Facebook is perceived, by those of my generation who have chosen to remain up (as opposed to down) with the kids, as an ephemeral medium that has no impact on the real world.
On the other hand, our esteemed mainstream media, used for so long to regurgitating press handouts and receiving the news rather than seeking it out, has latched on to Facebook as a source of prime material.
Every time that Debono person makes some sort of erudite comment on his page, it is seized upon as something akin to those tablets (first iPads?) that Moses brought down from the mountain, although in Debono's case, receiving news by the media was hardly ever a chore, since he seems to have most journalists' numbers on speed-dial.
Another whose every Facebook revelation is treated with something approaching awe is that Pullicino Orlando fellow, who has just decided, it would appear, that gay marriage is next subject to be given his full-on treatment. Big news, I hardly think – he should just skip this stage and go to gay divorce, that should give assorted clerics and other fundamentalists conniptions and no mistake.
The thing is, like it or not, Facebook has achieved some form of credibility and what is written there becomes of some slight news value.
This is why the aftermath of the PN creaming in the Local Council elections was a bit worrying. While every PN success was received with expressions of happiness (not that there were many to celebrate) I noticed many of a Labour hue who expressed themselves not with joy expressed towards their success but with a degree of "yah, boo, the Nationalists got it in the neck"-inspired sentiment that borders on the soccer-hooliganishness.
So much for Joseph Muscat bothering to filch Margaret Thatcher's "where there is darkness" spiel, he'd have been better off reminding us that "this lady", in this context, Labour, "is not for turning" (since it wasn't in the movie, he probably hadn't heard it).
In other words, for all their warmth and fuzziness, Labourites at the root still enjoy the discomfort of others and exult in their defeat, rather than looking forward towards better times.
And this is on winning the right to decided when the streets are cleaned: can you imagine what they'll be like if they win the Big One? Well, you needn't imagine, look at the comments below this blog.