Italian Politics and Variety Shows

bulldogg

bulldogg

Milforum's Bouncer
Hey IG, I caught this little sound bite show outta Hong Kong called Euro-something or other Journal. They had a story on there about this popular Italian singer Cavalento (? sure I am getting the name wrong, please forgive) who has a show on Italian TV now where he is running up ratings by running down Burlesconi. They interview all these Italians after and its translated they're saying how this singer "has it all right", how "Burlesconi made all these promises and has not done anything". They were building it up as a potential problem for the upcoming parliamentary elections. This interests me, can you shed some more information or your perspective on this??
 
Oh maan, this would be way too long to explain since it involves a lot of stuff.

Anyways it is "Celentano"(popular singer from the 60's-70's) and Prime Minister "Berlusconi".

I'll try to sum things up for you: Berlusconi owns the three major private tv channels in Italy, and the government indirectly controls the three public tv channels. So it's easy for the left to attack him saying "he is a danger for democracy and free press because he just owns it all".
As a matter of fact, 90 % of his journalists are leftist, they explicitly admit they vote for the left and the most important among them are personal friends with the left's top leaders. On top of that, a vast majority of our judges belong to the left parties (in Italy this shocking thing is possible) and have targeted him a lot of times in the past.
Berlusconi's tv channel constantly work against him, they attack him in every possible situations. The comedians make fun of him only (they never target the left), the news are always about how bad he is (those are journalists who get paid by MILLIONS of dollars, btw), while the newspapers are 85 % leftist, either owned by socialist politicians or whose reporters are leftist.
You gotta live here to see the situation, but saying that democracy is being endangered is truly ridiculous.
Anyways this guy here, Celentano, he made a show on Channel One against the Premier. Yet again he was mocked and made fun of by a looong series of leftist politicians, comedians who just make politics, and people known to hate him. The show had a share of 48 %. Paradoxically the show was meant to warn Italy about the power of this cruel blood-thirsty tycoon who could control our minds. Wasn't it a paradox that all this Berlusconi-bashing can go on Channel One in prime time for three weeks? (It was a series).
What is more ridiculous is what follows.
On the first episode, before dozens of millions of people, Celentano (another multibillionaire) attacked Berlusconi labelling him a dictator by showing a Freedom House study where all the countries of the world were ranked from the "most free" to the "partly free" to the "not free".
Bottom of the list was North Korea, if you're curious.
Italy was SHAMEFULLY at the 77th position, under the partly free category.We were preceded by Bulgaria and immediately followed by Mongolia....
People went "Oh man, look at that, we are considered as little free as Mongolia, this is crazy, doesn't feel like we are not free though".
What had happened became clear the day after: Freedom House had ranked Italy 77th not because of Berlusconi owning the televisions, but because some months ago a Congressman (parliament member) from Berlusconi's Party, Mr Jannuzzi, a 76-yer-old man, a very honored man elected for Berlusconi center-right party, had dared criticize some leftist judges and HAD BEEN PUT TO HOUSE ARREST!!!!
Wasn't it just a crazy thing?
We were labeled "partly free" country because a friend of Berlusconi's, a representative from his party, had been jailed by hostile judges he had (legitimately!!!) criticized for their being too much entangled in politics. Hence, an unbelievably rich singer calls all these socialist and communist people (We still have two strong communist parties over here, so when I say communist I reall mean it) and they staged this huge show on CHANNEL ONE, watched by all of us taxpayers, attacking Berlusconi because we were ranked 77th because HE controlled the media.
Now tell me this is NOT ridiculous.

Anyways, it is not becoming a "potential problem" for upcoming elections. Italians have been knowing Berlusconi for years and we perfectly know he doesn't sway over his televisions or journalists minds. He has won and lost elections, as it happens in a normal country. What hasn't changed is our left-wing television.
Polls have shown Celentano's show hasn't moved the voters from their previously-held opinions. In sum, the show you saw was just interviewing Italians that already opposed the government. The reason why 48 % of the people watched it is..uhm..they got really good publicity before it started (publicity given on Berlusconi's tv's of course). I watched it myself, go figure. But all I heard is people saying Celentano is a jerk. Maybe they think differently in Hong Kong :D
 
Isn't Berlusconi that man who compared someone from the European Parliament to a "concentration camp guard", because he placed some critical questions? Is he still on speaking terms with his old friend Bossi?
How you come to the conclusion that, eventhough Berlusconi owns these tv channels, they are used by leftist journalist against him, I don't know. But isn't it a public secret that Berlusconi has some "strange" idea's regerding the constitutional democracy?

(You might have guessed it, but I'm not a Berlusconi-fan either...)
 
1. Yes, German Martin Shulz who is famous for his provocative attitude. You should know kapos were not Nazi. They were often prisoners themselves. And Berlusconi is known for his jokes.
2. His "old friend" Bossi is a Minister of the Republic. He was regularly elected in Parliament by a large majority of the votes and the entire political spectrum was sad in March 2003 when he was hit by ictus. He's now back though, we are glad he could recover.
3. I said that: They publicly declare they are leftist, many of them (I could come up with a dozen names right here if you want) are today's Parliament Members or European Parliament members for the Left Party.
4. No, it's your idea, Ted.
 
You what it is IG? I just can't figure it out that a guy who owns the networks let people work there that ridicule him and attack his political career. Or by some bizarre train of thought Berlusconi employs these people and gives them free reign to do this. I'm missing something in this equation, but I know too little to fill in the missing links.
Then again, I might be completely wrong.... Then again, you know just as well as I do that comparing someone to a Kapo isn't the smartest thing to do in the EP. It just goes to show how little criticism he can take. Hence my first remark.
 
Ted said:
I just can't figure it out that a guy who owns the networks let people work there that ridicule him and attack his political career.
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I know, it's called free press and private market.

Ted said:
Or by some bizarre train of thought Berlusconi employs these people and gives them free reign to do this.
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Bizarre train of thought is just that he is truly a free and democratic man. Most of the books written by the left party leaders are published by his Mondadori Company.

Ted said:
Then again, you know just as well as I do that comparing someone to a Kapo isn't the smartest thing to do in the EP.
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Agree with that, but doesn't make a guy a Nazi or a dangerous tyrant.
 
IG, thanks. I knew you were the right man to ask about this. ;) I have followed Swedish politics for a few years as I find it really interesting with all of its popular support and grass roots movements for stuff. I now find that Italian politics are also quite interesting. It paints a picture of a bowl full of pasta, so many twists, turns and never ending story lines that each seems to be able to twist around their fork to suit their own pallate.

Can you recommend any good English language websites that keep track of this new found interest of mine?
 
I've been surfing around but found nothing interesting. I would really not know what website in English to recommend for you to keep track of Italian politics. Why don't you just learn Italian :D ?
 
I had latin, does that make things easier? I missed out on the excursion to Italy during uni, but I'm also more interested in Italy...... mayby I can even win an argument on this topic :lol:
 
Ted said:
I had latin, does that make things easier? I missed out on the excursion to Italy during uni, but I'm also more interested in Italy...... mayby I can even win an argument on this topic :lol:
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I took 5 years of Latin too (and 5 of ancient Greek) in high school.
Where have you been on your university trip?
 
Alright gimme some good sites in Italian and I will babelfish my way through it and the Italian consulate is next door to my office. One of the guys said he would help me out if I buy the coffee from the Illy Cafe downstairs.
 
bulldogg said:
Alright gimme some good sites in Italian and I will babelfish my way through it and the Italian consulate is next door to my office. One of the guys said he would help me out if I buy the coffee from the Illy Cafe downstairs.
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Ah! Ah! Ah! Illy Café= Riccardo Illy is one of Italy's richest guys. He is a coffee-tycoon and of course he is President of one of our regions. He was elected with the left too. See where money goes? ;)
 
Unfortunatly I missed out on the trip. It visited some of the major cities north of Rome and of course the Vatican. They visited those cities because of the universities there and the industrial capacities of those cities.
I've visited Turino and Cuneo during my summerholidays. But ususally I don't get past France because of the Tour de France. I just have got to see the stages.
 
I'll be looking for a good website about our politics, Bulldog. Just give me some time, I'm very busy these days. Thanks.
 
because of the passion Italians have for politics for one thing....this is going to sound weird to some, but a example I have in mind is not even Italian communists 'act' like communists to me....
 
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