Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has the right to that title by dint of a resounding victory.  He achieved this victory partly on the back of a media campaign that combined slick sound-bites, snappy come-backs and sharp visuals, helped no end by a mainstream media that was, let's not be coy about it, in love with him and his image.

There were many other reasons why josephmuscat.com prevailed, but let's not concern ourselves with them just at the moment.

On Friday, on the way Up North, courtesy of Campus FM, I listened to "From Our Own Correspondent" on the BBC World Service.  I'm working off an iPad and can't upload the link for you here - I'll try to add it in as a comment when this gets online, but you will be able to find it with a bit of judicious foraging, and it's on my Facebook page, too.

The piece tackled Malta in the context of Cyprus and small island economies and has the tag-line "Will Malta have enough rope to fight off the strictures of the EU?", which hardly augured well for the angle the programme was to take.

Truth be told, it was a pretty flaky piece, with references to the Count of Monte Kristo being chucked over the side to drown and German-accented guides, but that's not the point.  When you manage to listen to it, you will quickly hear that Dr Muscat and Prof. Scicluna did not come out of it well at all.

Quite the contrary, in fact, and along with them, consequently, we came out badly: there's no two ways about it, Malta's image suffered, and badly.  

Muscat's apologists will, of course, say that it's not his fault that the correspondent chose the angle he chose, which is true, but again only up to a point. To start with, when you are meeting a real journalist (as opposed to the star-struck bunch Muscat has had to deal with to date) to talk about the economy, you don't start out by saying to him "I hope you don't make me angry."

For any self-respecting journalist, that's a gilt-edged invitation to do just that, and that is what the journalist proceeded to do, with tongue-in-cheek references to Muscat's stiff collar and shiny cufflinks and his Ph. D. from Bristol. 

We heard nothing, and I don't know if it's because nothing was said, about our economy being a totally different kettle of fish to Cyprus's, about how our banks are solid, well-regulated and not awash with Russian money. 

All we heard about was how "we will fight with everything at our disposal not to suffer the same fate as Cyprus's at the hands of the EU", accompanied by a pen-portrait of the PM as a Smiling Cavalier, feeling his oats because he's a daring young buck.

At least we were spared odious comparisons of Muscat's youth to Scicluna's venerability: all we had quoted from the latter was his enthusiastic defence of his Cypriot colleague and Sciculuna's horror at the way the EU bullied him.  

Again, nothing about our solid economy and the fact that Malta is about as similar to Cyprus as it is to Turmekistan.  Nope, just some empty machismo and sabre-rattling, perfectly pitched to provoke a bout of "methinks the lady doth protest too much".

All we need now is for the Government to get all huffy and throw a hissy, in the mould of Mintoff and his arrogance, telling off the BBC and sounding even more childish than our senior politicians have already managed to sound. It's useless, if you'll allow me to belabour the point, saying that you said more than was reported, it's what was broadcast that counts and what was broadcast makes it crystal clear that the interviews were ineptly managed and the message badly delivered.

Thanks, guys, just what need right about now, our international reputation tanking. 

Oh, and I almost forgot, why was the journalist received at Labour HQ? Castille not good enough for you or is this yet another instance of the distinction between party and country blurring into invisibility, in true Labour fashion?