Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Berlusconi can't rein in the foreign press

INDIPENDENT
Berlusconi can't rein in the foreign press
It's the Silvio and Noemi show - who's interested in Fiat now?
By James Walston
Sunday, 31 May 2009
To say that Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, would like to control 
the Italian media, and to a large extent actually does, is hardly news. But 
last week saw him trying to rein in the foreign press too, and finding it 
rather more difficult.
The offending story is his relationship with an aspiring model from the 
Neapolitan hinterland, Noemi Letizia, and his mental health. A month ago, 
Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, dropped a bombshell when she attacked her 
husband for making pretty showgirls into candidates for the European 
elections next week; she followed up a day later by saying that he also 
"consorted with underage girls" and "is not well". She said that he had gone 
to an 18-year-old's birthday party (Letizia's) when he hadn't even shown up 
for his children's 18th birthdays.
Since then, Italy and much of the rest of the world have been trying to work 
out what exactly was going on between Berlusconi and Letizia. Berlusconi is 
a media magnate who owns three of Italy's national TV channels and, as prime 
minister, has a dominant influence over the public broadcaster, RAI. He and 
his family own a couple of daily papers, one of the two main news weeklies 
and the country's biggest book publisher, Mondadori. He has been an active 
politician since 1994 and on the fringes since the 1960s. Despite this 
experience, his media management over the past month has been comically 
amateur.
After Lario's statements, he implied she was an embittered, estranged wife 
who had an axe to grind and should not be taken seriously. Instead of 
leaving it there, he went on a friendly political chat show and spent an 
hour explaining how sane he was and how his relationship with Letizia was 
innocent. The story went into orbit; it's still there.
Endless conflicting versions have emerged: When did they meet? Fifteen or 20 
years ago when Noemi's father was supposedly politically active? Or in 
November last year without her parents? How many times have they met? Where? 
Instead of organising a careful damage control operation, Berlusconi, his 
staff and the Letizia family and friends have all given different versions 
pushing the rumour mill into overdrive: that she was his daughter; his 
lover; a decoration for Fellini-style parties at one of his Sardinian 
villas. Or, worst of all, she was the impossible dream of a 72-year-old with 
a prostate problem. This week he swore "on the heads of my children" that he 
had done "nothing spicy with her", a pale echo of Clinton's "I did not have 
sex with that woman".
In a sense, it does not really matter what he did, although he will 
presumably face criticism from the Church. Most Italians have forgiven his 
other activities, from conflicts of interest to trials in which he was not 
sentenced because the statute of limitations ran out. That part of Italy has 
even forgiven him his inability to resolve the economic decline either 
between 2001 and 2006 or since his re-election last year.
What does matter, is Berlusconi's ability to radiate control and optimism, 
and here he is on much weaker ground. He cannot stand losing face and a lot 
of his supporters would not forgive him for making Italy look stupid or 
worse, louche. Rome's well-organised Champions League final, Fiat as a 
saviour of Europe's auto industry, a well-co-ordinated earthquake relief 
effort all take second place to the Prime Minister's dalliance with a 
17-year-old.
Berlusconi also fancies himself as an international statesman and is 
presumably looking forward to hosting the G8 in Aquila in July. If the 
foreign media are still trying to find out what happened with Noemi, it will 
rain on the Silvio-Barack-Nicolas parade.
The counter-attack against the foreign press has been three-pronged. 
Berlusconi has claimed that the foreign press are part of a plot 
orchestrated by the centre-left La Repubblica and the left wing Unita. 
British readers will be surprised to learn that the FT, The Times and The 
Economist are dupes of the left. At a press conference last week, Berlusconi 
refused to take questions from Repubblica and Unita journalists. Il 
Giornale, one of his family papers, has poured scorn on foreign journalists 
and their papers, particularly the British, who never get nearer to the 
corridors of power than fancy restaurants and radical chic terraces. 
Finally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the normally suave and anodyne 
Franco Frattini, attacked "bad" and "dishonest" foreign journalism which 
just deals in gossip.
None of them have found any substantial errors of fact, nor has Berlusconi 
answered questions asked by La Repubblica a fortnight ago. The coverage goes 
on, with Time running a mocking piece and the International Herald Tribune 
putting the story on Friday's front page. Berlusconi is finding out the hard 
way that he cannot manipulate the foreign press in quite the same way as the 
domestic variety.
The author is an associate professor of international relations at the 
American University of Rome

 It's the Silvio and Noemi show - who's interested in Fiat now?
INDIPENDENT,
la solita carta igienica per sederini delicati.. ma che non allevier� loro i 
bruciori dell'8 di giugno.
Pazienza.

bruciori dell'8 di giugno.
Devi esserti confuso con Libero, il giornale libero di dire solo ci�
che fa piacere al "tuo" signore e padrone Re S�la.
Mentor

 ha scritto nel messaggio 
news:as5b25psgas9u5gea...@4ax.com...

no, e non fare battute..
luned� sera.. ti servir�...l'indipendent (da che??)

luned� sera.. ti servir�...l'indipendent (da che??)
Dovrebbe servire a te, dato che continuerai ad essere "dependent" da
Re S�la.
Mentor