Politics and TV programmes

It appears that Toni Abela (Undignified Language, December 29) cannot make a distinction between chatting informally in the supposedly relaxed atmosphere of a Sitta Gewwa entertainment programme on Super 1 TV and talking heatedly and purposefully on some political occasion. And he is wrong on two counts: first, that I continued watching that programme to the end, which I certainly, most certainly, did not! And secondly, that I am only disgusted by offensive language aimed at the Nationalist Party, since I would have reacted all the same had it been the other way round.

My reaction (Why I Don't Watch Local TV, December 16) was due to the fact that the programme Sitta Gewwa - which was aimed at raising funds for the Malta Labour Party - contained insults which would have not been taken well by a section of would-be contributors.

And since Dr Abela tried to take me to task over this matter, I will further develop my criticism by saying that the MLP still needs to learn from the Nationalist Party not to shoot itself in the foot. On December 13, when both parties were busy trying to take a portion of the generosity-pie of the Maltese citizens by collecting funds for their respective parties, I couldn't help watch for a few minutes how Net TV and Super 1 TV respectively were doing. Hence, I had a pretty good idea how things were being done at both stations.

And in my judgement, one station had a truly remarkable spectacle, with fun and entertainment aimed at everybody, with all the people being asked to contribute funds to the party, while the other station had a boring programme, free from any aura of celebration and frequently containing political language which often became offensive.

I will let the readers decide which was which!