All Roger in the Reduit
Power play with photos and Hornberg shots from the army opponents. What has caused astonishment in recent weeks. Guest commentary by Karl Lüönd, freelance journalist and author.
If I were Nik Niethammer, I'd be spinning at full speed. The Federer twins have been in the world for three weeks and they still aren't beaming from the cover of his "Schweizer Illustrierte" magazine. What's going on? It looks like the clever tennis champion also has the better serve in the match with the people media.
Let's put it this way (and of course this is just a guess, but probably not an unfounded one): Roger Federer and his Mirka are a tad too normal, too well-behaved and too decent for the international celebrity business. Because the two of them are also intelligent, they have long since realized this. A Boris Becker (with his first marital spat) or an André Agassi (with Steffi Graf as a flavor enhancer) would have achieved much higher sums in the international baby picture market. But Federer doesn't like being second or third, and he doesn't care about the money. He would have to donate it anyway. So why should he get involved in comparisons? He'd rather keep the tabloids on their toes and show them who's the boss when it comes to Federer's perception. Public relations work at these heights is a power game, and the strongest makes the rules. At the moment, Roger Federer decides what Roger Federer and his family should look like.
During the summer slump in television, Swiss television made a strong brand with the docu-soap Reduit - and this is probably the right decision - and achieved corresponding ratings successes. These are at least partly a direct consequence of the dogged protests against the series by ideologically driven administrators of the past. The more controversial, the more respected!
For many years, the GSoA (Society for a Switzerland without an Army), as a genuinely left-wing organization, has repeatedly claimed freedom of opinion and laid claim to it - rightly so, in my opinion, although I do not remotely approve of its goals and consider the GSoA to be a particularly bad and treacherous organization that must be confronted wherever it is encountered. But please: In this country, everyone has the vested right to make a fool of themselves, and as incorrigible fucking liberals we want to insist on that, even at the risk of something like the GSoA scoring points in the process.
But now the GSoA has demanded in all seriousness that the Reduit series be canceled immediately. Are we hearing correctly? A political lobby is attacking the programming sovereignty of Swiss public television.
Let's imagine for a moment that the cute party president actor Toni Brunner had demanded something similar. How the journalistic mainstream would have howled, how the de Wecks, the Meyers, the Britschgis and the whole gang from Werdstrasse would have protested. Prof. Georg Kreis and Prof. Kurt Imhof would have rolled their eyes. The SP Switzerland and the Olten group would have been dutifully outraged. But what now, in view of the sheer embarrassment of the GSoA? Silence is once again the safest form of execution. And next week they'll be driving another pig through the village. Never speculate on the stupidity of the public, better try their forgetfulness!
Frankly, the TV series from the Nidwalden region just doesn't do it for me. My father, who served as an active-duty soldier on the Gotthard line and in Ticino, told me much more vivid and entertaining stories back then: about the partisans, whom they naturally helped as Swiss proletarians in solidarity, against all orders. And of the smugglers who were able to do business in the slipstream of politics because the profits went to the right side.
They liked Guisan, my father and his comrades, and they made fun of him: "LMG" was his favorite weapon: Spoon, knife and fork. We have known since Willi Gautschi's biographical work that Guisan was an anti-Semite and contributed significantly to the tightening of Switzerland's defensive stance against Jewish immigration, but nobody is interested. It could scratch familiar images and confirm the old historical truth: There is neither black nor white, there are only shades of gray in various hues.
Karl Lüönd
Let's put it this way (and of course this is just a guess, but probably not an unfounded one): Roger Federer and his Mirka are a tad too normal, too well-behaved and too decent for the international celebrity business. Because the two of them are also intelligent, they have long since realized this. A Boris Becker (with his first marital spat) or an André Agassi (with Steffi Graf as a flavor enhancer) would have achieved much higher sums in the international baby picture market. But Federer doesn't like being second or third, and he doesn't care about the money. He would have to donate it anyway. So why should he get involved in comparisons? He'd rather keep the tabloids on their toes and show them who's the boss when it comes to Federer's perception. Public relations work at these heights is a power game, and the strongest makes the rules. At the moment, Roger Federer decides what Roger Federer and his family should look like.
During the summer slump in television, Swiss television made a strong brand with the docu-soap Reduit - and this is probably the right decision - and achieved corresponding ratings successes. These are at least partly a direct consequence of the dogged protests against the series by ideologically driven administrators of the past. The more controversial, the more respected!
For many years, the GSoA (Society for a Switzerland without an Army), as a genuinely left-wing organization, has repeatedly claimed freedom of opinion and laid claim to it - rightly so, in my opinion, although I do not remotely approve of its goals and consider the GSoA to be a particularly bad and treacherous organization that must be confronted wherever it is encountered. But please: In this country, everyone has the vested right to make a fool of themselves, and as incorrigible fucking liberals we want to insist on that, even at the risk of something like the GSoA scoring points in the process.
But now the GSoA has demanded in all seriousness that the Reduit series be canceled immediately. Are we hearing correctly? A political lobby is attacking the programming sovereignty of Swiss public television.
Let's imagine for a moment that the cute party president actor Toni Brunner had demanded something similar. How the journalistic mainstream would have howled, how the de Wecks, the Meyers, the Britschgis and the whole gang from Werdstrasse would have protested. Prof. Georg Kreis and Prof. Kurt Imhof would have rolled their eyes. The SP Switzerland and the Olten group would have been dutifully outraged. But what now, in view of the sheer embarrassment of the GSoA? Silence is once again the safest form of execution. And next week they'll be driving another pig through the village. Never speculate on the stupidity of the public, better try their forgetfulness!
Frankly, the TV series from the Nidwalden region just doesn't do it for me. My father, who served as an active-duty soldier on the Gotthard line and in Ticino, told me much more vivid and entertaining stories back then: about the partisans, whom they naturally helped as Swiss proletarians in solidarity, against all orders. And of the smugglers who were able to do business in the slipstream of politics because the profits went to the right side.
They liked Guisan, my father and his comrades, and they made fun of him: "LMG" was his favorite weapon: Spoon, knife and fork. We have known since Willi Gautschi's biographical work that Guisan was an anti-Semite and contributed significantly to the tightening of Switzerland's defensive stance against Jewish immigration, but nobody is interested. It could scratch familiar images and confirm the old historical truth: There is neither black nor white, there are only shades of gray in various hues.
Karl Lüönd
