With three years to go till the next general elections, there is a clear prospect of a future where the public contracts and favours will no longer be forthcoming. This scenario has led someone of Lou Bondì’s stature to regurgitate the questions put to him in the same manner a desperate housewife would normally reply.
I am not offended at Mr Bondì’s hysterical, puerile and venomous comments. I feel sorry for him. Nothing will change the fact that last Monday’s Bondiplus was a pitiful piece of state-funded programming that instead of engaging with the facts behind the blogging saga, in his reply to this newspaper he simply labelled people and lashed out at everyone.
I love it. At least I know that he has not changed. How very important to know this. When some years back Mr Bondì’s programme was not selected for the prime-time evening slot and mine was, he hit at out at the editorial board. He accused me of being in cahoots with Dominic Fenech (a man I openly criticised for his ties with the old MLP), and the board eventually caved in to give him his programme back. Like a child crying out for more Coco Pops, Bondì was finally in a position to smile.
If there is a similar trait between all these fun-loving characters, it has to be their persistence in being nasty.
Bondì insists that he is one of the most popular programmes on TVM. What he does not say is that for donkey’s years, he and Peppi have monopolised State TV and have had no one to compete with them.
Both Lou and Peppi have consistently worked to push forward the party in government, and the individuals politically appointed at PBS have ensured that they have had a green light. Bondì and Peppi have raced round the track … alone. Their political spin goes down as real news. Many televiewers cannot see through their finesse and spin doctoring.
Many people who watched Bondiplus did not know that the blogger has started this onslaught of diarrhoea after her husband had reported her to the police for throwing plates at him on the 8th of December.
For 18 long years, Bondì has dominated the airwaves and no one else has been given the chance to appear on this slot which he has filled at primetime after the news. I am sure that none of the other presenters can match his objectivity and independent nature (or his personality and intellect).
When years back I questioned him whether a Satanic mass that was screened on his programme had been true or a simple mise-en-scene, instead of coming back with some proof of whether the mass was not some cooked-up theatrical scene, Bondì hit out in his inimitable style at subjects that were unrelated to the questions.
Thankfully for both us, his former partner and my late wife continued meeting each other and mixing socially, and none of us mixed the personal aspect with the probing or finger-pointing that took place during this period.
Bondì knows that this is not the case with the Bidnija blogger. She has not limits. She thinks that she will silence me with her imagination and sick mind. And sick is an understatement. As one of her former friends told me, she is a miskina, a real miskina.
Bondì knows it but he will not say it. The reason being that he is in a desperate situation where the people that cannot afford to have this administration out of the way, are rallying together to hit out at their common enemy in every way possible.
It is a typically Francoist way of demolishing the opposition. Franco bombed one Basque town after another even though many of the Republicans were not allied to these cities.
It is no problem at all for me. But again I feel sorry for them. They think that nothing comes to end. But everything does.
And I know that it will be three long years, but I am dying for that day when it will all end. And by that, I mean end to favouritism, hypocrisy, direct orders and contracts for the boys, the spin doctoring, the auto-censorship and the biased TVM programmes.
Sure, I am not sure if the newcomers (I will not be around by then) will be offering a better deal. I do not really care. At least it will give us one good reason to tune in to TVM for some time. At least, before a Labourite Bondì-styled host makes his debut and makes us all vomit over and over again.
What is important is that we put an end to the bigotry and the dominance of one group of politically-motivated individuals over another.
Profs Joe Pirotta, answering in this newspaper, talked about principles. He tries very hard to give the impression of being a father figure. In all fairness he has long lost this image, and there is little doubt in my mind that he is a political appointee with a very clear brief.
The one principle in last Monday’s debate was not the debate, but the fact that Lou Bondì was unsuitable to be the host of such a programme, for the following reasons:
1) He is on the blogger’s side.
2) He was at this particular private dinner party hosted by Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s home.
3) He failed to mention the blogger’s outburst came after someone (guess who?) texted a message to her that the magistrate mentioned the case of the blogger’s husband’s police report – stating that she had thrown plates at him and that the story would appear on MaltaToday.
4) He failed to mention all the people the blogger has hit out at and her inventions and bigotry over the years.
5) He is Consuelo’s and Robert Musumeci’s friend (and well, with friends like these who needs enemies?)
During the programme Bondì insists that the blogger has evidence to back what she has said – namely that cocaine was being used. Looking forward to all the hard evidence! I really think that March 2 will be like a scene from the Return of the Pink Panther, with Inspector Clouseau replacing the role of the blogger.
Why did he not say that many of the matters the blogger has said are completely untrue? That other comments are downright cruel to third persons who have nothing whatsoever to do with public personae? And yes, both Lou and myself are public persons.
One of the funniest or most ridiculous statements by Bondì was his attempt to ridicule Toni Abela’s opinion column in sister newspaper Illum. What Abela wanted to say is that he knew of a high official in the Nationalist party who got beaten up after seeking unsolicited sex in a public garden.
Why is Mr Bondì surprised with this story? Does he not know the person?
Yes, I would agree with Bondì that I would rather mention people than simply speculate or let people come to their own conclusions. The blogger has a very bad habit of doing this – but what do you expect from someone who is always talking about other people’s sex lives?
Does it not say something about the person? Isn’t it that old adage about people who always talk about sex, are either having too much of it or none at all?
But what was most bizarre was Bondì’s insistence that the Police Commissioner should call for Abela and ask him to specify the details. Poor John Rizzo has become a punching ball. If that is going to be the case then I should perhaps suggest that Mr John Rizzo should also investigate Eddie Fenech Adami for his infamous declaration when he stated that everyone knew who killed Raymond Caruana; and more recently when Tonio Fenech was faced with some very serious allegations by a contractor who worked at his house and made some very serious accusations – which still stand.
I am sure, that in his desperation, Mr Bondì forgot to mention these examples. I am sure that like the blogger, he puts news first and foremost and has no self-interest and political inclination in what he talks about.
So instead, any assertion or belief that Mr Bondì is being unfair, biased, prejudiced and a blind Gonzi supporter and a defender of the Bidnija blogger is simply unfounded! Or anybody who questions the authenticity of Mr Bondì’s journalism is simply envious.
If that’s the way such a person handles these queries, they ought to get themselves checked.
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