Hide and sneak

"Get lost!" is the civil version of what many people tell me after they read this column. Last Thursday, it seemed as though their wishes had been granted. Two girls called Tania, surnamed respectively Mifsud and Attard, had gone missing (they have thankfully been found now).

The person responsible for the captions on TVM News must have been in a daze, because my name was mentioned instead. I lost count of the phone calls and e-mails I received pointing this out; although let it be said that Antonia Micallef, the newscaster on duty, pointed out the error.

Mistakes happen; in fact, this week, newscaster Jonathan Charles of BBC News was all around the web, simply because of a misplaced comma. Indeed, this pattern of gobbling up words happens locally too, such that, sometimes, one does not know where one news item ends and the other begins.

• Furious, disgusted and disappointed is what I felt when I heard the first installment of the new novel being read by Twanny Scalpello on Radju Malta.

One of the characters in the story has Down Syndrome, and two of the most repulsive words in the vernacular were used to describe him. I was discussing this over a glass of Perrier at a party the other day and the consensus of the majority was that the narrator has no right to censor, change or edit any original work unless this happens with the specific permission from the author, which in this case would not be possible.

Interestingly, however, the only people who agreed with me were those who are involved in the media, a couple of whom we have often heard reading stories and novels on different radio and television stations.

One of them told me he would have left the words had they been within inverted commas as part of a conversation, but he would definitely have taken them out in this circumstance, since they were part of the narration.

• Steve McQueen as Chief Michael O'Hallorhan, William Holden as James Duncan, Paul Newman as Doug Roberts - just three of the cast of Towering Inferno who survived fire and flood. At the time, L-Orizzont had given away T-shirts to all those who sent in a coupon saying which of the characters made it - which is why I remember the details.

I was reminded of this on 9/11 when La 7 dedicated an afternoon to the Twin Towers tragedy.

Just before the screening of Michael Moore's provocative and polemic Fahrenheit 9/11, I caught most of another film, which was a collage of interviews with survivors, footage from newscasts and dramatised re-enactments of all that had happened on that sad day. "Change will happen 11/09/09" kept flashing on the screen - however, I do not know whether this is the title of the documentary itself.

I find it sad that, locally, the date got only a passing mention on some stations, and was a non-event on others. It would be less than useless to ask why.

• Two of the most professional people currently in the local media will begin new ventures for the coming season.

Joe Tanti will be spearheading the (relatively) new trio of morning and early afternoon music presenters of Radju Malta, presenting the breakfast show. Incidentally, Familja Waħda listeners are in for a treat, because Lilian Maistre's magazine programme will henceforth become 30 minutes longer.

"We owe a lot to the erstwhile Radju Malta 2," Mr Tanti told me. "We're a great team now and, although we might be old timers, we've been good friends for years and working together will be electrifying. It's like a big family reunion on your radio."

Frank Zammit will be on Net, presenting and producing Geko, a programme for youngsters. This will include whacky experiments, music videos, celebrity gossip, international sports-related features, traditional games from around the world, film trailers and much more. The emphasis is on fast-paced edutainment.

Bla Agenda will be the must-see programme on One Television. This year, the studio set will undergo one commendable, significant change. Rather than art prints and pictures hanging on the 'walls', Norman Hamilton has opted for something more meaningful.

He will be giving space to all those involved in worthy causes and selected other activities to showcase posters of their activities. Anyone interested is asked to drop a large poster of their event at the reception desk of Hamilton Travel, St Publius Street, Floriana. For more information e-mail info@hamiltontravel.com.mt.

• Last Saturday, PBS broadcast the Junior Eurovision Song Festival in tandem on radio and television. I was especially pleased to see that the honours were professionally done by Francesca and Jacob, presenters of Iż-Żona, who were both in top form.

However, I cannot understand why, once again, there was a glitch in the voting system. Should we therefore be thankful that, this time around, there was nothing of the "ta' malajr" 'DJs' Favourite Award' that had caused such controversy in the Maltasong Festival?

television@timesofmalta.com