It's in the stars
Chris Said, the mayor of Nadur, is the only nomination from the Gozo district to contest the post of district representative on the Nationalist Party executive committee. There is nothing significant in this piece of news considering the fact that...
Chris Said, the mayor of Nadur, is the only nomination from the Gozo district to contest the post of district representative on the Nationalist Party executive committee. There is nothing significant in this piece of news considering the fact that Chris Said has represented the Gozo district on this committee for a number of years and his nomination had been the only one in the past.
What is noteworthy about it is the fact that for some weeks Labour's electronic paper maltastar.com run a story which had plots and counter plots running on the following lines: the turf war between Dr Said and the Minister of Gozo, Giovanna Debono, led the latter to canvass against Dr Said's nomination and pushed Euchar Mizzi, the PN district manager, to put his name forward instead. The mayors of Qala and San Lawrenz Paul Buttigieg and Noel Formosa, together with others met to make sure that Dr Said was elbowed out.
When Mr Mizzi was informed that he has been making news on maltastar.com he was totally surprised and so were the other gentlemen who were dragged into the story. Some of them even wrote to the e-paper to ridicule the story.
Maltastar.com has now been on the internet stalls for some time and it has passed its 200th edition. The e-paper has added glamour to an erstwhile dull market - even though efficient - of internet versions of local newspapers. I use the word glamour in two senses: the presentation is colourful and pleasing to the eye and the gossip section has been from time to time adorned with pictures of fleshpots in different stages of undress. I wondered for a time what Helena Dalli thought of the exploitation of (mainly) women for the purpose of adding spice to Labour's e-paper!
The story that never was about Dr Said has been typical of the exclusive reports carried by the e-paper. They had the prime minister meeting the top brass of the PN after the last local elections for a crisis meeting. The prime minister himself gave chapter and verse as to where he was on that very morning. Certainly not where maltastar.com placed him.
They had deputy prime minister Lawrence Gonzi assigned on special duties in Malta on the day of the last local elections. I congratulated Dr Gonzi when I met him in Gozo on the very same day.
They had the general secretary of the PN, Joe Saliba, tendering his resignation to the leader of the party - a total fabrication which was off beam too on the mechanics of the PN.
Michael Refalo, the tourism minister had a field day both in the Nationalist press and elesewhere taking the mickey out of Labour's electronic scoops - either these stories where fairy tales or someone has been selling maltastar.com crap, as Ratners would put it.
Maltastar.com has taken a particularly anti-EU line. Any piece of useless information about the EU is turned into a major story. Proposals and opinions are mixed up with facts. The EU Observer is constantly used to feed maltastar.com browsers a rich diet of eurosceptic dishes.
To cap it all the e-paper is engaging a foreign resident in Malta who excels in anti-EU propaganda. There's no silver lining with the EU. It is an abomination, or so would this foreigner have us believe. So much for Rajna f'Idejna!
As for scaremongering "we at maltastar.com" (as the editor refers rather pompously to the editorial board) is second to none. Having frightened the living daylights out of farmers, telling them that they will be doomed to a life of misery once Malta steps into the EU, now they have suddenly discovered that foreigners in their thousands will be interested in buying agricultural land once we get into the EU. To do what with it? Are foreigners so masochistic that they would wish to join in the miserable existence of our farmers in the EU?
Maltastar.com has shown a very poor understanding of how the EU works and continues to peddle story lines which are totally distorted and/or baseless. The day the prime minister returned to Malta after his meeting with Dr Prodi, they ran a story that he came back to Malta empty handed - what was he supposed to have returned to Malta with? The negotiations are still going on and Malta's share of aid from the EU will be decided in due course.
Now when the news that the Maltese language has been accepted by the EU as one of its official languages, not a word was written by "we at maltastar.com". References to Mikiel Anton Vassalli which have been featuring quite prominently in Labour's propaganda arsenal, have been notoriously absent recently.
All in all maltastar.com has been a new experience and I suspect that we shall see more e-papers in the future, but as for its credibility, it has a very long way to go. In the meantime glamour makes up for what the e-paper lacks in credibility.