World Business

The President has signaled he aims to straiten his grip on persons TV, bringing it more in line with Elysée strategy

by the agency of Nils Klawitter and Stefan Simons

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President Nicolas Sarkozy has benefited more than within a little any other politician from the media’s growing obsession with fame. France’s “téléprésident” orchestrates politics analogous a reality show — and since he intends to tighten his grip on public television.

Nicolas Sarkozy had something different in mind on the side of his televised appearance on Monday last week. The French president intended to explain to journalists at France 3, the country’s public network of regional broadcasters, how he would use his EU Council presidency to keep Europe from imploding and how he had smoothed things over by protesting French fishermen.

But it wasn’t the one-hour interview that made a durable imprinting on France. It was an episode that played out just before the meeting, when cameras were rolling and Sarkozy said hello to a technician installing his microphone. The mankind did not return the greeting. The affronted president mumbled, “When you’re a guest, the smallest you can expect is for people to say hello.”

“Unbelievable,” he added. “And appalling.” And therefore, twice: “That’s going to change.”

This temporary sequence leaked to an Internet magazine called Rue89. Within 24 hours, over a million commonalty in France had seen it. The minute-long curtail says a great deal about Sarkozy’s style and his relationship to the media. If you’re on his party, he’ll come through — by feeding a catchy quote, a mean inside information or a photo of him through his new wife, pop singer and model Carla Bruni. A veteran reporter at the presidential Elysée Palace says Sarkozy is “an excellent source.” But if you’re not on his espouse a cause, you’re in for trouble. Like France 3.

Even the reception Sarkozy received when he arrived at the place was less than presidential. More than 400 employees demonstrated against his intrigue to prohibition advertising on society television. What Sarkozy is trying to sell taken in the character of a plan to free public-service television from the “tyranny of viewer ratings” is seen by the protestors considered in the state of the erosion of an institution. No funds have been secured to replace the lost revenues and the advertising would migrate to private channels such as TF1, which is owned by substantial property grandee Martin Bouyges — the godfather of Sarkozy’s son Louis.

For nearly 30 years, French television has served as an experimental playground for presidents. François Mitterrand created the channels La Cinq, TV 6 and Canal Plus. Jacques Chirac privatized TF1. Now Sarkozy wants to completely overhaul France Télévisions, the country’s public broadcasting network. He intends to reform this media organization with its 11,000 employees “from the ground nonplus to the roof.”

By his own admission, Sarkozy is a child of the modern era of television. His favorite programs include sports coverage of the Tour de France and “Star Academy” — and he seems to have his own notion of what variety in media is all about. In the what is yet to be, he wants to appoint the director of France Télévisions himself. He views civil community television as a business, and says that it is “the majority shareholder who also selects the company CEO.”

In effect, he seems to want to integrate open television more closely into the communications strategy of the Elysée. Sarkozy, le téléprésident, calls this giving some “educational spin” to his policies.

‘Like a Royal Court ‘

“This turns back the clock 40 years,” says Jean-François Tébaldi, a union representative at France 3. “We’re outer part to the state television that we had under de Gaulle.” At the time, the minister of information could press a button on his desk to resound by top television producers and dictate the topics of the day.

Sarkozy’s ascendency is more subtle. “It’s like at a magnificent court,” says journalist Daniel Schneidermann, whose widely acclaimed media watchdog exhibit to “Arrêt sur images” (”Freeze-frame”) was cancelled in 2007. “The prince doesn’t even have to lift a finger.” His entourage apparently anticipates his each wish.