He liked to highlight French craftsmanship, the French terroir, regional folklore and the trades of yesteryear. Even if it means falling into caricature. In the newspapers of Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who died Wednesday at the age of 71, the hierarchy of information followed its own logic, very local news often taking precedence over international events.
The horns of info did not hesitate to scratch him on this subject. The TF1 journalist hated his puppet. “She never made me laugh. She made me pass for a filthy fascist, which caused problems for my children in particular. Humor has its limits. he said to Parisian in 2015.
The Canal+ satirical program was far from the only one to criticize the presenter. The semiologist François Jost saw in his 13 hours, “a certain populism”. And to analyze: “We see him as someone turned towards tradition, the province. But he always promotes, in his speech, the interests of the taxpayer, of the small against the big, of the provincial against Paris. »
“The France of the territories loses this reassuring face which spoke so well of it”
Whether we are sensitive to it or not, this taste for proximity was the mark of Jean-Pierre Pernaut, who so loved to recall his Picardy origins. “Territorial France is losing that familiar voice and that reassuring face that spoke so well of her and knew how to speak to her so well,” reacted Prime Minister Jean Castex to the announcement of his death from breast cancer. lung.
The France of Jean-Pierre Pernaut is that which is seen through the prism of traditions and their transmission, centered on steeples and markets, which grumbles, annoys and reconciles on the zinc of PMU bistros. When he took control of TF1’s midday newspaper in 1988, the presenter never stopped “going to see people at home”, to impose a “less institutional” meeting. and above all “less Parisian”, as he summed it up to AFP a few years ago. The recipe worked: 5 million viewers watched every day JPP tell the world and especially the France of the departmental.
A “Netflix of the regions”
Jean-Pierre Pernaut encouraged the channel to create and develop a network of correspondents in the regions – which continues today. In 2001, he was behind the “SOS Villages” initiative aimed at bringing together merchants and craftsmen to revitalize the local economy. He also had the idea, four years ago, of the “Votre plus beau marché” operation, a showcase for short circuits and local producers. Over the years, it is almost an institution of the French audiovisual landscape that he has shaped.
Also, when he passed the baton, at the end of 2020, to Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, the latter took great care to reassure the public. “I’m not going to blast 1 p.m.,” she warned in the columns of 20 minutes, giving pledges to a public not really inclined to see their habits shaken up. “I come with my personality, yes. Now, this love of the regions, of the terroir, that’s what I am deep down, ”she insisted.
Jean-Pierre Pernaut, however, has not retired. He immediately launched JPP TV, a free digital platform that he presented as a “Netflix of the regions”. On the program in particular, a selection of reports broadcast during his thirty-three years of JT and mood tickets. Put online before Christmas 2020, it boasted, four months later, of having “already attracted 160,000 followers and generated more than 1 million visits”. On LCI, he also appeared every week on the show Jean-Pierre et vous.
“The Parisians are coming. What are the consequences for our regions? »
Last summer, it was in newsstands that the journalist’s fad was revealed. The first issue ofAt the heart of the regions128 pages on “the defense of the soil, the enhancement of the beauty of our regions, the richness of our culture”, as he listed it in a press release, was put up for sale.
Number 5 was released on February 25. On the cover, the contours of Jean-Pierre Pernaut are outlined in front of the ramparts of Carcassonne, a call from Une qualifies farmers as “heroes” and yellow letters on a red banner question the urban exodus: “Les Parisiens arrive. What are the consequences for our regions? “By reading these few words, one could almost hear the intonations of Jean-Pierre Pernaut.