Unorthodox might be an understatement to describe the man: Noel Grima, the former Catholic priest who last year married an Evangelical Christian, and who is the editor of The Malta Independent on Sunday, last week published his own wife’s letter against his star columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Published under the title “Intellectually unbeatable” on 14 October, Charlotte Grima’s letter to her husband slams Caruana Galizia for “the venomous pieces she writes on your paper”.
A José Herrera canvasser who is regularly seen in Labour mass meetings wearing the customary red attire, Ms Grima compared the columnist’s opinion pieces to the grudge of a spiteful worker who backstabs co-workers by resorting to personal attacks.
“And the perpetrator doesn’t realise that she herself – bodily or visually – could be as much subject to other people’s scorn and ridicule she tries to heap on her victims,” she wrote.
“Ms Caruana Galizia gives me the impression she is fixated on the venom she want to spit at Dr Alfred Sant… because his policies have the potential to succeed.”
The wife of the former Gzira parish priest and current anchorman of 7 News on Smash TV goes on to take the columnist to task for “harping about a perceived defect”, concluding her letter that Sant is unbeatable.
“Isn’t it strange that of all the columnists writing on the papers, it is only she who thinks that wearing a toupee is not only a defect but also affects the way politics are done?”
Both Grima and Caruana Galizia declined to comment when contacted.
Only recently the Independent editor alleged that he was contacted by MLP functionary Joe Mifsud to angrily complain about a Caruana Galizia article about Sant’s wig, even before it was published. Grima suggested there could be “Labour moles” in his newsroom.
And last Sunday, the Independent editor took his cue from Caruana Galizia’s own column written earlier this month about “the elves in Sant’s grotto” – referring to the string of letters written by unknown people in praise of Sant.
Grima investigated her claim that a Labour spin doctor was busy concocting letters glorifying the Labour leader.
“Most people reading Daphne’s article must have thought she had let her imagination run riot – the image of busy industrious elves hard at work in some dimly lit grotto must have made many to smile and disregard the whole thing,” he wrote. “Instead, however, it turns out to be very true.”