The big oil-storage tanker that will be feeding the still-to-be-inaugurated power station will be entering the Marsaxlokk harbour within hours. People can then reach their own conclusions about the aesthetic and environmental impact.

People will also have to make up their own mind why neither the government nor Electrogas want to publish the reports that assess the possible security risks that this tanker brings with it. One does not have to be extra-bright to reach a credible conclusion!

But my subject is different.

Some months back radio presenter David Thake started phoning people telling them that the tanker was already in the port and asking them what they think about it. Quite naturally the tanker was not in the port but that did not prevent people from giving their opinions about how it looked in the port.

Instead of telling him that it was not there or, at best, that they had not seen it they took it for granted that the tanker was in the port and gave an opinion about it.

They preferred to lie not to risk appearing to be misinformed. Such things happen not only in Malta.

Instead of telling him that it was not there or, at best, that they had not seen it they took it for granted that the tanker was in the port and gave an opinion about it

Jimmy Kimmel the American television host, producer, writer and media personality just did a similar prank on his ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ show which he has been hosting on ABC since 2003.

He sent his people out in the streets asking them their opinion about the first ever 'First Lady debate' in the US although there was no such debate.

Interviewers for the 'Lie Witness News' segment of his programme asked people who was the winner in this non-existing debate between Melania Trump and Bill Clinton. Yes, you are reading correctly.

The interviewers mentioned Bill Clinton as one of the contenders in the "First Lady debate"

All this did not faze respondents from venturing their opinion about the questions asked. They said that they saw the debate, gave information about where they saw it and how people were reacting to it. They even answered specific questions.

Kimmel’s crew asked about the recipes for oatmeal cookies that Melania and Bill spoke about during the debate.

"Bill sounded pretty good to me," one man said. "I thought I'd try them out."

Others said Melania was under-prepared. One said that she did not know what she was speaking about. One of those interviewed wanted to be kind to Mrs Trump, saying, “Well, I think for her first time, under the circumstances, she did OK as far as presentation but as far as the topics are concerned, I think she wasn’t smooth with presenting them.”

One man was sharp enough to know that Bill Clinton was not a lady and corrected the interviewer asking him to refer to Bill Clinton as "First Man Bill, of course, because he's a cordial gentleman, and he goes out of his way."

The conclusion of the feature was fantastic. One young man said Bill Clinton was the winner because he “didn’t fake it, he was himself.”

The interviewer went in for the jugular telling the respondent that he was the fake, as the debate never happened. The reaction was somewhat angry and full of expletives, which were thankfully bleeped out.

Truth be said there were just a handful of people in this segment but it would be stupid to think that they were the only people who would have spoken the way these stupid people spoke.

It is a strange kind of world that we are living in; is it not?

 

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