A religious fundamentalist dominating the headlines and social media sphere for a quite frankly outrageous remark saying that people with a disability are the product of sin was certainly not on anybody's bingo card at the start of the week.

Yet one needs to only look to where the headline emerged from to see how - and, more importantly, why - it emerged.

Phyllisienne Brincat's remark that disabilities are the result of Adam and Eve's original sin were said during the television programme Popolin which aired on state broadcaster TVM on Wednesday evening.

Hosted by former Labour Party local council mayor Quinton Scerri, Popolin claims in its bio to be an "investigative" programme which deals with a variety of topics including current affairs and social issues.

You would be forgiven for thinking that an investigative current affairs programme would be delving into the two major stories which have dominated the past few weeks: the social benefits racket which has seen Labour Party canvassers and a former MP implicated in a scheme for over 800 people to get disability benefits that they are not eligible for, some of which in exchange for their vote; and the driving licence racket which saw assistance be given to a select few in order for them to pass their driving test.

But instead, the state broadcaster elects to use its current affairs show in order to discuss religion (nothing wrong with that per se, save for the timing) and to invite people, like Brincat and River of Love's Gordan Manche, who have a track record of saying outrageous things and stoking anger through their religious fundamentalism.

That one of them would create a headline which would rile people up was a given, and was quite possibly TVM's intention.

In this case, it happened to be Brincat - a woman who had already hit the headlines back in 2019 when she showed a video and claimed that it was evidence that children with autism could be 'cured' with prayer.

The fact that the programme which was aired - including Brincat's remarks - was reportedly pre-recorded only goes to further support the notion that this was nothing more than a diversionary tactic by TVM in order to shift the public discourse away from the government's scandals and towards some other topic to which the government has no connection.

There is also a question about TVM's own editorial responsibility to be asked here:  Brincat's comments were construed as some as hate speech, and it is shameful that if this is ultimately deemed to be the case, it would have been the state broadcaster itself to have aired such a thing.

Editorial standards aside though, the very fact that the rackets and scandals which have made their way into public light in the past week continue to evade the talking points on TVM continues to show that the state broadcaster remains heavily biased in the government's favour.

But that's not really news by now, is it?