Mediaocracy

Politicians and media moguls are morphing into each other says Danny Schechter of MediaChannel: “It’s like the children’s game musical chairs: Who will be sitting where when the music stops?”. CNN is trying to recruit Bill Clinton to host a talk show, Al Gore is now teaching journalism and Jerry Springer used to be mayor of Cincinnati. Since politicians and mediatricians are so close, they often feel a bit interchangeable or is there something darker and more insidious going on?

To many it is a sad feature of contemporary politics that politicians are becoming skilled celebrities, spin doctors and soundbite experts. But political success is facilitated not so much by careful grooming and development of media skills as by exposure, by access to media, and by and large this is a function of media ownership and media spending.

Berlusconi secured electoral victory outspending his rivals by more than 20-to-1 to become by far the most visible candidate and by taking advantage of disproportionate access to national media. Because Italy’s state TV channels don’t broadcast political slots, Berlusconi’s three national networks monopolised election advertisements.

His opponents had to pay Berlusconi for television advertising for their campaigns. “This is the only country in the world where the political parties must pay their political adversary in order to run an election campaign,” said one opponent.

A flamboyant demagogue with extremist friends, Berlusconi previously led a populist coalition that openly embraced racist and neofascist parties. The Italian media-mogul-turned-politician compares himself to Napoleon, delights in ridiculing AIDS victims and is chummy with Rupert Murdoch.

Convicted four times on charges of perjury, falsifying financial records, tax offenses and bribery, Berlusconi has a shady track record with several criminal indictments still pending. He was voted into high political office despite allegations of Mafia connections and questions about how he acquired his personal fortune.

Without his domination of the airwaves, he never would have emerged as a significant political figure in Italy. Commonly known as “Sua Emittenza” (“His Transmittance”), Berlusconi orchestrated his opinion-molding media to reduce the credibility of his adversaries and further his own political ambitions.

Many “news” broadcasts on Berlusconi’s networks were so scandalously partial they were almost indistinguishable from his campaign advertising.