There is (no) life after the fall
Column: A little more sportsmanship would suit the outgoing Schröders and Berlusconis of this world quite well, says Stephan Russ-Mohl.
Column A little more sportsmanship would be a good thing for the departing Schröders and Berlusconis of this world How similar the images are, across all ideological divides: for parvenues who have made it to the top in politics, the loss of power often seems to go hand in hand with a loss of reality. In any case, for both Silvio Berlusconi and Gerhard Schröder, the farewell was apparently so unimaginable and at the same time so painful that it took both of them days to acknowledge their election defeat as such. In the meantime, they spent an agonizingly long time playing the poor loser.
However, Berlusconi was denied the evasion that Schröder used for himself. Not even his own supporters would have believed the Italian prime minister if he had blamed the media for his own downfall. Anyone who, like Silvio B. to date, has all six of his country's major TV stations under his control and is also the majority owner of the largest magazine publisher can hardly be brought down by journalists. Berlusconi has achieved the feat of losing his majority despite his media supremacy and a weak opposition - and then accusing his own interior minister of rigging the election.
However, there are other similarities between Berlusconi and Schröder: both were regarded as "great communicators". Both, one as media chancellor, the other as media magnate and prime minister, played with the media in a populist and rather high-handed manner. And both ultimately lost out to the media.
During the Italian election campaign, there was hardly a blunder that Berlusconi did not put his foot in. "Here is just one downright grotesque example: Because Lucia Annunciata, the former RAI director, asked his majesty critical questions as a TV journalist, he ran out of the TV studio, furious and headless, in front of the camera." The journalists didn't need to be against Berlusconi. It was enough for them to follow their duty as chroniclers and report on how the prime minister dismantled himself in the media from appearance to appearance. So it can at least be assumed that Berlusconi ultimately fell into the same trap that Schröder had already fallen into and that politicians and military leaders often fall into.
In conflicts - in election campaigns as well as in war - both camps perceive the media as hostile. American media researchers have described this as a hostile media phenomenon. But apart from partisan newspapers, it is simply unwise for the media to take sides too one-sidedly. They alienate the part of their audience that disagrees with them and thus stand in the way of their own commercial success - an insight that is admittedly spreading rather hesitantly in the Romance-speaking world compared to Anglo-Saxon and German-speaking countries.
What remains to be seen now is what will happen next. Unlike Schröder, Berlusconi has amassed so many millions that he does not have to go into Putin's or Ringier's service. However, like Helmut Kohl and Giulio Andreotti before him, he will most likely be scandalized. Let's wait and see what else the now no longer gagable judiciary will bring to light after the fall of the monument - in conjunction with the media that Silvio B. does not control himself. Perhaps his purchase of a house in Switzerland is the first indication that he intends to escape all this in time. In the meantime, we hope that the alpha dogs of politics will learn from the German goalkeeper Olli Kahn. The Berlusconis and Schröders of this world would benefit from a little more sporting spirit in the role of loser.
Stephan Russ-Mohl heads the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano
However, Berlusconi was denied the evasion that Schröder used for himself. Not even his own supporters would have believed the Italian prime minister if he had blamed the media for his own downfall. Anyone who, like Silvio B. to date, has all six of his country's major TV stations under his control and is also the majority owner of the largest magazine publisher can hardly be brought down by journalists. Berlusconi has achieved the feat of losing his majority despite his media supremacy and a weak opposition - and then accusing his own interior minister of rigging the election.
However, there are other similarities between Berlusconi and Schröder: both were regarded as "great communicators". Both, one as media chancellor, the other as media magnate and prime minister, played with the media in a populist and rather high-handed manner. And both ultimately lost out to the media.
During the Italian election campaign, there was hardly a blunder that Berlusconi did not put his foot in. "Here is just one downright grotesque example: Because Lucia Annunciata, the former RAI director, asked his majesty critical questions as a TV journalist, he ran out of the TV studio, furious and headless, in front of the camera." The journalists didn't need to be against Berlusconi. It was enough for them to follow their duty as chroniclers and report on how the prime minister dismantled himself in the media from appearance to appearance. So it can at least be assumed that Berlusconi ultimately fell into the same trap that Schröder had already fallen into and that politicians and military leaders often fall into.
In conflicts - in election campaigns as well as in war - both camps perceive the media as hostile. American media researchers have described this as a hostile media phenomenon. But apart from partisan newspapers, it is simply unwise for the media to take sides too one-sidedly. They alienate the part of their audience that disagrees with them and thus stand in the way of their own commercial success - an insight that is admittedly spreading rather hesitantly in the Romance-speaking world compared to Anglo-Saxon and German-speaking countries.
What remains to be seen now is what will happen next. Unlike Schröder, Berlusconi has amassed so many millions that he does not have to go into Putin's or Ringier's service. However, like Helmut Kohl and Giulio Andreotti before him, he will most likely be scandalized. Let's wait and see what else the now no longer gagable judiciary will bring to light after the fall of the monument - in conjunction with the media that Silvio B. does not control himself. Perhaps his purchase of a house in Switzerland is the first indication that he intends to escape all this in time. In the meantime, we hope that the alpha dogs of politics will learn from the German goalkeeper Olli Kahn. The Berlusconis and Schröders of this world would benefit from a little more sporting spirit in the role of loser.
Stephan Russ-Mohl heads the European Journalism Observatory at the University of Lugano
