THE CHRONICLE OF A LIE - DAY 2: Going from "he snatched the microphone away", to "he stole the microphone"

The lie that Realitatea TV has been airing for the last two days, that prime minister Emil Boc had snatched the microphone from the female reporter the station had sent over to the senate, was yesterday revised to include other versions ("Boc confiscated the microphone" or "Boc holds the microphone hostage"), but the headline that takes the crown home is the one in Jurnalul Naţional : "Boc swipes the microphones of journalists".

It"s not just one microphone/one journalist, we"ve gone over to the second stage: we are now talking about journalists in the Senate, whose microphones were swiped.

Two journalist bodies - The ROMEDIA Professional Association of the Romanian Press and the Convention of the Media Organizations - have issued press releases protesting the abusive actions of the Prime Minister.

"The ROMEDIA Professional Association of the Romanian Press protests against the physical and verbal violence of PM Boc perpetrated against the journalists of Antena 3 and Realitatea TV".

Most likely, in the third stage, they will claim the journalists were beaten, and in the fourth stage, they will have been kidnapped and taken away to Iraq.

Next week, the headlines will probably say "Boc is the brother of Bin Laden".

Bin Laden must have about 50 brothers already, give or take, it wouldn"t make much of a difference if somebody added Emil Boc to the list.

"The prime-minister was unhappy that TV stations insist on focusing on the information about the large number of state secretaries in the various ministries, which according to official statements should have been cut since October", the press release of the Convention of Media Organizations claims.

Another lie.

That"s not what the prime minister was unhappy with.

He was unhappy with the fact that Realitatea TV was spreading misinformation about an increase in the number of secretaries in the Ministry of the Economy, when, as he claims, that number remained unchanged, even though the Ministry of the Economy was merged with the Ministry for SMEs.

Why is the press release of the Convention of Media Organizations lying?

I have no idea.

The Convention includes about 40 members, journalist organizations which in turn have their number of members -media professionals or institutions.

The misleading press release claims to speak for hundreds of journalists.

Do they all agree with the text of the press release?

I can assure you they don"t.

It works like this: the five people working on the "Rapid reaction force of the Committee" actually react quickly and write the misleading press release which they do not take the time to submit for approval.

This means that hundreds of journalists are lying.

On top of the much ado over nothing, the conservative party went ahead and issued its own "press release" - which is in fact a propaganda release. Even though it is signed by the "Press office", the press release can"t be taken seriously (it can be viewed in full on www.bursa.ro).

On this occasion, the Conservative Party confirms that it"s real name should be "The TV station party" - why should the accusations made by Emil Boc against Antena 3 be any of its concern?

Of course, the fact that its president Dan Voiculescu is also the founder of the media group that owns Antena 3 would have nothing to do with it.

Of course, on the occasion of the pamphlet/press release, the party"s PR office mistook its job with working at the TV station.