All in the family…

I have not followed local TV in a good few years...partly because I no longer possess a functional television set at home, but partly also because I no longer see any real reason to. As far as I am concerned, the entire medium has simply been overtaken by the internet: which not only provides a far more exhaustive and comprehensive world view that the selected tidbits we get thrown at us on the other medium... but it also allows you to watch reruns of those tidbits anyway, so you really get the best of all possible worlds.

(There is, to be fair, a small advantage to TV that never quite crossed over to the worldwide web. On TV you may stumble upon something worth watching quite by chance... with the internet, that's a lot less likely).

In any case: recently I've been catching up on local TV at work - not out of choice, but because I can't really get away from it - and... is it just an impression of mine, or have the standards of PBS always been so shockingly abysmal?

Ironically, I was reminded of a joke on Xarabank (arguably PBS' flagship programme). You may remember the episode: it was filmed live in Bormla at the height of the political crisis of 1997 - yes, that's how long it's been since I watched Xarabank on a regular basis - and featured Dom Mintoff in a never-ending rant about the Cottonera project.

At one point, a bewigged stand-up comic named 'James Bondin' piped up, describing the experience of a fictitious British former serviceman who returned to Malta as a tourist decades later.

"When I came to Malta in the 1950s, I switched on the Rediffusion and there was Mintoff. I came back to Malta 40 years later, and when I switched on the TV... oh look, there was Mintoff again. Has this country not changed at all since then?"

Admittedly, what made the joke itself so memorable was really Mintoff's reaction... which was effectively to bite off Bondin's head and spit out the wig. But as with all memorable jokes, there was nonetheless an underlying element of truth.

I do not remember Malta in the 1950s, still less what the media landscape was like in those distant years. I do, however, remember the sorry state of Xandir Malta in the 1980s: for instance, the blatant distortions of the truth, such as when the 8 o'clock news described the EgyptAir hijack disaster of 1986 (in which 60 people died as a result of a botched rescue operation) as a 'complete success'.

I also remember the blatantly contrived machinations, in which 'journalists' spun the most remarkable untruths in their zeal to defend their beloved government from criticism.

That was around 30 years ago, and... well, what do you know? Just like the case of that elderly (and imaginary) British serviceman, it was almost as though no time at all had elapsed between the two epochs.

I'll give you just one example: at one point I found myself watching an episode of Bondiplus which purported to tackle the oil scandal - or so the promotional jingle had earlier claimed. Well, I waited (and waited and waited) for presenter Lou Bondì to give us the customary disclaimer: i.e., that the man at the centre of the allegations in this case (namely, Transport Minister Austin Gatt) just happens to be... his own cousin.

But no, it seems that in the 30 years since the age of Xandir Malta, we still haven't come round to understanding even the most basic and entry-level ethical requirements of journalism: i.e, the obligation to declare one's bias.

And to be honest that small shortcoming - which would be considered quite a serious faux pas anywhere else in the 'normal' world - was quite frankly the least of the problems. A much more disturbing failure was that Bondì didn't even bother disguising the fact that his only interest in the issue was to absolve his cousin of all blame. And such was the zeal with which he set about this task - a task which of itself has nothing to do with journalism, and everything to do with public relations/electioneering of the most partisan kind imaginable (and lo and behold: go back far enough and you'll find the same Lou Bondì doubling up as a PN campaign manager) - that at one point he even did the unthinkable, and addressed a press conference question to my colleague Matthew Vella... a question aimed only at discrediting the entire line of investigation taken by this newspaper.

And yet it is Lou Bondì himself (and not MaltaToday) who makes the bold claim of conducting 'journalistic investigations into absolutely everything' (as implicit in his programme's tagline, which I admit sounds a lot better in Maltese). Well, I for one can't even remember the last time Bondì actually investigated anything at all. Unless the definition of 'investigation' has changed while I wasn't looking, and now now means blatantly attempting to discredit any aspect of any stories which might work to the disadvantage of: a) Lou Bondì's cousin, and; b) the political party for which Lou Bondì himself once doubled up as a chief electoral strategist.

And this brings me to another; much more serious issue. 'Bondiplus' is shown on PBS: which - unlike all other news media on the island, including Maltatoday - has a Constitutional obligation to uphold the principles of impartiality. This also implies that Bondì's otherwise blatant disregard for even the most fundamental journalistic principles is not just a matter of mere ethics alone. It is also technically illegal.

And here too I am reminded of Xandir Malta in its very worst incarnation. For just like those who had once reduced that station to a mere mouthpiece of the government of the day (and a dishonest mouthpiece at that), Lou Bondì has managed to go one better.

Not only did he blatantly flip the bird at the Broadcasting Authority's admonishments - as though he is somehow above or beyond the reach of the state broadcasting regulator - but PBS itself came rushing to his defence: taking the alarming initiative of hauling the same authority to court, for the grave crime of trying to fulfil its own Constitutional mandate.

In brief, Bondì has behaved as though PBS were somehow his own private property... and PBS itself has played along to his tune. Yet PBS is NOT Lou Bondì's private property. It is the private property of the entire country... and that includes more people than can be made to fit in Lou Bondì's family tree.