on the internet, which is not. It is absurd, abnormal, uncivilised and cruel. And it is does not happen on newspaper websites in societies which are more highly developed than our own. Say what you like in the privacy of your own home, think what you like while keeping a zip on it, but do not be so barbaric as to go on the internet and do the same.]
This very tragic and sad incident, and it’s aftermath, ignorant, speculative public comments on newspaper websites, is truly indicative of how far we have to progess and mature as a people.
I sincerely hope that your thread gets the attention it deserves, Daphne. However, I somehow doubt it. So sad.
Agree perfectly. But wouldn’t you also agree that Anglu Xuereb is doing his family no favours by appearing on TV and giving interviews, talking about the case?
I mean, speak about your grief as much as wish. Make a public appeal for information, and request privacy, yes. But don’t go telling the media what you told your daughter to do with the knives.
Besides that, isn’t it time the police held a press conference, and not leave it to Anglu Xuereb to tell us what they’ve discovered about phone records and whatnot?
[Daphne – The close relatives of the dead are, in situations like this, in a state of shock and disbelief. They need to talk and go over the details and will do so with anyone who will listen, endlessly. It is very easy for the press to take advantage of a situation like this, which is why it is crucial for vulnerable families going through public tragedy to have a ‘minder’ who will protect them from telephone calls or requests for interviews. This is usually a less involvevd relation or family friend.]
Pepe’s comment is the most reasonable bit of logic on this entire page.
“And it is does not happen on newspaper websites in societies which are more highly developed than our own.”
Lol. You clearly never read Yahoo…or any of the British tabloids.
[Daphne – I don’t mean those, Zachary, unless The Times of Malta equates itself with them rather than with, for example, The Times (London).]
“a porche, twins, a fancy hotel owned and run” – the lanzit is so obvious.
Your point, exactly?
Qrusa Socjalista Maltija. Need more explanation?
The point is ‘Catlover’ is not motivated by anything other than envy and spite, and is positively gloating over what happened.
Perhaps you don’t know what “lanzit” means or you would know what the point is, with which I agree perfectly.
Ronnie is quoting from a comment posted on MT by some ‘catlover’.
Surely turning this tragedy into a political piece is just as pathetic as speculating about how the tragedy came about. For once, can we try to not turn a sad event into a political opportunity or the main item of gossip at our coffee mornings. Grow up and butt out .
David, when a public political force like the PL does not know how to handle a situation like this, to the point that it gets out of its control, then it is a political issue, because it could have been your or my family they were dealing with.
Remember that they are dealing with private persons here, not politicians or film stars.
Grow up.
The Times/The Sunday Times (London) website does not allow a comments section when the article in question dictates that any comments may be the cause of any embarrassment.
Even the tabloid The Daily Mail does not allow comments when the subject matter is of a legal nature
There is no need to disable the comments board for this article since this article is not about what happened BUT about the comments being made about what happened in Malta’s most popular newspapers – moderated or not.
Big difference.
Stop making things political. Why point out what party the newspapar belongs too, so irrelevant in such a matter. Nobody everybody hates you.
[Daphne – It’s about as irrelevant as the question of who owns this website: me.]
The Labour Party has reason to be ashamed of its behaviour. Were ownership of the site irrelevant, there would be no objection to pointing it out.
With your same reasoning, why does the PL criticise PN for features aired on NET TV?
PBS News keeps saying “delitt doppju”. This is wrong or, at least, may be wrong.
“Delitt” means “crime” and we do not know that either one or both victims committed a crime.
If we consider the hypothesis that one attacked the other who was then obliged to defend himself, then the latter would have committed no crime, hence no “delitt doppju”. This is typical of the lack of semantic precision, alas too frequent, which PBS is guilty of on a daily basis, I’m afraid.
The same applies to reports on other media of a “double murder”. If one was defending himself, then it is no murder (or, more precisely at Maltese law, wilful homicide).
The report may be rendered more accurately as “double killing” which would not necessarily imply the crime of wilful homicide.
People all over Malta have taken the role of Sherlock Holmes to heart, with the press giving it the spin to sell their papers.
It is a tragic event and respect should be shown to the families concerned.
The problem is that lack of respect, intrusion in private lives and mocking of public and private persons did not start on New Year’s Day with this terrible tragedy but for quite some time now people have grown used to throw around comments and accusations as if it was chicken feed.
A law should be passed to stop all this internet commenting which is turning out to be full of poisonous muck and insinuations.
[Daphne – There is already a law or two against slander and libel. The internet sites are merely abusing of the fact that the two victims of this slander are dead and cannot sue or press for prosecution, while their heirs have more pressing matters to contend with.]
Most of the media and their associates who claim the moral right over the other are all the same. They come from the gutter and shame shame shame on you all.
I am ashamed to hear such comments, ashamed not only to be Maltese but mainly as a human being.
Just two weeks ago we all celebrated Christmas and everyone is so holy and loving. I cannot understand how such comments run through a mentally sane human being, let alone type them to the public.
I thank God I don’t live in Malta anymore where hypocrisy, jealousy and snooping in other people’s lives are the order of the day.
Duncan, you will be missed.
I am disgusted reading the article of Malta Today about the couple having problems with having kids.
It is none of anyone’s business – better if everyone looks at his own problems and solves his own. Duncan was a great man who loved his family and always helped others.
I’m a believer in freedom of speech, but catlover believes in the freedom to hurt people. Malta Today was very, very wrong to allow such a disgusting comment to be posted below a story of a huge tragedy. Where are we heading?
Salvu Balzan, isthi. And the rest, continue to buy Malta Today and Illum if you agree with this.
Saviour should buy himself one of those ceiling mirrors he promoted some time ago (was it made by Sargas, by any chance?) Only then will he be ashamed of himself.
Very well written, Daphne and I agree.
I am emotionally involved in what is going on since I know a number of family members from both sides of this tragedy and, having been to their lovely home, simply cannot stop replaying in my mind what horrendous scenes must have taken place.
The good intentions of the above piece are unmistakable (and effective, because Maltatoday have removed their comments). However, whilst you strongly condemn the insinuations made by these “newspapers”, I believe it is also possible not to repeat these insensitive insinuations here.
This only helps the hearsay “monster” to get even more creative than it already is, in complete disregard and disrespect of anyone emotionally involved in this tragedy.
On a separate note, how I wish that everyone who read about such a tragedy would go and really tightly hug their loved ones now, young and old. That they’d take something from this tragedy and let it touch them deeply – show some real appreciation of what they have and genuinely pray for those who have lost what they had.
No, Malta Today have not removed the comments. They’re still there.
The MaltaToday article which Daphne mentions above has had all its comments removed and hence my too quick assumption:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Sliema-double-murder-Zammit-s-wife-yet-to-be-questioned-201213
Unfortunately all other comments in all other articles are still appearing… so you are unfortunately right Sandy.
Malta Today eventually removed the comment quoted in this blog post. They left all of the other spiteful comments in place.
The timesofmalta.com comments board has become the gathering place of the irrational,the frustrated, the envious, the half-literate, the ill-informed and the downright stupid people who populate Malta.
Those responsible seem to love it, though, as it keeps their website ahead of those of other newspapers. Slowly but surely, timesofmalta.com is going the same way as MaltaToday. What a pity.
https://mobile.twitter.com/#!/I_VG
http://andrewazzopardi.org/2012/01/03/mr-lewis-zammit-brother-of-duncan-comments/
Jiena wkoll ma naqbilx li f`dan il-hin ma jkunx hemm kummenti min l-ebda membru tal-familjari tal-mejta u jkomplu jaghtu l-ghajnuna lil dik il-mara li ghaddiet minn esperjenza kera li ma tantx hemm probbabilta li jghaddi xi hadd iehor.
Ghalhekk nitlob lill-medja li tieqaf milli ixxandar intervisti mal-qraba tal-familjari.
I do not agree that catlover is a vicious bitch/dog.
Catlover is a very, very, very sick person.
It would have been much better if Malta Today had contacted catlover and helped this poor person to seek professional advice.
The viciousness lies with whoever was responsible for allowing these comments to see the light of day.
To hell with them.
The comments on Maltatoday are the absolute pits.Shame on the so-called moderators.
Thank you, Daphne, for highlighting the rubbish Maltastar are uploading. They should be held responsible for spreading slander.
I added a comment myself on Maltastar to say my bit re their conclusions but and as you are aware it wasn’t uploaded.
And for the “Catlover” comment, jealousy sure has seeped right in to that person’s soul.
maltatoday not maltastar
And Saviour throws a bitch fit each time someone mentions his late wife. Will we have a CSI clip on the subject too?
I do agree that it is not good for any newspaper or on the internet to speculate. But…. this has to stand too for the ordinary man in the street, not just for the elite.
If it was someone from the Cottonera as I am,it would be an open book. When well known persons die, here in Malta their biography makes them look like saints.
When ( Clinton) the ex President of America had an affair, everything was made public, even you I think mentioned him in one of your writings and that was good.
[Daphne – He was the US president, Edward. That changes the context completely. Zammit and Gera were private persons. And even where public persons are concerned, that level of speculation is abhorrent. Just stick to the facts. If you don’t have facts, don’t try to make them up.]
When I read a biography of a person I want to hear the good and the bad of such person. In other words the truth and nothing but the truth.
As I said speculation is no good for ALL.
I feel sorry for the innocent people, their children, relatives etc.
In the end it is not the newspapers nor the commenters who are guilty of the said crimes.
Ms.Caruana Galizia, permit me please to point out to you that unfortunately you are reproducing again those ‘vile comments’ on another very popular site,
I could not believe my eyes when I read such messages on other sites but unfortunately the ‘ catlover’ posting, I had the pleasure to read it from this site. As regards the incident there will be a lot of speculation and a lot of theories will mushroom everywhere till the police gives the correct reasons for what happened. If the people in the street get the feeling that the official version for this horrendous incident has been obscured than unfortunately these outrageous insinuations will continue.
The focus here is about the envious comments posted by people who have nothing better to do with their lives.
If the sites have moderators, where are they?
The negative posts directed to the family have worried me as much as what happened on New Year’s Day.
Thank you, Daph. How infuriating it is to have to put up with all the nonsense.
Claire and Duncan were the perfect match, if ever there was one; they were madly in love and always high on life; very dedicated to each other and to their beautiful babies who they nursed and looked after themselves as a team of fulfilled devoted new parents.
They were the kindest of friends and most sincere and extremely down to earth. Any comments to the contrary would be the result of jealousy (lanzit) or sheer callousness.
Prosit very well said!!
You’re perfectly right. I felt similar sentiments when I read that “autopsies on both corpses are to be carried out” in The Times. I mean, can’t these people use euphemisms for chrissakes? Or are we supposed to feel relieved that autopsies aren’t carried out on the living?
http://www.teandrain.blogspot.com/2012/01/think-before-you-blab_8679.html
(Keith Borg-Micallef and myself run a blog and we completely agree with you, hence the blog post pasted above.)
Is this blog about decency or about Maltastar.com? At one point the blog shifted its focus :/
Maltastar is being criticised for publishing a speculative story that fuels gossip and reports no firm facts related to the case. It ranks as the worst among all those published so far and so deserves to be held up as the most atrocious example of tastelessness.
Well said – I fully agree with you.
One person knows what happens and unless she talks no one would ever know the truth.
[Daphne – It is quite possible for the police to work out what happened even if the remaining person doesn’t talk, or rather, especially if.]
“Especially if”? Daphne knows something.
[Daphne – No, I don’t.]
Hate to say this, but The Times has joined the fray itself too. Today’s Times’ reporting on the incident is also very telling, and is likely to have contributed to further speculations.
Evidently this is not soley the territory of Labour leaning media.
Such is life unfortunately!
I totally agree that you were right to point out how offensive, sick and senseless these commentators are and how vile it is for the PL and Malta Today to speculate so inanely and revoltingly as they do.
Frankly, I can’t stomach these sort of articles and comments and practically never read Malta Today, Maltastar or readers’ comments on The Times as a result, especially when they deal with personal tragedy.
Incidentally, how are you so sure ‘Catlover’ is a woman?
[Daphne – I’m not sure, but the sentiments are familiar to me from the kind of female spite I get to contend with myself, for roughly similar reasons. There are some men who think and talk like this, it’s true, but with men that kind of spite is generally provoked by real or perceived rejection by a woman, and not by jealousy. Catlover’s rank spite is so obviously caused by envy, and is so deeply consuming, that I can only think that this is some former classmate of Mrs Zammit Xuereb’s (or perhaps some teenage contemporary) who has envied her passionately for many years, who cosniders herself a failure on the relationship/career/children front, and who imagines that if she had had Mrs Zammit Xuereb’s advantages, she would be Mrs Zammit Xuereb. Hence all that talk about how ‘your rich daddy can’t help you now’. Despicable.]
‘Catlover’ referred to ‘my husband’ in an earlier comment.
The Police need to intervene before speculation becomes rife. Lack of information is dangerous.
They should call a press conference today.
I have just been listening to Pippo Psaila’s comments on PBS.
What a gentleman – if only we could emulate him and go about our lives by discarding gossip and speculation
If the moderators of Maltatoday, Maltastar and Times has any decency left, they would remove the comments-board off all articles re to this tragedy.
They should also put the brakes down on any further sensationalist reporting of the case.
It is a national disgrace.
The reports in the various newspapers don’t even agree about the time element – whether neighbours heard any shouting and at what time – whether the twins were in the same room with the parents.
If they can’t even get the facts right just imagine how they can get speculation right.
The real concern is that speculation becomes ‘fact’. The Maltastar story taken up by Malta Today is now being read as ‘the police concluded that….’, when no such thing has happened.
In a few short days packed with wild speculation and spiteful commentary, a line of investigation has been turned into a conclusive ‘fact’.
Matthew Vella’s assertion that Malta Today is led by what people want to read, underscores the irresponsibility of sensationalising a story and presenting salacious gossip in the guise of responsible reporting.
Dear Daphne, I agree totally with what you have written regarding the press.
I cannot understand how (referring to The Times and PBS) they have changed their story so many times.
First, Mrs Zammit meets burglar on the terrace – husband goes to protect her, next in the hall and the last story is that they were asleep.
Just like people read your blog and respond, they do the same with the press.
We all are getting involved in this tragedy for the only reason that too many different stories have been published.
I really feel sorry for the two men who have died (one I knew as a child) and for their respective families.
I really hope that the truth in this matter will come to the surface.
WELL SAID!
Sometimes I worry that I am not normal. I am not interested in what happened…firstly because I do not know the people involved and knowing about this will not make me a better person/illuminated and more educated.
I do though understand that some people who were jealous of Anglu Xuereb (who provided and provides the livelihood of so many) are happy in their sordid jealous way that he is in so much pain.
Many people were (are?) jealous of Claire Zammit Xuereb and of her deceased husband.
Their sordid interest in the case is motivated by their envy of what seemed to be a privileged life.
To their perverse minds, the score is now settled and they can go back to their mean and meagre existence, safe in the ‘knowledge’ that no one is really better off than they are.
Hadn’t you noticed that no one’s taken the same attitude to the death of the other man?