Special devilry

“God is honest; he don’t take payola, delivered in a Philadelphia accent, is a line from punk band The Dead Milkmen’s song Methodist Coloring Book.

Impartiality is not balance- Tanja Cilia

Originally, the portmanteau term ‘payola’ referred solely to disc jockeys who took bribes to spin records, to increase their perceived popularity – a practice alluded to in the song We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel

The term is now an umbrella one for any type of let’s-scratch-backs agreement; it is no longer necessary for filthy lucre to change hands.

Stationers tear off the mastheads of newspapers to claim returns from publishers. When I was a child I had watched, fascinated, as a man collected a bundle of mutilated papers to exchange for money.

The stationer explained to a friend that this was the way his daughter was going to place in a particular contest; he would fill in all the forms inside the papers and send them in.

The Wall Street Journal was recently caught up in a scam intended to enhance its European circulation by allowing sponsors to buy bulk copies of the paper at ridiculous prices, as part-exchange for advertising deals.

The local audio-visual media is in a similar mess; priorities appear to have gone out of the window, stricken by a lethal combination of electoral fever, spleen, and the yen for personal glory.

Back in the days when RTK was going to be set up, the bee in my bonnet suggested I attend the preliminary meting – in fact, I was one of the group sitting at the back who suggested the ambiguous acronym, for which others, sitting further up front, took the credit (they still plagiarise other people’s work when they present radio programmes).

Much murky water has flowed under the bridge since then.

Journalist Sabrina Agius is feeding the hand that bites her – because she works at the station where, according to press reports, she has been “subjected to discriminatory treatment throughout the selection process” and there have been “other incidents of bullying, intimidation and harassment from her superiors ‘intended to make her resign’.”

However, Agius is simultaneously biting the hand that feeds her because she has filed a complaint in the Industrial Tribunal for being passed over when it came to the appointment of news editor, claiming alleged unfair and discriminatory treatment during a selection process to be appointed editor.

Just for the record, there had been an internal call for applications for editor of RTK and Ġensillum online news portal. From those who applied, nobody was found to be suitable – so an external call went out, and the position was filled by Josianne Camilleri, fresh from Net News.

Far be it from me to pit the styles and aptitude of Agius and Camilleri against one another’s. I can only comment that it would be interesting to discover whether, when Agius was asked to work as acting head of news when Leonard Callus left, she was told that she was there ‘on sufferance’ or not.

Meanwhile, Agius presents a brilliant weekly programme on RTK radio – Jaqblu, Ma Jaqblux – in which Mgr Anton Gouder and Peppi Azzopardi let rip on various topics.

I sense Agius is being provocative on purpose, in the way she slats her topics. Knowing how Mgr Gouder operates, it could well be he also suggests some of the drifts himself; since I believe he wants to pass on the message in his own inimitable way.

If Agius was good enough to be acting head of news, why is she not good enough to get the post proper?

If she is not good enough, why was she placed, albeit temporarily, at the helm of RTK News, and an external call not put out immediately?

Inevitably, people who never knew Agius from Adam’s off ox now have an opinion about her political, religious, and possibly even reading, dietary and fashion-related opinions. Meanwhile, Aron Mifsud Bonnici is putting a political slant to it; he would, wouldn’t he, seeing that he is the lawyer representing the General Workers’ Union, of which Agius is a card-carrying member.

• On a larger scale, the Labour Party is also calling for fairness, balance and impartiality at the stations of the nation; and PBS, while not exactly swearing under oath that never in its history had as much of the aforementioned two qualities existed in its broadcast news, discussion and magazine programmes, and so forth, been evident in its coverage, there was nonetheless a knee-jerk reaction to the accusations.

Impartiality is not balance, and balance is not impartiality; it is not a question of airtime or coverage of events. It is not even a question of viewing and listenership statistics.

Gino Cauchi has worked in the State broadcaster’s newsroom; Jason Micallef was in programming. Both of them probably know Broadcasting Law like the backs of their hands.

They know what is permittable and what is not. These days, when freelancers work for different stations simultaneously, some of the accusations being levelled do not even make sense.

The law must be changed to allow PBS to have a PRO. There must be representatives of the public on the Broadcasting Authority and both PBS boards. Broadcasters must not be told which lines they must toe, and which topics they must not to touch, on their programmes.

Women who wear masculine clothes down to Doc Martens are usually classified as dykes and avoided. Men in drag, on the other hand are lionised and given their own television programmes.

• Min Imissu? (TVM, Sundays, 8.30 p.m.) introduces us to two Ru Paul wannabes and their friends, Romans, and countrymen, who, as the programme’s name indicates, line up to ‘get the treatment’ offered by this alternative hair salon.

At this point, many will quote Il-Kajboy’s favourite two syllables.

television@timesofmalta.com