Effin brilliant.
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Category: Mediawatch
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Press On (a preview)
Here’s a snippet from tomorrow’s J’Accuse column on the Malta Independent on Sunday.
I am a strong believer in the role of the press, of books and of ideas in the functioning of a proper democracy. As John Milton wrote in his Aeropagitica “He who destroys a good book, kills reason itself”.There’s much truth in that. A nation, even a small nation such as ours needs to recognise the value of authors providing different narratives and ideas. Authors provide opportunities for reflection, they may provoke and challenge or they may charm with vignettes and pictures of our society. In any case the worst we could do is censor the truths they tell about ourselves.
The press too needs to recognise the dignified importance of its role. It needs to shed the baggage of politically manipulative impostors who have burdened and sullied its image. Local political talk seems to focus on futile accusations related to partiality and the elusive mantra of absolute impartiality. Journalism does not need eunuchs or hypocritical gurus and coaches posing as the voice of objective impartiality. It needs clear ethics, clear ideas and above all the accountability that allows it to shout “publish and be damned”. Give me a journalist with a declared bias any day rather than the sanitised pantomimes that have neutered our thinking with the extended sagas of Broadcasting Authority illusions of par conditio.
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The Coach & Horses
Much is being made about Peppi Azzopardi’s side-career as a “coach” to prominent persons in the political sphere. Such persons tend to be, or have been, of a nationalist persuasion although I have it on good record that Peppi has also given non-nationalists the benefits of whatever expertise he has – admittedly within campaigns that were also dear to the nationalist party’s heart.
To begin with, there is nothing surprising that one of the main horses from the “Where’s Everybody” stable should engage in spinoff marketing designed to get people to get their message through to your average citizen. WE’s monopoly of national airwave prime time has put them in a position to be able – even by trial and error – to discover what sells best with Mr. Francis the People (Cikku l-poplu). In the land of the blind the one-eyed man sometimes develops an acute sense of vision that might surprise even himself.
Labour’s noise about Peppi’s supposed impartiality and that of the other equine from the same stable – the one who tends to bray rather than neigh – is rather misplaced. It has been said elsewhere that impartiality is not the be all and end all of discussion program or investigative journalism. It is the feigning of impartiality that is another matter altogether. To actually convince yourself that you are in the business of balanced reporting or discussion when it is clear to all and sundry how mechanised a pantomime your programmes are is to persist in a constant lie. J’accuse never had any beef with the lack of impartiality but rather with the obstinate denial thereof.
What jars most in the case of Peppi, Lou and others who have previously backed the line of one Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is their defence of “I believed him then”. But then what? They saw his face and inverted the musical trend?
You see the Peppi defence of “I helped a persecuted individual” does not hold water in the field of marketing – you are employed to sell ANYTHING and do not question the underlying message. Peppi was either turning up at the nationalist party headquarters to coach a politician on how to appear more convincing – whatever the message – or he was there in his full mental capacity and judging the content too: and it was not THAT difficult to see that JPO was floundering fast even under the duress and stress of the time.
Nor does someone like Daphne convince me with the bull about how JPO was very convincing before the election and how now he is suddenly a liar, a hamallu or whatever else the spin machine chooses to throw at this jack of all trades turned politician. The nationalist party was falling over itself trying to get the man out of the muddle he had brought upon himself. We had pointed out the absurdity of the issuing of a press card to a politician at the time and we were told that we were “immature” and that we were picking the wrong man.
The damascene turnaround has nothing to do with policy or values but with convenience. Peppi and Daphne sound very much like a Joseph Muscat who needed four years of European Parliament action before he saw the EU light shining through the yellow stars on a blue background. And the funny thing is that it does not answer the basic question: whether you believed him or whether you were being paid on a retainer Peppi, you were in PN HQ doing PN work for a PN politician.
Saying that it’s because you believed him then is like saying you put the joint to your mouth… but never inhaled.
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The Sacking of a Journalist
The fourth estate being what it is, the news of the sacking of a trainee journalist (he was on probation) in a particular set of circumstances warrants careful examination. J’accuse has a long history of criticising the workings of the mainstream press and is not about to hold back now. I am of course referring to the premature termination of Matt Bonanno’s contractual arrangement with the employers at the Times of Malta. Such termination did not require much of an explanation given that Bonanno was on probation i.e. the sacking required no explanation at all.
This does not mean however that we cannot look further into what happened and how it happened. Now that we have the news from the horse’s mouth (Matt Bonanno’s facebook note – reproduced with his permission further down) we can look at what could possibly have motivated the geniuses at the Times to nip this particular career in the bud. First a little set of clarifying facts:
[box]
(1) Bonanno posted the information of the impending Ministerial visit to tal-Qroqq on a facebook wall that belonged to a friend of his: Ms Abela Garett.
(2) Bonanno did NOT pick up the invitation sent to him in reply by Ms Abela Garrett in which he was asked to “bring his notebook along” to tal-Qroqq the next day for the pre-meditated, non-spontaneous display of disaffection at the Minister’s dealings with public transport.
(3) Bonanno did not inform his editors of the possible protest action – and this is assuming he gave any importance to the wall reply by Abela Garett.
(4) The Times sent ANOTHER journalist to cover Austin Gatt’s university visit. The visit and ensuing ministerial heckling was reported on the Times as it was on all other papers.
(5) The PN sleuths trying to discredit the protesting by Abela Garett included in their list of grievances that (a) the protest was premeditated; (b) Bonanno’s message on facebook was part of the pre-meditation.
(6) While more of the “premeditated” “non-spontaneous” bull was being thrown in direction of the theatrical performance, the Times chose to sever ties with one link in the chain of “premeditation” and sacked Matt Bonanno without so much as a by your leave.[/box]
It stinks. It does. And I do not believe for one moment the whole “conspiracy theory” or the Times is a confederacy of nationalists business. What we have here is an organ that likes to kid itself of being impartial and super partes when it comes to reporting the news suddenly developing a panic attack that it might in some way be “implicated” in a supposed “frame up” of Minister Gatt.
J’accuse believes that the Times people gave absolutely no thought whatsoever to what they were doing before the knee jerk reaction of sacking Matt Bonanno. If the Times had not swallowed so completely all the bull being shot into their direction by Messrs Bondi, Caruana Galizia and Co. about the evil nature of “non-spontaneous protest” they would have, possibly (and hopefully) noticed that Bonanno’s sole “sin” actually forms part of the repertoire of your average hack.
Yes. The Times sacked a journalist for behaving like one. Activists and ground level journalists constantly interact. Lord knows how many faxes about protests I sent in my time as an activist. If I wanted my organisation to be in the news I’d pretty damn well tell the journalist to “bring his notebook along” and pray to God that he follows suit.
Was Bonanno wrong to tell Abela Garett that Minister Gatt would be at Uni the next day? No. It’s public information after all. Nothing wrong in that.
Was Bonanno wrong not to inform his editors about possible protests occurring on the day? Again all evidence points to exculpating Bonanno. If anything, Bonanno would have abused of such information by “scooping” the issue and being on hand for the news item. Instead he probably did not even bother at all.
The uglier scenario is the alternative one. What if HE HAD told the Times editors that he suspected a possible protest against Austin Gatt on campus? What would they have done? Why are they so eager for the news? Their action (the sacking) might lead us to suspect that they would be more interested in forewarning the Minister than in actually reporting the event. After all they did get the report just the same but their reaction (the sacking) makes them seem rather angry about it all. The thing is… they lost control. They could not control the news. They had to follow and report.
Matt Bonanno’s inadvertent – and I insist unplanned – slipping of the bit of info to Abela Garrett led the Times to behave as a normal newspaper – one that reports the news as it unfolds before it without trying to tamper in any way. The moment though that the PN machine set the wheels in motion and started pointing fingers about absurd theories of “premeditation” and “nonspontaneity” the Times panicked.
And Matt was their perfect scapegoat.
Matt’s Note on Facebook (reproduced with his permission).
[box] I wasn’t going to write an explanation at first, but seeing as though gossip and rumours are being fired off from all sides, I thought it would be best to have my perspective wedged somewhere in between all the bullshit. Not that I ultimately give a damn what people think; times like these make it easier to realise who is not worth your time. Firstly, let me be the first to admit that what I did (and what I did exactly will be explained next) was spectacularly naive, and mildly unprofessional.
What I did was this: The day before the incident, I posted on Ms Abela Garrett’s wall, “Guess who’s going to be at University tomorrow.” I barely paid attention to her comment in which she told me she was going to give me a good story. So much so that I didn’t even tell my editors about it, and as a result did not attend the event, which by the way was public and not in the least bit top secret. Therefore, the whole thing was not orchestrated in any way. If I really, intentionally wanted to orchestrate something like that, I would have messaged her privately, not joked semi-publicly on her Facebook wall. In the words of John Cleese in a Monty Python sketch, I may be an idiot but I’m no fool.
A couple of other things which need to be cleared up are:
1) I did not write the article. I was busy following George Pullicino around a valley at the time and call him as my witness.
2) It was not me who decided to portray Ms. Abela Garrett as a heroine. I have no ill feeling towards The Times, especially my former colleagues in the newsroom.
Even though I feel my sacking was harsh, I was still on probation and they were well within their rights to give me the boot. The only thing I was disappointed about was not being given the chance to explain myself or apologise, in person. I was of course asked to explain myself via email on Thursday, since I was off that day, but I kept it brief and intended to explain myself fully, in front of the editors, the next day. On Friday, after being left in the newsroom for about 2 hours, I was called to HR and told my probation was terminated with immediate effect. To be honest I didn’t give my side of things, seeing as I wasn’t asked to. I don’t beg.
Neither am I going to be bearing a grudge against the bloggers who blew the incident out of proportion. They do what they do and I should have known better than to give them fuel to fire their own agendas.
And before they claim they don’t have an agenda, if Messrs. Bondi (sorry but I can’t be arsed putting the accent on the i) and Caruana Galizia were the journalists they claim to be, they would have phoned me to get my side of things before stampeding towards their own, warped conclusions. But that’s not how they work, obviously.
I will say one thing however. Caruana Galizia claims not to be on Facebook, but that makes her lifting photos, statuses etc. from the site and putting them on her blog even more morbid and stalker-like. Then again, she probably doesn’t search for them herself (if she does then she really does need to get a life) and has her minions do it for her. To these sad, miserable sycophants I say: do the rest of us a favour and stop robbing the planet of oxygen.
Actually now that I think of it I’d better remove the pictures of me French kissing a horse with a Labour flag draped over it while attending a pasta najt. (Kidding, Daffy) Finally, a big soppy thank you to my friends who have supported me over the past few days.
I’m touched, really. Anyway, I’ll be getting on with my life now.
Over and out. Matthew Bonanno.
Ps. I wish Maltatoday had chosen a better photo of me. [/box]
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We don’t need no education
It’s Student’s Day and the University of Malta is abuzz as it is wont to be on such an occasion. I haven’t seen anything online about the KSU or University commemorating this moment in history but that might be for fear of Deborah Schembri or Cyrus Engerer lashing back and reminding us that bringing up the past is for pussies. Or something like that.
Student’s Day. A protesting student did make the headlines by exposing Malta’s sleepy minister to a barrage of expletives. The reason? Numerus clausus? Censorship? No. Arriva. The bus commute from Naxxar to Valletta is too long so fuck you Austin. Unlike Michael Frendo back in ’77 (go ahead correct me) this particular student did not get a taste of the Lorry Sant or Wistin Abela thug fraternity. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for hurling expletives at Ministers if that is your particular cup of tea… I only wish we had a video of the event for posterity’s sake. Did she also reserve an insult or two for the vanishing act that is Manuel Delia? Attagirl.
And while we are on the subject of thugs. Here’s how the youth of today, the progressive youth, spend their time on Student’s Day. Here’s Alex Saliba celebrating god knows what anniversary from the death of that paladin of tertiary education and buildings for the people Lorry Sant. Thank (expletive removed) that I had LIKED a comment in reply to Alex’s blurb before it was picked up by the Runs otherwise lord knows what new fantasies and phantsies of plagiarism or idea-theft would have been found in that corner of the blogoverse.
And speaking of young progressives I cannot fail but mention Aaron Farrugia – the spokesperson of Fondazzjoni Ideat whose idea of a retort in an argument is accusing his interlocutor of being an armchair critic. Aaron picked on one of Dear Leader’s rumblings at Tal-Qroqq and decided it was quotable enough as marketing material – proof of Labour’s sound vision for the future. Apparently Joseph Muscat tells us that the UOM should be a centre for learning and creativity. A university for learning did you say? There we were thinking University was only for Realtà controversies, campus fests and rag days (do they still do that one?).
I gave Aaron a taste of his own medicine (oops… can I use that phrase or is it now copyright) and suggested more catchy phrases like: “Fishermen should catch and sell fresh fish. Grocers should sell vegetables. Farmers should reap what they sow.” How does the chairman of Labour’s think tank react to my obvious allegation that this is not a proposal but a useless populist tautology? Well after toying with the usual “armchair critic” piffle… he does what seems to be done best by most Maltese when challenged to discuss: he blocks me from his facebook account. Luckily I had picture evidence of the exchange:
One last thing about university. The barrier is already quite low as it is. Labour’s new championing of students’ right to enter courses could of course be commendable. What is truly worrying is the trend that seems to be moving confusingly towards declaring “graduation” as a right. The right is to access education. There is absolutely no right to successfully read a course. If you are hopeless at a course, if you are unqualified to read a course, then the only place for you is in the failure cabinet. I get this feeling that very little failures are forthcoming at University – resits are just a reminder “to do better next time”. This is just as worrying as having a numerus clausus. Surely someone, somewhere should be pointing this out. Otherwise might as well hand out random diplomas in combination with birth certificates. Then everybody would be equal… we’d be a nation of graduates… and who will need education then?
Surely not Lorry Sant.
ASIDE: Josanne Cassar has belatedly joined the blogging comunity by opening her own portal at www.josannecassar.com. It’s a bit more than a blog – more like a collection of articles and interviews but we’d like to wish her all the luck with this venture of hers.
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Blast from the past
I’d like to apologise for the current dearth of blogging but in between a compressed workload, the run up to the day I tie the knot and works in progress chez J’accuse (plus a bachelors to recove from) we’ve found little time to write the many things that have passed through our mind. Meanwhile, to fill the gap… and as an example of our incredible consistency – here’s what we were writing on J’accuse 5 years ago.
“Tra questi documenti, quelli appunto contrassegnati “dai progressivi 112 al 119 con tutte le telefonate della Juventus di Luciano Moggi, la Gea ma anche del guardalinee Enrico Ceniccola, finito nell’inchiesta di Napoli per la partita Lecce-Juve 0-1. “Chiesi a Adamo – dice la donna – dove finivano quest’ultimi elaborati, ottenendo come risposta che di questo non dovevo preoccuparmi“.
Denigrators of the bianconeri have had a great time over the past summer. Reading the news items, following the cases and above all examining the punishments one would think that the only illegal operator in the realm of Italian football is Juve. The supposition was that everyone had been investigated and that the Juve officials were worse off at the end of it. Worse off – even though no proof was found of fixed matches or of actual influence on refereeing – they are playing a dignified season in Serie B and have turned over a new chapter.
The investigations into Telecom Italia’s illegal tapping are now shedding more light on the suspicious “selective victimisation” and it would seem that there is a methodology behind the fact that the only accusations forthcoming were against La Vecchia Signora. It also transpires that the cleanest team in football (false passports aside) are now under investigation for the much feared slealtà sportiva.Apparently Inter were also involved in some illegal spying activity that might have been intended to procure unfair sporting advantage.
As we had said earlier in the year on J’Accuse… there is much that is rotten in the Kingdom of Calcio. The petty measures that were taken until now stank more of jealousy and antipathy than real justice. The current campionato is a sham and the winners will have nothing to be proud of. Just as much as the scudetto sewn onto the Inter shirts this season is the biggest lie in the history of football.
Wait for more. There is no doubt that there will be more.
