editorial

Dare WE ride the storm and get on with it

The decision to boycott Where’s Everybody (WE) comes as no surprise. It heralds a cold war that has simply got out of hand.

The daggers are out and Dr Alfred Sant is taking no chances. In his attempt to ensure that the MLP does not have anything to do with Where’s Everybody he has called on Labour folk to boycott WE.

Dr Sant has convinced himself that Where’s Everybody is of no use to the Labour party.

On the contrary he sincerely believes that it is a threat.

This has been consolidated by the fact that he knows that the Labour party does not have the clout to debate or duel on WE’s programmes. He has been abetted by the political envy that so many of his acolytes suffer from.
And he never could get his finger on the button to stop his followers from flocking to WE programmes. But the Istrina events brought things to a head.

Dr Sant could not stand being told what to do when it came to Istrina.

So he lashed back.

There is little doubt that his boycott decision will have an impact on the workings of this company but it will, if history proves us right, have a deleterious effect on his political stance.

WE have been accused of serving the Nationalist party and its interests, an allegation they strongly deny.

But let us for the moment assume that Joe Azzopardi and Lou Bondi are puppets in the hands of the one and only Joe Saliba.

Is this boycott justified?

The answer is no.

It is as unjustified as the boycott Nationalist MP’s have with Super One and Labour MPs with Net TV.

When Joe Saliba decided to order Nationalist folk to effectively boycott Super One programmes, his argument was that he did not agree with the way the programmes were manipulated.

Such thinking is flawed.

Why should one be scared of debating in enemy territory?

The roots of this boycott are to be found in the awful polarisation institutionalised by the decision years back to allow political stations to operate with much advantage.

Dr Alfred Sant and his counterpart Dr Eddie Fenech Adami want their stations to reflect their political agendas. Dr Sant is unhappy when his media bias is deafened by Where’s Everybody’s programmes.

He has been angered by the success of WE and worse still by the habit of WE protagonists in replying to and confronting every accusation made against them.

The right to boycott Where’s Everybody is not in dispute here, what is being asked is whether the decision was the right one.

In a democracy, everyone can choose to boycott, but in doing so Dr Sant has signed a new contract – one that exhumes the political hatred that existed in the past and the inability of politicians to reply to questions put to them by journalists (with or without an agenda).

This is what media is all about.

In taking such drastic action, he is confirming his wish to return to the barricades. Such a scenario must be contested at all times.

Where’s Everybody are not the only people to have been boycotted in this country.

For years, political groups such as Alternattiva were commercially and media boycotted.

They were boycotted by Super One, PBS and Net.

No one lifted a finger to protest then.

Media such as MaltaToday have also been boycotted most especially by commercial entities irritated by our stories.

Unfortunately for WE, partisan politics have come home to haunt them too.
No matter how many condemnations land in Alfred Sant’s lap, one cannot see him alter his mind set.

What is worse is that the individuals who are best suited at being moderate, Evarist Bartolo and Alfred Mifsud, have orchestrated much of the boycott themselves. In doing so, their attempt to attract the middle of the road voter may well fail.

If polarisation is to be diffused, the only solution is to move ahead, deliver the news and intensify the level of debate.

As we all know, WE represent, the most TV assertive, arrogant, capable, journalists around. They can brave the onslaught, but they should forget about winning this game of scrabble with Alfred Sant.

Their job is to weather the storm and produce more programmes and offer a service to the many followers of their television shows.