Ill-mannered people, when beaten on the grounds of logic, resort to personal insults. This equally applies to some of our poor excuse for media contributors even though they do not always necessarily fall in that ill-mannered category. They do however belong to a class which I do not care to mention. I shall merely refer to them as “the coalition”.

Jo Said, who since the last few days was in the news as much as our political leaders, is making some disturbing statements and it would be foolhardy to ignore them even if you do not agree with him politically.

Typically, my less admired contributor, Daphne Caruana Galizia, went up-in-arms against him and in a futile endeavour to discredit him, she went as far as alleging that he suffers from strong suppressed emotions. Painfully, compared to other hysterical attacks she habitually bestows to others, that was a mild bi-product of her venomous pen, a characteristic of a person penned in panic.

On 5 February, this paper published a letter by Jo Said in which he hinted that Daphne picks her nose. Personally I think that comment was uncalled for, albeit funny. The following day Daphne went to town on him and remarked that “whatever Mr Said’s problems are, they’re certainly not political. He shouldn’t be using the public stage as a form of catharsis.” In layman’s terms, catharsis means the relief of strong suppressed emotions through psychoanalysis. Daphne might respond to soften her blow by telling us that catharsis also means the evacuation of the bowels with the use of a laxative. Whatever her excuse, facts show that she over reacted by way of her inexcusably unpleasant style.

Decent people are tired of this gutter journalism especially when it is being used as a vehicle to suppress others who unveil political scandals or sensitive material which embarrass the other side. Ironically it serves no other purpose than to promote contempt. Intelligent people do not care whether the preacher picks her nose or has problems with opining the bowels or other forms of handicaps. The people that are in search of truth are not interested in mud slinging, we look for the substance and in Jo Said’s attestations we are finding tonnes of it. I urge him not to be provoked by the likes of the other correspondent. Stick to facts, on their own they are convincing enough.

We do not need strong arguments to vivify the fact that Daphne Caruana Galizia and her coalition of gutter journalists are trying to dignify their personal attacks with the excuse of saving Malta from a Labour government. Members of the coalition have a vested interest in the PN and they consider the new Labour government a threat to their lucrative stations. I can mention a few others but space is scarce.

The present scene is rotten to the core and the people are talking. It has now become a foregone conclusion that the cure for our serious ailment may only be administered by Dr Alfred Sant and his Labour Party.

With the majority supporting his altruistic efforts, Dr Sant and his team are already in the prologue of a new beginning and in March we shall enjoy the epilogue.

Charles J Buttigieg

Mellieha