Saviour Balzan is anything but an investigative journalist. His agenda-driven interviews make that other paragon of “journalism above everything” pale in comparison. Saviour “interviews” but he is not interested in listening to his interlocutor in order to build on the next question. He’s busy labelling and selling stereotypes that fit into his idea of the universe. Watch him falter and stutter through this interview (start at 3.38 minutes 5 minute mark – skip the ads) as he hopelessly attempts to trap Mike Briguglio (chapeau) into making Labour sound like a reasonable option.
You might want to keep your kids away from the screens – especially at the point where Balzan asks Briguglio whether he feels comfortable “using the Greece and Italy” arguments when speaking about the economy.
I pity Mike Briguglio. I pity him because he was probably dying to push that table out of the way and jump up and yell in Saviour Balzan’s face the words “Wake Up” in RATM style. It’s a pity that Mike has a set of standards he has to adhere to as the head of a party that has no listeners (let alone voters) but that still aspires to a modicum of decency as well as reasonable politics.
Yep. Mike has standards.
Which is definitely not something you can say about Salvu Balzan.
This post is dedicated to ADpfff.
4 replies on “Reporter Ripped Apart”
I thought it was a good interview. I do seem to recall how, during the eu referendum slog, Ireland was bloated out of all ‘reasonable’ proportion as some economic tiger due to its european credentials when every bob and his uncle knew that the Irish economy was growing because of ex-pat American investment…the same pundits have no qualms in now ‘using’ greece as an example of poor management as compared to our own management that ‘saved’ us from being another greece. Ignore the fact that in this instance we are comparing cheese with chalk, but is no one able to stop to think a. if we do have the infrastructure etc that greece has b. how do the revised lower personal pay/pension income (among many other things) compare with our own, on a like with like basis…ok two too complicated questions…so let us repeat the greece babbaw often enough and enough people will believe the perception being given by Dr Gonzi’s active supporters. Finally I would have loved to hear the views of Alternativa’s head Re on the hbieb tal-hbieb claim…
Danny I am not sure whether you are saying that Saviour’s interview style made any sense. As for the rest of your comment I think that you miss the point when you try to compare Malta to Greece or Ireland. The point is not whether Malta and its economy is like one or the other EU country but whether we should look at Malta’s economic situation WITHIN THE CONTEXT of an international economic crisis or not. The Labour party’s efforts seem to be concentrated on making us think that any contextualisation of Malta’s economic thinking is some form of escapism.
The truth is that you cannot – as Mike Briguglio put it perfectly – live in a vacuum (or as he said “ma nghixx go bozza”). You’d love to take Labour seriously, we’d love to “give them a break” but it turns out that the 51 proposals from another planet are now being sold as “solutions” in emails sent by the Labour party to households. There can be no doubt that the superficial is just where the Labour party economic thinking stops.
Which is only one other reason why Saviour Balzan came out sounding like a scripted agenda-driven idiot in this “good interview”.
Hi Jacques, I did enjoy Saviour’s style because i did not miss one beat from the exchange, he asked probing questions that could have been underpinned by agenda but made for good viewing. MB played his part although there was too much of the AD kienu l-ewwel etc…sounds too much as if he wants to steal Labour’s clichés hence the impression that his net position favours incumbent. I fully agree that Malta’s performance must be seen within context, there is no other way that the economy can be analyzed, but here is where i believe the problem lies…looking at PBS etc we are being led to believe that the context is Greece (and to a lesser extent Spain). I believe that this is far from being the case. Re the 51 points i must admit i was not too impressed. It sounded too laboured and disjointed as macro and micro aspects meshed in a sequence that seemed to lack cohesiveness. Joseph did say that these were just a few of the so called solutions and others are to follow and i hope that the final list will be underpinned by vision and a number of objectives that would spell ‘purpose’ and be cohesive. Joseph reacted to the spin that Labour is sitting on the fence and it did not sound too convincing although I must say that the developments on the key promise to reduce electricity bills has since gained some credibility. Joseph is certainly ambitious and keen to be prime minister but his youth and enthusiasm and his ability to attract quality people into his fold have indeed impressed me. I believe he needs to do is to channel his ambition into a holistic vision that may have a soft core as long as it has a hard outer layer. I do not think that he is too far away from this yet he is still not there yet. PS and i admit to having a bias too.
You are seriously paranoid, Jacques – or else you are the one pushing an agenda. It was a good tough and fair interview. They should all be like this.