A priest who does not believe in God

I am a priest. How would you react were I to write that I don't believe in God or in Her beneficial presence in the history of humanity? Or if I say that I strongly suspect that the world would be a better place without Her?

Though there is no limit to the wisdom and stupidities that are written and broadcast by priests today I guess that you would be somewhat surprised. No need to worry about me. I believe in God and in Her salutary presence.

But let me make another revelation that will, perhaps, surprise some. 

I have been active in the media for more years than I care to remember. I worked as a journalist, produced for TV and still present and produce for radio, built and run RTK for years along with a printing press and publishing house, I set up a weekly newspaper and was its editor for some years, teach communication studies at the University, was the first Chairman of the Editorial Board of PBS, am the editor of Campus FM , am the Audiovisual Policy Advisor to the Minister for Culture.... OK, OK the list is long enough to persuade you that my life is somewhat connected to this latter day electronic god or family of gods called the Mass Media. (Molock was like chicken feed compared to its power.)

Now for the revelation: I doubt whether the media's role in our culture is mainly beneficial. I strongly suspect that the world would be a better place without most of the present media structures and content. And in this scenario I pick on TV as the main culprit.

Let me say something about my apostasy.

At one point people believed that television provided viewers with a neutral channel that communicated reality. Television was at their service.

Today this perspective has been turned upside down. Television is reality or, at least TV believes so. So do most of us. At one time we used to look at TV and when it did not reflect reality we would have said zinn. (You need as many grey hairs as I have to remember and understand that one.) Today we look at the way we live and if it does not reflect TV's portrayal of life we feel that there is something wrong with us. More and more people feel obliged to adapt themselves the whims, logic and worldview of TV.

A story is told of a woman who was walking around with her baby. "What a beautiful baby", complimented a friend. "That's nothing" the proud mother answered, "wait till I show you his video!" Exaggeration? I doubt it.

All of us still remember the tragic terrorist attack against the twin towers of New York and the Pentagon on that fateful September afternoon (Maltatime). Most probably that atrocity would never have happened if live TV was not around. Its value for the murderers was their coverage on live TV. And the TV coverage was in many ways an example of life copying the media.

Read some of the comments made by media commentators.

One described the panicked crowds as "a horror film running in overdrive, jumping frames and cutting in and out." Ashleigh Banfield of MSNBC commented: "I don't know how to describe this to you ... it was like driving through a movie set." Dan Cohen, a Fox News Channel producer told the Associated Press: "It now looks like the show M.A.S.H."  Tom Shales, television writer for the Washington Post,and his counterpart at the L.A. Times, Howard Rosenberg, both referenced two films created more than 20 years apart. "It looked like scenes from such movies as The Towering Inferno and Independence Day."

Outed ...at last

So when the editor of the timesofmalta.com asked me to start writing weekly in this new e-paper I thought that it was about time to make this public confession and declare my apostasy. I will put on neither sack cloth nor ashes on my forehead. Instead I will do a tougher kind of penance. I will regularly use this column to attack the god I adored so much in recent years. This column (apologies for using on this medium a term taken from the good old fashioned print medium) will regularly take the media to task.

On the other occasions when I do not feel so masochistically inclined I will turn my attention to other topics.

Politics? Isn't there already too much written and broadcast about it? Should I add my two euro cents to the debate? When I was at PBS together with my colleagues on the Editorial Board and PBS journalists we tried to lessen the political content in the news bulletins. I will give just two examples of what we succeeded in doing. The number of items about the Government and political parties went down from 1212 in 2004 to 885 in 2005 - a decrease of 27% in one year!. According to the BA annual report 47% of all local items broadcast in the main news bulletin on TVM during 2000 was made up of Government/political items. During 2005 this percentage went down to 37%. Given that PBS has to broadcast hours over hours of the Budget debate we decided to restrict the discussion of the budget to one programme produced by the newsroom and only one other prime time programme. This year it seems that all restrain was thrown out with the wind.

Given that kind of background do not expect a lot of direct local partisan politics in this blog. (You see, I am not so old fashioned that I do not know the latest jargon!) But the occasional incursion into the field I promise as well.

The Church will be a topic visited more than politics since I think I know about the former more than I know about the latter ... or so I think. I here declare an interest. I love her; but my love is big enough to avoid pampering her.

Since sometimes times some things of some import happen in lands not covered by the territory of din l-art helwa, I guess I have to comment on them on the odd occasions.

Other topics? Anything that strikes my fancy from time to time, whether momentous or minor will find its place in the virtual space. If I like it or hate it I will write about it.

Hope you will like it or hate it enough to read it and react to it as well.