Great moment of journalistic ethics on Tuesday, January 18, when the journalist Anna Cabana, married for a few days to the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer, leads a debate on… the controversy “Blanquer in Ibiza”. Something to relaunch, mocking and acerbic comments on social networks as a bonus, the debate on the proximity between politicians and the media. A few hours later, the yellow laughter was barely more easily repressed in front of Vincent Bolloré, swearing before the Senate to “never do politics” before a (false?) slip on Eric Zemmour.
These two scenes may revolve around personalities already regularly criticized for maintaining the blur between politics and the media, it is appropriate for the journalistic world to look at the navel a little to take stock of the situation. Especially a few months before the presidential election. How strong and murky is the bond between the two? Is it worse than before? What danger can such collusion represent? 20 minutes surrounded itself with experts to answer these questions.
The stranglehold of politics on the media, from Richelieu to Mitterrand
“There is not a single period when there is no strong link” between politics and the media in France, asserts the historian Fabrice d’Almeida, vice-president of the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, recalling the beginnings of newspapers in France. “The Théophraste Renaudot gazette was created with the support of Richelieu”, then chief minister of Louis XIII. In the early days of the Republic, politicians and journalists were often a single person, like Adrien Hébrard, boss of the Time and senator.
Closer to home, the ORTF is the most blatant and accepted example of political control over information. But times are changing, and with the 1982 reform on audiovisual communication, “the Elkabbach affair can no longer happen again”, continues the historian. In 1981, the journalist had been excluded from the presentation on Antenne 2 after the election of François Mitterrand, considered too close to the outgoing president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
Television without political color?
The freedom acquired by television does not prevent politicians from still having ideas in their heads. Thus, the left embarked on “a strategy of creating channels” between 1982 and 1986, in particular “a sixth channel, musical”, which was to attract “young people, so that they vote socialist”. But television lost political color in the 90s. A sign of this independence, Nicolas Sarkozy demanded the head of Arlette Chabot on his return from a trip to New York in 2009 after a tough exchange: Patrick de Carolis, CEO of France Télé , hold on.
“The Bolloré case is new,” points out Christian Delporte. He too “laughs” at the defense of the boss of Canal, believing that he carries a “political project” bringing “a mixture of genres and a conflict of interest” on the air. “Can CNews journalists talk about Vincent Bolloré? “, he asks. Those from Capital, magazine of the Prisma Media group bought by the boss of Canal, have in any case not spoken about it since June,
according to Emmanuel Vire, general secretary of the SNJ-CGT trade union.
Peopolization and couples
But the relationship between politicians and the media takes another form. From the 2007 campaign, “we are witnessing a form of peopolization of the two candidates, who have an eventful private life”, underlines the semiologist Virginie Spies. In terms of private life, the lecturer at the University of Avignon cites the many couples, public, between “always between a politician and a woman journalist”: DSK with Anne Sinclair, Arnaud Montebourg and Audrey Pulvar, Jean-Louis Borloo and Béatrice Schoenberg…
Relations, which do not date from yesterday, even, according to her, “give the impression of a connivance in places of power”, at the origin of the reproaches of yellow vests or antivax “against the” media ” in the hands of the government”. “The distance is greater today than 60 or 70 years ago”, tempers Christian Delporte, historian specializing in political history, “out of 35,000 journalists, there are 50 who do not play the game”. The problem is that these are “the most prominent”, hence some confusion.
“It tastes and smells like news, but it’s not”
Virgine Spies is also wary of this “peopolization” of politicians, which also leads to depoliticization, to “considering them as people like the others”, and, ultimately, to “vote for people because they are nice”. We remember, for example, Marine Le Pen and her cats in Karine Le Marchand’s show. It’s time for “infotainement”, personalities who “make their hole at Hanouna” and get into politics, or vice versa (Laurence Sailliet, Fabrice di Vizio). But also a “netflixization” of the codes of political communication, explains semiologist Elodie Laye Mielczareck, author ofAnti Bullshit published by Eyrolles. She cites “Emmanuel Macron’s photograph, on a black background, with the slogan written in red”, or “the retro but cinematographic staging of Éric Zemmour’s clip” to illustrate this phenomenon.
A change initiated by DTT, according to Fabrice d’Almeida, with the explosion in the number of channels and therefore programs. With a new concept capable of keeping viewers spellbound at all times: continuous news. However, “Cnews is an opinion channel”, the majority of its airtime being reserved “for columnists” rather than for information, according to Virginie Spies. “It tastes and smells like news, but it isn’t,” she concludes. “It captures the attention of the public who only listen to it and end up sharing the vision of the media in which they trust. However, democracy is about debate, getting information from different sources, ”warns Christian Delporte.