Category: Library

Categories
Mediawatch

Tips from the Tip (updated)

The Runs has advice for J’accuse (indirectly of course). We’re in a good mood so we dispense some “tips” of our own. Warning: the contents of this blog have been known to confuse intellectually inferior beings – idiots should proceed under adult supervision.

Here’s the original tip from the tip in answer to (an obviously provocative) comment by Kev.

Kev

I think Mr Crawford is hyping it up himself by being overtly touchy over a few nonsensical blog comments. Otherwise, the Maltastar ‘exclusive’ has long been buried and it’s not like the whole island is buzzing with his name.

(Excerpt from my comment on Jacques’ blog – http://www.akkuza.com/2010/04/30/netiquette-no-longer-the-stuff-of-bitching/comment-page-1/#comment-3125 after visiting Mr Crawford’s whinery… or is it whingery? Pity the words don’t exist.)

[Daphne – The strange thing, Kevin Ellul Bonici, is that you and Jacques both like to think of yourselves as intellectually superior beings who condescend to pop in here once in a while, but the reason that you do is because this is where the action is. The alternative is talking to the few people who hang around your own spaces or mixing with the ghastly subliterate nutcases (and I mean nutcases) on sites set up by fixated bunny-boilers for the express purpose of vilifying me (and how obsessed do you have to be to do that?). Jacques just can’t get over the fact that nobody reads his blog because it’s so damned boring and irrelevant, and likes to make out (and kid himself) that the reason people read this is because it’s trashy. I guess it’s too tough to admit that I know how to do my job – communication – and he doesn’t. Here’s a tip, Jacques: try writing things that people want to read. If you haven’t got yourself an audience in five years, I’d say it’s time to give up.]

Well, I’m sure the bait is all there for us to fall for and here is how we would engage if it was worth engaging in the mud slinging game that attracts the flies and dead carcasses:

So to all you nobodies out there: stop reading this boring and irrelevant (or as David’s synonym would be: marginalised) blog. They’ll keep selling you the idea that it is irrelevant. Dive into the trash from the tip instead. I’m sure it’s worth it. I won’t be asking for an apology because (a) I don’t need one and (b) I won’t get one because I’m not Charles Crawford.There’s nothing tough to admit : trash = sensational = popular. I don’t need to admit it. It’s there for all to see. I don’t “write things that people want to read” because I am not into PR and cheap marketing, I am into substance and content. Results driven? Bah. What a load of absolute, PR and marketing drivvel.

And Daphne, I don’t think I am intellectually superior to a PR busybody when it comes to 99% of the subjects under the sun.

I know it.

Now for some serious points that would never come to the mind of someone whose only style of argument is aggressive behaviour:

1. Blogs cost no money to read – their readership is not mutually exclusive. People read more than one blog and that is how it should be. My argument remains that sensational blogs will perforce attract a larger, wider audience than the standard blog reading audience- and unlike Daphne I have no problem with that.

2. A reminder: linking in blogs is normal procedure when quoting huge chunks off someone else. Judging by Daphne’s double-standards in the event of being informed that it it is not done to quote without linking (a marketing person should know that no? – she lives and breathes communications)  it is hard to take tips about blogging from that same person. It’s actually not hard – just plain stupid.

3. If marginalised means that certain interlocutors ignore questions brought up by this blog because they are embarrassing well yes we are irrelevant. Daphne, because I know you are reading this, how come you have not come clean on the simple, very simple question: WHY NOW? Your whole Plategate furore was motivated/triggered off by one factor – revenge. You still have to explain why you chose to raise certain issues that you had known of long before Plategate only after your taste for revenge got triggered. That is NOT journalism. That is not QUALITY reporting. That is plain and simple PR dirt for personal needs. And the people love it. Oh yes they do. Ask Lou – whose fall in ratings has probably justified the rescuscitation of  the ghost of Norman Lowell.

4. Finally, try as you may you will never manage to equate this blog with TYOM. We have expressed our disagreement with the style and method of both that blog and of the blog that provoked it. The only applause they would get is in the choice of name. It is so apt. You may want to see the level of popularity enjoyed by TYOM when revising your theory on cheap content vs quality. There MUST be something behind their rapid rise on the blogging scene – hmm let me see – sensational bullshit? Yep. Same, same but different.

Sad, but true (even though THAT should be hard to admit) but the Manuel Cuschieri of the nationalist elite has found her ugly alter ego.
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UPDATE: Timesonline has listed 40 bloggers who really count and weirdly enough the Runs does not figure in the list. We did discover that in the UK Magistrates have anonymous blogs of their own – like this one.

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UPDATE
More intellectual commentary on the Runs. Daphne posts some observation about the police and the letter of the law and her accolytes jump at the opportunity to somehow debate J’accuse:

H.P. Baxxter says:
Tuesday, 4 May at 1505hrs

Pajjiz ta’ Jacques Réné Zammits.

Cannot Resist Anymore! says:
Tuesday, 4 May at 1532hrs

@H.P. Baxxter

He is of Gozitan extraction and what he says must not offend the Opposition because he may need them some day. But he feels very free to attack Daphne because that makes him look good in their eyes.

Daphne once told me that if I can dish it out then surely I can take it. Here is the reply we’d add on the Runs if it was worth commenting on:

Now,now Daphne letting your fans “do the dishing” for you? (Well it’s safe so long as the dishes stay away from your hands I guess).

@Baxxter – there’s only one accent in René as in Descartes you intellectually inferior buffoon.

@cannotresist- “extraction?” have we been watching too much Lowell lately? Can’t blame you – not much more on offer these days is there?

I almost wrote a treatise in my defence (an apologia) but then I remembered I had to write what the daphne-lytes can read. Hope this is simple enough.

Looking forward to the next flurry of smart and witty comments – bring it on Dee Cee Gee.

We resisted the temptation… an act of mercy. But you just have to love these people. Personal grudges and “min mhux maghna kontra taghna” mentality – 80s labour revisited indeed.

Categories
Zolabytes

Staring at the Sun

He no longer blogs as often as he used to but he’s “come out of hiding for a sort of sober not-totally-humorous post” about DCG. In his Zolabyte contribution Vlad of Fool’s Cap fame rolls up his sleeves for a dig in the dirt – his very own analysis of the DCG blogging phenomenon.

Staring at the Sun
or How I Began to Start Worrying about Daphne Caruana Galizia
by Vlad

The sun is great and all, but looking directly at it will make you go blind. One cannot help but think the same about Daphne Caruana Galizia.

When that volcano erupted earlier this year, Caruana Galizia graduated from the ranks of the outspoken to an unbridled temper with a laptop and a keen determination to wreak vengeance.

For those that are not her unquestioning adherents _ of whom she has many _ the spectacle has cast a car crash spell. But whatever voyeuristic appeal there once was has now begun to wear thin.

Reading Caruana Galizia’s blog, Running Commentary, once felt like trawling those YouTube clips of BMX bikers smashing into walls, but now it just leaves the unpleasant aftertaste that comes with watching al-Qaeda beheading videos.

But how exactly did Caruana Galizia evolve from an engaging and persuasive, if frequently disagreeable, poison pen letter writer into an unremitting practitioner of the self-righteous apoplectic fit? And why should any right-thinking Maltese person care?

The transformation was in part accidental; precipitated by media reports about her husband’s domestic abuse report to the police and the alleged whispering plot hatched by Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera and her friends. Her indignation and the torrents of abuse that followed, she explained between jigs of cholera-induced St. Vitas’ dance, was an adequate response to the brazen intrusion on her private family affairs.

Well, fine, it was an absurdly hypocritical position to adopt for someone that has made a cottage industry out of spreading salacious tittle-tattle and dubious insinuations, but what to do? She was scorned, and vanquishing her foes and salting their fields must have seemed like the only fair retort.

What seemed like a fleeting moment of pique, however, has now calcified into a permanent register of bilious ire. Caruana Galizia quickly took advantage of the popularity of her rage-shtick. Despite her affected air of insouciant contempt, she craves approval and infamy, or what passes for it on the Internet at any rate.

Running Commentary has accordingly morphed from a platform for a contrarian know-it-all into a round-the-clock acid reflex.

Deploying insults that she doesn’t always appear to fully understand, Caruana Galizia’s antagonists are now variously dismissed as slags, whores and chavs, among a panoply of other decidedly adolescent put-downs.

And it should go without saying that Caruana Galizia has still not located the exact whereabouts of her reverse gear. The bloody-minded tend to bear this unidirectional condition with pride, and Caruana Galizia must be in the running for some of award from the fraternity for her unremitting perseverance in battle.

That the ability to go backwards is not in of itself a bad thing, however, is a piece of wisdom quite unappreciated at Running Commentary. Even standing still is viewed with suspicion there, as the hundreds of verbose retorts to readers’ comments in bold black print attest.

Putting these quibbles to one side, however, there is no denying that Caruana Galizia is the closest thing Malta has to a proper columnist. Her newspaper articles are usually well-argued and mercifully light on disheartening attempts at wit and rambling insider-y references.

Her blog, meanwhile, is another matter. In addition to the qualitative shortcomings that inevitably come with this unmediated off-the-cuff format (see this blog, for starters), Running Commentary has facilitated the debasement of public discourse in Malta, not least by enabling the creation of the colossally foul and stupid Taste Your Own Medicine site.

But just because Caruana Galizia’s abuse is spelled correctly and more grammatical, it doesn’t necessarily make it any more worthy.

Malta is a special needs case when it comes to Internet debate, as the comments section under any widely-read Times of Malta article effectively demonstrates. This is why the country really needs its only effective columnist to cease indulging in petty verbal mud-wrestling, which only serves to engender a spiral of noxious mutual sniping.

It is easy to imagine how grating such an appeal would be to Caruana Galizia, were she to read it. She would bridle at the suggestion that her prominent role in Maltese public life puts her under some obligation to act as an arbiter for standards in debate.

But, simply put, she would be wrong.

If it isn’t too histrionic to suggest, I would argue that once we get stuck down this stygian Internet rabbit-hole of petty, scurrilous name-calling, the country is going to become a worse place.

Vlad’s original post can be found at Fool’s Cap.
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Zolabytes is a rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 5 years.

Opinions expressed in zolabyte contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
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Categories
Mediawatch Politics

Hang the Parliament

An excellent promo for the Vote for Change in the UK. Is this momentum gathering or the last chance to change a system?

Categories
Arts

Jubilee @ World Expo

Anthony Scicluna, unofficial Gozitan Ambassador to Malta and the World sends us some photos from the World Expo in Shanghai that opened on the 1st of May. Anthony has taken the Jubilee brand to the World Expo and tells us that the show is something out of this world.

LTR: Expo Mascot, Globe, Anthony

LTR: Expo Mascot, Globe, Anthony

Malta-EU Pavilion

Malta-EU Pavilion

Luxembourg Pavilion

Luxembourg Pavilion

France Pavilion

France Pavilion

Spain Pavilion

Spain Pavilion

UK Pavilion

UK Pavilion

Categories
Politics

Extracts for Change

This Sunday’s Observer editorial is all about endorsing Nick Clegg as the candidate of change. There’s some interesting extracts that discuss subjects relevant to our local (Maltese) realities too:

First there’s that echo of the argument of the “wasted vote”. Clegg’s rise in popularity has prompted a harsher approach by the Labservative front against the potential LibDem voter. We are familiar with the attack of “irresponsible”, “toying with vote” and other similar slurs thrown at anybody considering a vote outside the PLPN fold. When you are in the thick of it and the onus of the vote is immediate it is probably a bit more difficult to notice how false in democratic terms that kind of accusation is.

For what is voter emancipation all about if not for the right to choose the party that best reflects his or her options. When Labservative or PLPN candidates or pundits arrogantly attack the voter as “irresponsible” they are only demonstrating a lack of respect to the very voters’ principles:

The Conservatives have spent much energy campaigning against that outcome. They have publicised their irritation that voters could deprive David Cameron of a majority much better than they have explained why he deserves one in the first place. Mr Cameron warns portentously that a coalition might lead to instability, economic jeopardy and “more of the old politics”. Perversely, he also rejects the need to change the current voting system, which has, he says, the merit of delivering clear results. Except this time it might not. What then? Mr Cameron’s view is that the system would work fine, if only everyone voted Conservative. This is sophistry draped in hypocrisy. He backs first past the post, while agitating against one of the outcomes that is hard-wired into it. He is campaigning against the voters instead of pitching for their support. He defines change in politics as the old system preserved – but run by the Tories.

That is the crux actually. The establishment politician is so ingrained in the system that he does not notice the arrogant folly of his own assertions. The “insult” to voters considering a third way is probably not seen as such from their point of view. To te PLPN/Labservative person dishing out advice it is more of an “eye-opener” – they are blissfully ignorant of how hopelessly perverse their assertion is.

Then there is the argument that the third parties have led an easy life and would not be so attractive an option when in government:

The Lib Dems have in recent years developed a habit of getting things right. They were first of the big three to embrace environmentalism, first to kick back against the assault on civil liberties, alone in opposing the Iraq war. The conventional riposte to those boasts is that the Lib Dems were free to take idealistic positions because they knew they would never be tested in government. Thus is political courage denigrated as a luxury of eternal opposition.

Which leads us to the Observer’s final declaration of bias (it’s normal, it’s done and it’s nice to see when it is openly declared):

There is a moral imperative to consider in this election, distinct from the old Labour-Tory contest. Opinion polls throughout the campaign suggest that the country wants the Lib Dems to take a place of equal standing alongside the other main parties. A grossly unfair voting system has historically deprived them of that right. It is vital this time that they win a mandate for real change expressed in the overall share of the vote, not just in the discredited distribution of seats in parliament. There is only one party on the ballot paper that, by its record in the old parliament, its manifesto for the new one and its leader’s performance in the campaign, can claim to represent an agenda for radical, positive change in politics. That party is the Liberal Democrats. There is only one way clearly to endorse that message and that is to vote Liberal Democrat.

Categories
Mediawatch

The Strongest Link

While we are on the subject of links here are two blogs from the UK Big League that featured J’accuse this week.

Iain Dale – writer, speaker, broadcaster and politician – gave J’accuse a mention on his blog’s feature “the Daley Dozen” on Wednesday. Here is an extract from Dale’s bio:

Iain Dale is one of Britain’s leading political commentators, appearing regularly on TV and radio. Iain is best known for his political blog, Iain Dale’s Diary and football blog, West Ham Till I Die. He is a contributing editor and columnist for GQ Magazine, writes for the Daily Telegraph and a fortnightly diary for the Eastern Daily Press. He was the chief anchor of Britain’s first political internet TV channel, 18 Doughty Street.com and is a presenter on LBC Radio. He appears regularly as a political pundit on Sky News, the BBC News Channel, Newsnight, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live. He is the publisher of the monthly magazine, Total Politics and the author or editor of more than twenty books. He is managing director of the new book publisher, Biteback Publishing.

Yep a Tory AND a Hammer… still, he did appreciate our critique of his Telegraph article (internet elections) – enough to grant J’accuse a second appearance on the Daley Dozen.

Then there was Charles Crawford, fresh from his latest encounter with the darker side of Maltese blogging. The former FCO diplomatic servant and speechwriter now blogs regularly at charlescrawford.biz and has had a scrape with the Maltese net media thanks to the Conspiracy Theory of the Foreign Consultant. Crawford revised his blog post Malta’s Dramatic Blogosphere to include a reference to both Blogs of Malta and J’accuse.

Not bad for a week of links. Who said netiquette is not useful?