Washblog || One Tough Journalist

One Tough Journalist

By PCO3318
Thu Mar 16, 2006 at 09:14:29 AM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Building the base

In a recent letter, an Italian friend recounted an interview he saw of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on television. Berlusconi became impatient with the interviewer because she wasn't asking the questions he wanted asked. Here's my translation of the interviewer's response:

"You respond to the questions that I ask. I do not bow my head to power. I am a free journalist. I ask the questions I consider relevant. Your presence does not change that. This is my house. You are accustomed to having people obey you, but you don't know how to act around journalists . . ."

Berlusconi said she was ignorant (maleducata), jumped up, and walked off the program. All on live television.

This incident came not long after Berlusconi compared himself to Napoleon, saying that in the six years of his administration he'd accomplished more than the emperor of France.

And not long before that, Berlusconi addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Italian, where our ingenuous representatives were coached to applaud after key untranslated passages in his speech, all for the benefit of Italian television stations (which he owns) and his campaign. Here is Congressman McDermott's journal on that incident:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/3/92510/20078

By all accounts, Berlusconi is behind in the polls for the election that will be held in less than a month. There's still plenty of time for him to buy the votes he needs, though. After all, he is the richest man in Italy.

Italy has its lunatic leader, and we have ours. But at least Italy has an opposition which knows the prime minister's a lunatic, and Italy has at least one journalist who won't take crap from him.

< Excellent Quote ... and worth becoming one's signature | Camp Wellstone coming this way >

One Tough Journalist | 2 comments (2 topical)

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