The video of Brian Hansford advising Delia supporters on how to put pressure on PN MPs is, if nothing else, evidence of his pathological stupidity. The case that he’s a Labour Party tool with a platform on national TV to serve his party’s interests has long been made. Now we know that his eagerness to “go live” on his Facebook account trumps even the most obvious need of discretion.
Recall this post from February 2018 when Brian Hansford campaigned against legislation to protect Maltese journalists from SLAPP suits. It isn’t likely he’s ever going to get one training Adrian Delia supporters on how to intimidate the parliamentary group of the Nationalist Party.
Robert Musumeci posted in sympathy with his propagandist friend. ‘You’ve nothing to worry about,’ he told him. ‘It’s not like they’ll kick you out of PBS.’ Robert Musumeci is a walking, talking Freudian slip.
Yes, Brian Hansford will not be kicked out of his lazy national TV program. The airtime is needed for the pincer movement to back the manipulation of the Nationalist Party he incites in the street. No wonder Simon Mercieca gets the space on Brian Hansford’s program to indulge in some fascist slander and paranoia at the expense of Malta’s pro-democracy movement. And Brian Hansford calls that “realtà”.
Anywhere else, a video of a journalist “helping” (as Brian Hansford himself called it in what he must think is his defence) activists in a political event he was covering for his TV show, would have instantly cost that journalist his job.
But Brian Hansford is not a journalist, is he? He’s a propagandist dressed as one. It doesn’t matter then.