The quality levels on PBS have taken a big dent in recent weeks.

I will not write about the political content; I will leave that to the parties to fight over. I am sure that the same complaints that were put forward by the Labour Party in the previous legislature are the same that are being submitted by the Nationalist Party these days.

But I would like to comment about three news items that were aired in the 8pm news bulletin on Tuesday 11 June.

The first was a direct link from Castille on one of the activities held by the government to listen to what the people have to say. The journalist in question spoke about “300,000 hip or knee replacements” that were allowed to expire.

The figure she gave means that the previous government bought hip or knee replacements for practically the whole of the adult population. I think the journalist – I did not get the name – must have wanted to add the word euros to the phrase, which would give a totally different story. She also left “euros” out when she was speaking about expired medicinals.

Another item that made me laugh was about the lending of books from public libraries. The journalist – this time a man – said that “principally, books are borrowed to be read”. Wow, I thought, didn’t know that. What kind of news is this? It’s like saying the sun rises in the east every morning.

The third item was similar to the second – in the sense that the report stated the obvious. The report, by the same journalist who was at Castille (I recognised the voice) said that “soldiers were exposed to shooting” during their training. Wow again, I said, didn’t know that either.

Come on, I am sure that PBS can do much better.

Charles Camilleri

Sliema