The Times of Malta, Paid by the EU for Fact-Checking, Doesn’t Check Its Own Stories

Four days before April Fool’s Day, SideStreet Story fabricated a news item claiming that Lady Gaga was in Malta. This site (my own) did not report anything about it. The video footage looked highly professional, but I didn’t publish the story—I didn’t believe it. I looked into her whereabouts and saw it was her birthday. So, why would she be in Malta?

Another glaring inconsistency should have triggered scepticism from any journalist: the supposed Lady Gaga was filmed and photographed walking around without bodyguards. Yet it’s a well-known fact that she never travels without them. This detail alone should have raised questions.

This story began after SideStreet published the article, “Lady Gaga spotted in Mdina.” What happened next? Boom—cue the copy-paste frenzy. Malta’s gullible mainstream media fell for it. One outlet after another regurgitated the story without verifying it. If ever there was proof that local newsrooms are more concerned with free publicity than truth, this was it. It’s also a testament to how desperate the mainstream media has become for content.

The Times of Malta didn’t bother to verify the story or conduct any due diligence before publishing it. They didn’t even use “allegedly”—a word they notoriously avoid, especially when reporting on men being arraigned in court.

The fallout? The fake story embarrassed The Times, which then quietly deleted the article from its website. But deleting an article doesn’t scrub it from Google – those search results stick around for a while.

Afterwards, The Times claimed the story was an April Fool’s hoax. But they tried to bury the evidence that they had been duped. Let’s be clear: it wasn’t even published on April Fool’s Day—it was released three days before. The absolute brilliance here is that on April 1st, while the media were still out searching for Lady Gaga, SideStreet dropped the punchline. Then, the next day, they pivoted—announcing a giveaway for two tickets to Gaga’s world tour.

What’s troubling is that The Times receives EU funds to run a fact-checking service, yet it doesn’t fact-check its reports. This isn’t the first time The Times has botched the facts. But rest assured, they needn’t worry. Von der Leyen has set the EU standard for burying evidence, wiping phones, and deleting posts. She won’t be asking for a refund. After all, at least two top EU officials plagiarised their theses—and they remain The Times’ darlings.

The Times is slowly becoming Malta’s premiere comedy channel.

In fairness, even TVM published the Gaga story. Like The Times, they, too, deleted their article once they realised they’d been pranked. The kids behind this hoax pulled off the best mainstream media prank in years. They were brilliant. Well done, SideStreet Malta. Your stunt was executed brilliantly – you made history.