You might have been sold a lie

Mankind always had a keen interest in gossip, so the world created a way how to deliver that gossip to the people. Journalists were born and the gossip was delivered in various ways and forms.

Alas, nature, being so creative as it always is, has managed to create another form of beings who would take gossip to a darker level. If we can compare, this so-called “creative nature” is very similar to the natural birth of an artist who later gave birth to the inevitable afterbirth, known as the critic.

At times, the information we get is intentionally inaccurate due to various reasons...- Robert Henry Bugeja

In the same sense, the gossip world, in relation to journalism, also gave birth to its very own form of afterbirth. This afterbirth in our day and age became known as the gossip twister or, as it is more popularly known, the spin doctor.

This leads me to the topic I would like to address here. It revolves around the world of information.

Information is like “a source of food” for the brain. The more information one has, the more one is able to speak in public about multiple subjects. At times, the information we get is intentionally inaccurate due to various reasons that are determined by the source supplying it. For example, a TV or radio station may deliver information to people not as it really happened but as it is convenient to be delivered. Be sure that this is done in order to suit someone or somebody’s interest.

If we take blogging as an example we can see that some bloggers move around freely in the open and are well known but there are many others who work quietly from behind their desk at home or the office. You might or might not see their face, hear or not hear their voice or might even feel the pinch (without them even touching you) through the words they write on paper or online.

However, if for one second you think that these are just some virtual person or ghost, think again. I can assure you that these people do exist. They are there hiding behind the “iron mask”, a kind of virtual shield that protects them from being hit back.

Their shadow is cast over those who they feel are a threat. How these individuals use their “talent” is an art that requires experience and, sometimes, even the backing of a bigger brother. Their pen may be used to create, invent, bend or twist and, finally, to shoot words to “assassinate” (not literally, of course) character/s who un/intentionally threaten their comfortable position in power. These individuals are there primarily to serve and protect those who empower them.

Malta has endured, for long enough, a turbulent political history that, unfortunately, has been tinted with a fair share of fables, rumours and lies about society in general and even about our political class. This, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, had many times led to the rise and/or fall of a particular person or party to or out of power.

When information is twisted to suit the needs of whoever lies behind the corner of “Benefit Street” it just paves a way to an unprecedented series of events that will, one day, ultimately and undoubtedly backfire in the face of those who twisted such information in the first place.

In our country this thing, as described above, might well have happened before. Multiple public figures, public and private companies, diverse organisations and agencies and even the man in the street were hit either positively or negatively, intentionally or unintentionally by or through it.

We need to grow as a nation and become more attentive to the world around us. We need to look beyond any type of information that is constantly being fed to us both through the national and the international media.

Most importantly, we must bother to check where the information is coming from and even trouble ourselves to ask why such information is being fed to us at that particular moment in time. If we do that we will be in a better position to understand the tactics of the media world and the real reasons behind why some individual or entity might rise to success while another may break down and collapse.

And, well, if you are wondering who are the real ones who pull the strings and you are also interested why they pull them at a certain moment and not another just follow carefully the way norms are born, laws are applied and information is supplied in the world of politics.

Finally, I did want to draw the public’s attention to the so-called media diversion tactic. Meaning to understand how the media often tries to divert our attention from certain important issues and/or gives prominence to other less important ones to suit the interest of those who demand it.

So do take note next time you are reading or hearing the news, when watching some TV show or even a political speech. Unless you are very careful, you might become another potential target to be sold a lie.