Miss Jason doesn't know Mrs Daphne writes for the newspapers
Jason he Peacock - he may not have the feathers but he sure as hell has the brain
Testifying as a witness for the prosecution yesterday, in the groundbreaking case The Police vs Daphne Caruana Galizia (ref: Charlon Gouder and The Qahba Who Stole His Wallet), Miss Jason Micallef, in his capacity as chairman of Super One, said under oath that he is not aware that Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia is a journalist.
“Le, ma kelli ebda ideja li hija gurnalista. Kont taht l-impressjoni li taghmel il-kotba tas-tisjir,” he told the magistrate.
(“I had no ideja that she is a journalist. I was under the impression that she ‘does’ cookery books.”)
There were raised eyebrows all round, and a smirk from me in the dock. Miss Jason was doing his Hissy Queen bit again (and no, I am not suggesting he is gay; hissy queen is a behavioural description, usually accompanied by the word ‘Miaaaooowwwww’).
The thing about Miss Jason is that when he gets bitchy he drives himself into a corner. Watch him on television. Who can forget that infamous episode after the last general election when, as secretary-general of the Labour Party, he was led by the nose – because he’s not quick-witted enough to see where questions are leading – into admitting that he had no idea what the youth vote was or that it had swung to his political enemies.
And his performance in the counting-hall, when he swished off to drive Sant home and never returned, leaving Michael Falzon to face the music?
So in his effort at trying to convince us (under oath) that I am of so little significance to the Labour Party that he believes I write cookery books for a living and that he doesn’t know I write for the newspapers or run this website, Miss Jason is forced to admit that he isn’t very bright and that he was hopeless at his job as secretary-general of the Labour Party and now, as chairman of Super One.
Both roles involve keeping a close watch on everything that happens in the media, and on what the political writers are saying.
But Miss Jason has never read a single thing I’ve written, he doesn’t know I write about politics, and he doesn’t know about this website, which was set up in the general election of 2008, the one he fought for Labour.
When I say he’s a peacock, I mean the brain and not the feathers.
Still on the witness stand, he was asked whether he had given instructions to Byon Jo Zammit (who described himself as a ‘cameraperson’, for all the world as though he doesn’t know whether he’s a man or a woman) and Charlon Gouder to chase me, my father, my sisters, my husband and my lawyer, camera and microphone on so that we couldn’t even speak to each other, right down Republic Street when we came out of court after the first Consuelogate hearing.
“Yes,” Miss Jason said. “I decided it was in the public interest to show that film footage.”
There was some clearing of throats. And more raised eyebrows. So Miss Jason’s idea of news value and the public interest is filming someone ‘who does cookery books’ walking along with her family.
Super One viewers must be really into food. That must be because they’re starving.
Then my lawyer asked Miss Jason whether he realised at last that I am a journalist during the first hearing of the Consuelogate (my word, not his) case, for which Miss Jason was very much present with Miss Ronnie Pellegrini, in coordinated outfits.
He must have known what the case was all about and he must have heard me give my profession as ‘journalist’, before he and Miss Ronnie were evicted from the hall because they might be summoned as witnesses.
At that point, Miss Jason began to feel antagonised and displayed hostile body language of the Hissy Queen variety. The magistrate reminded him in a reassuring voice that he was not the one being prosecuted, that he was there as a witness.
And then Miss Jason walked right into it. “Were you there (for the first hearing of the Magistrate Scerri Herrera case) in your capacity as chairman of Super One?” my lawyer asked him.
“No,” he said. “Kont off. I was there in my personal capacity.” He was asked the question again and he made himself ever clearer on that point.
So MIss Jason and Miss Ronnie were there to root for their friend Magistrate Consuelo in her battle against the Evil Cookery Writer Daphne.
The idiot.
Charlon Gouder at least had the good sense to say he was in court to report on the case, rather than to lend moral and Labour Party broadcasting support to his good chum Magistrate Herrera, with whom he is on arm-around-the-waist terms, by harassing the Evil Food Writer, the Wich of bAHriJA.
This was most unfortunate, as Magistrate Herrera has been at pains to point out that she has no special relationship with the people at Super One. They are not her friends. They are her daughter’s friends, because so many of them are law students.
Not to put too fine a point on it, her daughter must be really desperate to want to hang out with Charlon Gouder. And I thought he was a married man, anyway – but let’s not get into that.
Some other things I discovered in court yesterday:
1. Byon Jo Zammit, ‘cameraperson’ of Super One and a matching pocket size to Kurt Farrugia, pronounces his name as somebody like me would pronounce Bjorn. I’m guessing his parents wanted to name him Bjorn and spelt it phonetically in English. So really, I’m not surprised he turned out like that, coming from such a disadvantaged background. Ta’ min jithassru. I thought it was pronounced By-On, like Ryan, given that it purports to be English. The way he pronounces it, it should be spelled Byonne, and it would be a French woman’s name, like Yvonne.
2. Vince MIcallef, friend of Consuelo Scerri Herrera and lawyer for Charlon Gouder along with that other policeman-turned-lawyer Andy Ellul (brother to Sharon Ellul Bonici), chews gum in court – the same piece of gum for two straight hours. And he chews it like white trash do, with the mouth slightly moved to the side. He was accompanied by a woman – some sort of new lawyer, I imagine – who looked VERY white trash, wearing skin-tight stretch clothing that explained every detail of her anatomy, four-inch spike heels, lurid lipstick and bushy hair hanging over her face and back. If she thinks that is a professional outfit, she’s in the wrong profession.
3. I couldn’t decide who looked sleazier: some of the lawyers or some of the clients. It was a tough call.
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and the idiot ‘thought’ (doesn’t one have to have brains to think ?) that you just ”do” cookery books D !
The above should put him straight (no pun intended)
Jason lied under oath – that’s how seriously he takes the oath. Will action be taken against him? We’ll wait and see.
Dear Daphne,
I have to commend you on your great sense of humour. You must be actually enjoying what to most of us would be an ordeal.
Your astute observations are worth a pot of gold.
Lawyer Vnce Micallef chewing gum in court! That should have been enough for the presiding magistrate to throw him out and into oblivion.
Oh, and that bimbo for a lawyer that you hilariously describe accompanying Andy Ellul, she must be walking dead or, my God, my watch has stopped.
Why does the court allow lawyers to chew gum? These are just bad manners which no serious person will allow in front of a court of justice.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall! Look on the bright side – at least, there wasn’t Toni Abela tal-Labour there too (I’m assuming so because you would – ahem – probably have let us know about it). That would really have completed the “scenery”.
Gawd, did you see Toni Abela sporting a new ‘tache on Bondi+ last night? He looked like a plucked chicken.
I can’t understand how Jason can face the public.
He should hide his face in shame, allowing the leader to put him on the backburner when he was voted in as secretary general by the General Conference. The General Conference is sacrosant.
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/01/20/t4.html
Good grief, our Miss Jason is suffering from early-onset dementia.
I’m reproducing the MaltaToday article here for those who could not be bothered to click on the link provided above:
Daphne denies cosmetic surgery, tells Jason to stop being ridiculous
Karl Schembri
Star columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia has rubbished Jason Micallef’s claims that she underwent cosmetic surgery to her “face, breast and backside”, calling on the MLP Secretary General to “stop being ridiculous”.
Speaking on Bondiplus last Monday, Micallef launched a diatribe against Caruana Galizia for writing about how the Labour Party tackled Alfred Sant’s colon surgery, fuelling speculation about his health by keeping details of his ailment a closely guarded secret.
Faced with her opinion column published on The Malta Independent on Sunday earlier this month, Micallef was quick to dismiss Labour’s nemesis as a woman who “is well known for her frustrations about Alfred Sant”.
“It is journalistic frustration… for someone who gets operated upon in her face, breast and backside to appear different… her nose, her lips… I can say all this because I took advice and it is in the public domain,” he said as the programme presenter tried to dissuade him from going any further about Daphne in her absence.
When contacted, Caruana Galizia said Micallef got it all wrong.
“Jason is behaving like a prat,” she said. “I’m flattered that he thinks so, but he’s completely wrong. It’s ridiculous because what he said is totally untrue. It’s madness; they (Labour) say I am obsessed with Sant but they have a complete obsession with me. The minute you mention my name they go completely irrational.”
Caruana Galizia acknowledged that she was to an extent a public figure, but Micallef could not put her on the same footing as the potential future prime minister.
“There’s an important distinction to be drawn here. I’m a public figure as much as entertainment people are public figures, in the sense that I have no right to say ‘don’t discuss me’ but I have no duty to the public either.”
Ironically, Caruana Galizia’s article was one of her least personal ones with regard to Alfred Sant, commenting more on Labour’s policy of silence and half-truths about his illness which reminded her of “the life and times of Josef Stalin” than about him personally.
But by going down that road, Micallef must have inadvertently lifted the lid on what has long been a taboo particularly for the edgy Opposition.
Labour has been keen on crying wolf whenever the press has dared question it or raise borderline issues, such as Maurice Tanti Burlò’s cartoon depicting Sant as “King of Pooh-Land” at the end of 2006.
Caruana Galizia remains, however, the only Maltese columnist to write about Sant’s wig and most of the other public figures’ physical appearance through her acerbic pen, generating controversies and eliciting furious letters in reply.
“I have no hang-ups about that,” she said. “It’s ridiculous how people have very strange ideas as to what is good taste and bad taste. They are totally cut off from what’s written in the foreign press, so everything shocks them. The typical answer to much of what I write is ‘why doesn’t she look in the mirror?’ What kind of argument is that? What has that got to do with my arguments?”
What patience the magitrate has. She should have pulled Jason up for fooling around under oath. As Super One chief, it is his duty to read what the newspapers are saying and I am more than sure that he reads The Malta Indemendent on Sunday and all the otjher newspapers if it comes to that.
[Daphne – You know what? I don’t think he does. He doesn’t strike me as somebody who reads newspapers, or even as somebody who understands politics. His personality is that of a bitchy hissy queen who happens to work for a political party. But he might as well have been working for a company that organises fashion events.]
The Labour Party has more liabilities than assets. Joseph Muscat should seriuosly look into this great harm that is being caused to his party.
Dear Daphne,
Since you ‘do’ cookery books, can you please give us the recipe for a barbuljata?
L-ewwel nett, irid ikollok il-bajd, li hafna nies m’ghandhomx.
Kont qed naghmel ir-ross il-forn u waqaft, biex forsi insaqsik ghandekx xi ricetta ahjar, u nohrog iktar ta’ mara.
Anki il-qorti qed naqaw ta’ ridikoli issa? Ghax nahseb anki il-qtates u il-klieb li jghixu Malta jafu li int opinjonista.
Cajtatur helu Jason. Ried idahhaq. Il-hmerijja hi li hareg ta’ mazetta, bhal dejjem. Imma issa jaf min int, igifieri?
[Daphne – Miniex zgura, Pat. Forsi hasibni Michael Cassar.]
Isn’t that perjury to lie under oath?
[Daphne – Only when it affects the outcome of the case. Otherwise it just makes him a bloody liar – so what’s new.]
Ah, Daphne, but here Jason called you “artikolista” and guilty of “frustrazzjoni gurnalistika”…
Is that equivalent to perjury?
Strange he did not call you “espert tat-tisjir”.
Di-VE
BondiPlus, 14 Jan 2008, minute 55.
http://public.di-ve.com/streaming/on_demand_media_streamer.aspx?id=1228&encoding=8&backUrl=streaming%2fon_demand_event_encoding.aspx%3fid%3d1228
I am not sure the link goes straight (oops) to the video, but the details should help.
If Jason was there on his day OFF – in his personal capacity, and not as chairman of Super One – why did he give instructions to ByON and CharlON to chase you down Republic Street in the public interest? In what capacity did he give them those instructions, then?
[Daphne – I love the bit where he said ‘kont off’. Il-vera mentalita tal-mittilkless. Bhal tal-wages, din. As though somebody in such a senior position should be thinking in terms of ‘off’ and ‘lif’.]
Did JasON really expect you to talk about your new recipes past Cafe’ Cordina down Republic Street?
BUt then you do write about the balbuljati, brodu, kawlati u frejjeg tal-partit tal-lejber.
“If Jason was there on his day OFF – in his personal capacity, and not as chairman of Super One – why did he give instructions to ByON and CharlON to chase you down Republic Street in the public interest? ”
Maybe he wanted to claim for ‘owfertaym’.
Well if he did he would only have been paid at his standard hourly rate, as is the ‘agreement’ at One!
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080227/opinion/hands-off-their-overtime
Wow our own Nigella Lawson. Now that’s one yummy mummy I wouldn’t associate with the baskside of a bus.
Clearly Miss Jason bravely falters on when he finds himself under pressure and resorts to lies. Only to contradict himself shortly after.
Perhaps he was “off” like a can of sardines left out in the 40C heat.
May I ask, is Freddie Micallef, the ex-Labour Minister in Joseph’s good books? – if yes, then I can understand why Jason is still being tolerated in the positions he had, and has. However, I am sure that you do not need a high IQ to note that Jason is a grave liability to the Labour Party.
Kev, what are you doing here reading Daphne’s cooking tips? Shouldn’t you be doing your job protecting us from the soviet-style superstate?
birds of a feather Kev flock together. same villains. same corps.
How about this for proof? He refers to your having ‘journalistic frustration’
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/01/20/t4.html
[Daphne – Yes, because I never achieved the pinnacle of my ambition to work for Super One, and now never will.]
Didn’t the lawyer’s mouth get dry after chewing the same piece of gum for two hours? Could he speak?
[Daphne – I imagine he could, yes, but he didn’t apart from a prompt. His star performers were obviously rehearsed, which is why they were thrown off balance by questions. You know that dead expression in people’s eyes when they’re not too bright but are slimey and cunning? That’s Vince Micallef – and the white trash chick who was with him in court. You can always tell people are dull-witted by their eyes. It’s astonishing.]
Pity he didn’t mention Taste by name. What good marketing it would be, for the name to be mentioned in open court.
Red nose as far as I know Freddie Micallef is Jason’s uncle.
‘Early enquiries’, Kevvy? The KGB strikes again!
So Jason has made it plain that “the magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera” (Maltastar terminology) is a friend of his?
So what are we to think of this:
“Like many other columnists who are friends of the nationalist party, Eddie Aquilina accused Jason Micallef of saying that a Labour Government would be a Government for Labourites only.
The magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera said that the facts show otherwise, and thus found Aquilina guilty.”
http://environment.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=4230