In one of the good books of the Bible we are told that there is a time for war and a time for love. It seems that in the good books outlining the strategy of the Partit Laburista there is a time to woo Where's Everybody and a time to lambast them. There were times when the Partit Laburista boycotted their popular programmes on TVM and there were times when penitential ashes were placed on the leaders' head for boycotting them.

There was a time to woo Where's Everybody. Dr Muscat asked Peppi Azzopardi to help him out to try to raise the ethical standards of  One Radio and TV newsroom. Peppi accepted the invitation, sat on a committee, helped write a code of ethics, co-organized a two day seminar for the PL, and for a number of days kept on coaching – through emails and phone-calls - One journalists to upgrade their product by being more ethical.

The PL thought that this was ok. They had no doubt that a presenter on TVM could (should?) help them. PBS could have told Peppi to desist. One Radio and One TV are competitors and the bettering of the quality of One news could eat into the audiences of PBS's news bulletins. However, PBS preferred not to be so mean minded and created no problem for Peppi. Neither did the BA have a problem. Consequently a new practice, not to say principle, was established. A PBS presenter/producer can coach the whole newsroom staff of One News. This does not dent his credibility, or impartiality or sense of fairness.

However, what is good for the Labour goose is not good for the Nationalist gander.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was in deep – you know what. Peppi, like many other people at that time, believed Jeffrey. Peppi felt that Jeffrey was being persecuted and decided to help him.

He spent a few minutes giving technical advice. JPO said under oath that Peppi did not help him with the political content but helped him "how to say the truth." Now the Partit Laburista is telling us that it is unethical for a journalist to help someone to tell the truth. Anyone who regularly follows One News would not be surprised that the Partit Laburista thinks that helping people to tell the truth is unethical; however many others cannot fathom Labour's way of reasoning things out.

Strange; or is it?

Coaching and poaching

It seems that the Labour media get so excited whenever the word coaching is mentioned.
They almost have a fetish for this word. They keep on hearing it even when it is not uttered.

Just after the 1987 general elections, L-Orizzont started a campaign attacking me because they said that I was coaching the newsroom guys and gals at Xandir Malta (yes it was still Xandir Malta at that time); and since this newsroom was bent on political manipulation, then I was coaching people in being manipulative.

Shame on me!

I did not really care. However, when they wrote that I myself had said it, I became curious. On a particular day they gave all the details to bring on my head the wrath of the masses. They wrote that during a debate at University I had mentioned that the Media Centre was coaching Xandir Malta staff.

During that debate there was Manni Spiteri, head of Xandir Malta, who until the general election of 1987 was working for the Church Media Centre, for which I was responsible. On getting elected, one of the first things that Prime Minister Fenech Adami did was to phone Manni asking him to become the head of PBS. Manni went to PBS on that same day.

During the debate I referred to this incident noting the poaching from the Church Media Centre to Xandir Malta. An Orizzont reporter or informer with a particularly high IQ thought I had said coaching. L-Orizzont, which is always so eager to report only the truth, runs the story without bothering to ask me for a comment. They made fools of themselves.

Probably even today's editor of L-Orizzont thinks that it is unethical for a journalist to help someone to know the truth.

Eunuchs and virgins

Lou Bondi said that he was going to vote for the Partit Nazzjonalista though he did not completely rule out that Dr Muscat could persuade him to do otherwise. A Gozitan mode of doublespeak, a friend of mine told me. High heavens and low hell erupted. He was accused of being partial and biased. There is no place for scum like this on public broadcasting, it seems.

It was ok for Lou Bondi to say that he is for divorce. That was a hip thing to do. But saying that he would vote for the PN unless Jospeh Muscat persuaded him otherwise is reaching the pits.

A journalist who hides his biases is ok. However, a journalist who declares his biases so that the audience could better judge his actions is the seventh incarnation of Lucifer.

However this subject deserves a longer treatment. Watch this space.