Miss Kolka

PRODUCING IN PARIS

Presidential obsession | 14 février 2008

So what has happened since my last blog? Absolutely nothing! As with so many other dillusional ideas the president has, closing France 24 was announced and then as noone could explain why or how it would be done, it has now been put on hold. This president loves to blabber about just anything to get attention. Any attention is better than no attention (did his mother show him enough when he was a baby?). Our fellow workers at the french public service also got some bad news when he announced that he would cancel all advertising on public television. Two months and hundreds of people in panic later, the public service decided to strike unanimously on tv and radio yesterday to make a point: "what now?" This has been announced.. but for when and what does it mean for the public service? Where will the money come from? ( the fees are not nearly enough for all the stations to work, around 30% of revenu comes from advertising) And what is going to replace the air time of advertising - which could account for 2-3 hours of programming every day on each channel? No one knows... some abstract taxes on internet and mobile phones - how? with advertisers paying for publicity on private channels AS WELL as for a tax to the public channels? It makes no sense.

I dont know about that strike though, whether it truly achieved anything at all, that is according to my dad, the french answer to all problems... If there is a strike, it is a serious problem. Does it still work like that? I also think the french people should ask themselves alot more often WHY? Why is the president deciding this? Why does he want to ban advertising on public television when one of his best friends owns the biggest private television network? How much did the shares of that company go up again the DAY sarkozy announced the changes for public broadcasting?

The question remains, what now? No one knows and I doubt the man behind all the panic has the slightest idea himself. He just has opinions. Opinions on everything all the time and unfortuntely we have to hear about them everywhere, all the time. Maybe a little less opinion and a little more information would be better. To take decisions, one needs to gather information and TALK to people (not only to a handful of mysterious advisors). To learn, one has to listen. And to Govern successfully, one has to delegate. One person cannot rule every little aspect of a country with over 60 million people alone. It would help if the president concentrated (does he know how to do that?)on a few matters and then would know what he was talking about.

Anyway, like my fellow news junkie pointed out yesterday I am finally becoming a real french journalist. I am obsessed with everything the president says and does. Im obsessed with his wife, Im obsessed by how rude he is, Im obsessed by how he lets his son ruin the reputation of a poor spokesperson, I am obsessed by all the stupid things he says all the time without anyone ever questioning publicly his judgement and decisions. And when I hear about his ministers that "punish " the journalists because they haven't been nice in Guinea, may I remind you, just doing their job- I just get mad. Lets just hope I can just hold on a branch of critical thought amid all the political propaganda splashed at me all day long. Or I might have to get into a whole different profession. I am thinking about it. Seriously.

Publié par Kolka à 15:44:32 dans Miss Kolka | Commentaires (1) | Permaliens