Is this the new style of reporting at The Times, or is it just Kurt Sansone who’s allowed to ‘report’ as though he stills works for Saviour Balzan at Malta Today?
In The Times, today (and this is a news report, not an opinion piece):
Borg Olivier’s blame game continues
Kurt Sansone
Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier will not let go of the “who leaked what” blame game on the Mistra scandal.
For the second time in as many days, he yesterday called an urgent press conference to say that Labour leader Joseph Muscat had informed the PN of Labour’s plans to use the Mistra scandal in the last days of the electoral campaign four years ago.
In a repeat performance, Dr Borg Olivier again refused to comment on the scandal itself and whether then-Labour leader Alfred Sant was right in alleging corruption.
(…)
Try not to let your Labour sympathies show, Kurt, will you. It’s embarrassing, in a news report.
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Is The Times on autopilot with no editor?
That has been my impression for a long time now.
The editor is on leave for ten days.
Although the saying goes. ‘when the cat is away, the mice will play’, it appears that the mice play, editor present or not.
Daphne, I’m glad it’s not just me who thinks Kurt seems to have carte blanche in the lazy The Times newsroom.
In truth, he’s about the only semi-decent journalist they’ve got nowadays who actually goes out and gets a story rather than rewriting a press release badly.
The phrase “the best of a bad bunch” springs to mind.
[Daphne – I don’t agree with you. He’s certainly not the only one. The difference is his motivation. While one or two others are motivated by genuine journalistic initiative, Kurt’s motivation at The Times is exactly what it was at Malta Today: anti-Nationalist Party. First he rooted for AD and now for Labour. That’s why the only stories he’s motivated to find – and they usually land in his lap anyway – are stories which he uses to put his perceived political enemies in a bad light. Fine, if you’re an opinion-piece writer, but certainly not fine when you’re a staff reporter. Joseph Muscat, as the upcoming prime minister, should be the big story for all reporters, but you won’t find Kurt chasing him down to ask whether, for instance, he thinks EU membership has turned out to be a good thing for Malta after all. And he actually wrote that report on young people not liking Muscat without seeking Muscat’s comment. Unbelievable.]
The story isn’t the PN’s press conference held yesterday, It’s Simon Busuttil confirming where and how Joseph ruined Labour’s chances at winning 2008.
It’s not a ‘repeat performance’.
Maltastar this morning;
‘hearsay that Dr. Simon Busuttil invented’
‘a waste of time’
‘not interested in this type of negative politics.’
‘attacks on the leader of the Labour Party in the last two elections.’ They aren’t even allowed to mention Alfred Sant by name.
Good points, Daphne. I’d go along with all of that.
Yes, Kurt Sansone, all suprised why first time voters refuse Joseph, judging by his woolly jumpers, he wouldn’t understand.
Does he sleep in those things?
The Times has reached rock bottom. I can compare, because I worked there.
But to be fair, doing two press conferences on the same subject in a row is a bit too much.
I’m sure Paul Borg Olivier has other things to do.
What, are you condoning PBO’s silliness? I find that hard to swallow.
[Daphne – 1. Paul Borg Olivier speaks on behalf of the Nationalist Party, not himself. 2. The accusation that Joseph Muscat gave the game away is not silly, but extremely serious.]
And so far no libel or court proceedings have been initiated by Muscat against Busuttil – curiouser and curiouser.
Joseph Muscat lied through his teeth to cover his tracks, plain and simple. How serious is that?
We’ll be entitled to this bickering about ‘bigmouths’ after it’s completely ruled out that there were no irregularities related to that contract.
No matter what the PN says, the scandalous part of the Mistragate affair is and will remain JPO and his secret dealings.
The PN, through PBO’s lone crusade, should stop trying to alienate the people another time on this issue.
We already had that sort of alienation just before the last election, with the PN painting Sant as a coward, and we all know who emerged morally victorious in due course.
[Daphne – Don’t give me any crap about Sant and morals or principles. If the man had any, he wouldn’t have obliged Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, a man he called ‘politically and morally corrupt’, by taking the politically and morally corrupt route of voting against Malta permanent representative to the European Union. I would have expected somebody like Sant to take the moral high ground on that one, but clearly, he’s as sordid as the rest.]
What irregularities were condoned by the PN?
As far as I am aware, there is absolutely no development at Mistra by JPO.
It should be flippin’ obvious that JPO was not afforded any favours by the PN – even though JPO is effectively trying to blackmail it.
@DUST: I’m referring to the issuing of permits.
Why is it serious?
[Daphne – Obviously, you’re not into politics except in the most intellectual way.]
It’s a serious matter that the prospective prime minister is incapable of the most basic loyalty and discretion. Who else he is going to sell out and for what gain to himself is a question everyone should be asking, particularly those whose job it is to do so.
It has been evident for years that Kurt Sansone is biased and writing much the same way he did at Malta Today, when he was a candidate for Alternattiva Demokratika.
Maybe he’s a plant, like Sabrina at Radju RTK.
What’s RTK? There used to be a radio by that name. Does it still exist?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl9qGpG0pLw
Brilliant clip but how can journalists trained by Super One or Malta Today be impartial?
They are almost certainly recruited there specifically because they are die-hard Labour supporters.
Yes, it is true. And what Sabrina Agius failed to do, i.e. to get a job at “The Time”, Kurt Sansone managed instead.
If what I have just read in The Times is the real truth, then it is a real shame in this day and age.
I remember the Labour administration doing likewise in the 70s and 80s. It just doesn’t work like that anymore.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120726/local/-It-is-an-injustice-pure-and-simple-.430136
So what’s new?
Brian, I have to agree with you. Based on the facts presented by The Times, I believe that the correct approach in this case was for the private operator to approach the owners of that land and buy it privately. The government should have stayed out of it.
Kurt Sansone in The Times yesterday:
“No new information was given at the press conference and Dr Borg Olivier once again refused to say whether then Labour leader Alfred Sant was right when he alleged corruption on the Mistra scandal.”
That The Times has become anti-nationalist has been obvious for quite some time. Perhaps those running it now weren’t around when their building was attacked and burnt down in 1979.
There have been many strange editorial decisions at The Times recently.
The sudden departure of veteran features writer Tanja Cilia was also particularly badly handled.
Her very witty and gossipy Sunday column, which was always a ‘must-read’ for me has been replaced with something very bland that my 12-year-old daughter could’ve written.
No less than seven e-mails have directed me to this blog.
I have nothing to add to what is being said here and elsewhere.
However it needs to be made clear that (a) I was never employed as a full-timer with Allied Newspapers Limited and therefore (b) I was never “employed, fired, re-employed and fired again, this time for good”; (c) I did not stop writing the column of my own volition; but rather (d) I was told it would be discontinued because of the re-organisation of the Culture pages.
As for “veteran” – well, I suppose having written in the same publication(s) for nigh on forty years does make me ‘an old hand’.
Luciano Micallef’s happy fingers have got him in trouble, again.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=459348690749640&set=p.459348690749640&type=1&theater
Busuttil.
We have been noticing for a while that The Times has gone a little tabloid in the last couple of years. Kurt is one culprit, but who creates the negative spin in the headlines?
And why, given the current political climate, would “Officers Charged Again” (the story of the messed time sheet) trump “PN MEPs outshine Labour in Europe?” and get front page coverage?
When you break it down, we spend over €350 annually buying The Times every day. We stopped buying Malta Today ages ago, but I would like to continue buying The Times.
I have heard that The Times has hired a British ex-tabloid reporter and he is responsible for headlines.
“but you won’t find Kurt chasing him down to ask whether, for instance, he thinks EU membership has turned out to be a good thing for Malta after all. ”
OR HOW HE IS GOING TO REDUCE THE WATER AND ELECTRICITY BILLS, OR WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO TO MAKE UP FOR THE LOST REVENUE.
Yes the Times has turned anti Nationalist because it has recruited persons like Kurt Sansone, whose political motivation trumps his journalistic drive every time.
The days when editor Grech was there are over and it shows badly.
Joey in Gardaland today. Lassie went home.
Kurt Sansone must be one of those enlightened young people who believes that the burning down of The Times building, the Tal-Barrani incidents and vindictive transfers of the glorious Mintoffian era are a lot of hogwash.
Wanted to burn today’s edition of The Times. Had already had enough with what was inside, but to see the back-page picture and sarcastically commenting about tourists going by cranes I wanted to pick the phone up and ask The Times owners whether any cranes were used to build their mega-building in Mriehel.
Stopped advertising on The Times because it is getting even worse than MaltaToday.
It is following the same criteria as Labour’s character assassination attempts.
Observe how each and every letter criticising Arriva is always in the prime spot and any letter in favour of the present government is placed at the very bottom of the page and surrounded by non-political subjects.
No, Taks Fors, you are mistaken because the mega-building in Mriehel was already build by two or three businessmen as a storage division for their goods to be distributed all over Malta in their chain-stores.
The cranes were in St Paul’s Street in Valletta re-building the guttered building of that newspapers when the Labour tugs burnt it and when Kurt Sansone “kien ghadu f’zaqq ommu”. Is he who is in-charge of “Sabrinu” at the “Times” aware of the damage this person is doing to this firm, once was “il-krema tal-gurnalizmu?”
I think you should point your finger at the editor instead.
There is only one way to show The Times that what the newspaper is doing is wrong: do not buy it. Shareholders understand that something is wrong when they see their income is falling.
Yes, it is a good idea, after all gone are the dark days when you had to have permission to buy a computer.
Today, almost every family has a computer and you can read this paper on line, IF YOU WILL STILL BE INTERESTED IN IT because as things are folding no one will be interested to read it.
Perfectly agree A, Charles. It’s just the habit, a life-long one, to read a paper while having breakfast.
That’s what makes it difficult to stop me getting The Times.
@ l-Iskocciz: The spirit of my blog was that cranes were indeed used for the new building housing The Times in Mriehel.
You are right to correct the timing bit, and you were also correct re the cranes used to rebuild their Valletta premises after the attack by L-Aristokrazija tal-Haddiema.
But how can Malta wilfully drive itself back into those days? And now even with the help of The Times, itself a victim of Labour’s thugs?
@ Taks Fors
My comment was not intended to correct yours.
It was only made to bring to the attention of other young readers who did not experienced these instances that with the help of Sabrinu Sansone of “The Times”, gone are the days when the Muscat Labour Party thugs put at risk the lives of many employees of this press, where Sabrinu today is earning his living.