Editorial: They will sink in their own mud

There can be no doubt that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA have always had a fervent desire to control the media.

From the start they attempted by any means possible to make as many media outlets as they could, especially those aligned with the centre-left, their own personal propaganda machines

Yesterday's revelations by shipowner Evangelos Marinakis regarding attempts to co-opt To Vima and Ta Nea and about failed television license bidder Ioannis Kalogritsas revealed a prime example of that strategy.

Naturally, the luminaries in the PM's office did not dare to deny even the slightest detail. They resorted to what they do best - mudslinging propaganda, defamation, and invective - but they can no longer persuade even themselves.

Everyone knows by now that the politician who is in the tightest embrace with vested interests is Mr. Tsipras himself. He and his associates have turned parliament through their addenda to draft legislation and various clientelistic arrangements into a launderette for all sorts of vested interests.

The ruling party is so cynical that it now proudly embraces those whom it used to routinely blast as masters of corruption.

Businessmen who enriched themselves mainly with state contracts are lining up at the PM's offices. The much-touted "moral advantage" of the left-wing government has disintegrated. They will do anything to extend their stay in power.

They cannot comprehend that there are media outlets which respect their history and tradition and refuse to become their sycophants, that fortunately we still have journalists who do their job well as they understand it and refuse to become the handmaidens of power.

As much mudslinging as the government may engage in, as...