It's not at all clear in my mind why Super One, and its stable-mate, maltastar.com, chose to do no favours at all to the victims of abuse by two creatures unfit to be called members of the human race, much less of the priesthood.

I can see, dimly but the image is there, why Marie Benoit, writer of fluffy stuff in the Sunday competition, except when she goes off on a rant inspired by her love of all things moderate and progressive (not to say intellectual as well) as long as they have a pink champagne tinge, chose to get in a dig at Lou Bondi while she was condemning the abuse last Sunday. She's so madly in whatever the opposite of love is with the guy that if I were he, I'd think about starting to worry, for in such obsessive obsessiveness lie the ingredients of a thriller.

But I digress, much in the Benoit style, and I'll get back to the main point, though allow me to publicly acknowledge Bondi's hard work in getting the case into the public eye and keeping it there, contributing in no small way at all to the eventual result. Perhaps this is what Benoit is fretting about: she (along with much of the rest of the media) did nothing to help and is envious of Bondi for having done so.

But why, I'd like to ask, did Super One choose to come up with what the victims themselves have now said is pure fiction, and fiction not of the sort that will enhance their public image?

Super One, and maltastar.com slavishly followed suit, put into the public domain the assertion, now described as utterly non-factual (not to use the other word starting with "non:) that the victims are asking for ten million euro in compensation from the Church, more particularly the Missionary Society of St Paul, under whose wing all concerned fell.

That they deserve compensation and that one hopes that the Church will do the decent thing, but ten million they did not ask for, even if half the country now believes this to be the case because Super One said so.

It's not as if this spurious claim in some way reflects badly on the Government, which is generally the target of the Labour media stable, though perhaps they believe the canard that Church and Government are the same here. I'm pretty sure that much in the same manner as Gonzi is blamed for the sun rising and the moon setting, some genius Labour spokesman will find some way to put this one at his door too, but for the time being, the question remains: why did Super One positively not do any favours to the victims?

The public's goodwill is a fickle mistress and it will take nothing for the whispers to start, turning abused into abusers, and Super One really should have taken this into account, instead of trying to be sensationalist.