I am an Italian (unwilling) expatriate working in the U.S. as many of my compatriots are. I am a Univeristy researcher, and scientific research is among the things Mr. Berlusconi despises, as we know all too well. Many of the things he despises, actually, are among the best radicated and cherished beliefs of western civilization, such as the rule of law, to name an underrated one.
Now, let me tell you that I’ve just finished watching your program and, to phrase it mildly, I was dumbfunded by your finishing remarks. You start by saying:
“As a journalist I’m convinced the world would be a less interesting place without
Silvio Berlusconi in politics.”
Let me be blunt: why on earth would you be convinced of that? Is it in any way the role of a journalist to rejoice at war, famine, coup d’etats, killing sprees of sorts so that he or she can write about it? Should a journalist thank Adolf Hitler for the Anshluss or the Holocaust for having spawned such a prolific streak of literature, cinema or investigative journalism?
Tragedies are not ‘interesting’. They do not happep to be told, they are told because they happen. Mr. Berlusconi is today’s italian tragedy: a democracy of millions held hostage by the needs of one. Yet you neglet the millions and speak of one. Let me quote you again
“No other European leader provokes such adulation or outrage
he’s hugely carismatic but there’s a dark side about Berlusconi and
far too many unanswered questions about his past.”
It is rather comic how you seem to periodically forget that Berlusconi’s charisma is the result of his control of the media, a ridiculously obvious ansatz. And a rather biblical detail to overlook don’t you think?. And comic it is indeed to interview a journalist like Alessio Vinci who is Mr. B.’s employee!
How could we ever survive without Vinci’s objective point of view? B. is a salesman and an irreversebly corrupt one. There really is no two sides to the story and had you been less inspired by your idea of journalism you would have wasted less time interviewing his employees. There is literally tons of books on the matter that you barley even bothered to acknowledge. Let me ask you this: were you a journalist in Nazi Germany, and were you given one option, would you interview Joseph Goebbels or Sophie Scholl before honourable judge Roland Freisler beheaded her?
You conclude by saying:
“The Berlusconi phenomenon says as much about Italy as it doest about the man.
Only here can a man with his media power become Prime minister.
And only in Italy could a leader facing such serious allegations suvive so long”
Why? Why in Italy? Why ONLY in Itlay? Let me ask you, then, the following:
Why is it that ONLY in Germany, between 1933 and 1945 a despotic Nazi rule came to power and flourished, dragging the whole world in a bottomless pit of death and despair?
Why not in Switzerland or the Philippines? Why is it that ONLY in North Korea a man named Kim Il Sung drove a whole people to starvation in the name of his ruthless rule? Why not Lichtenstein? Are North Koreans more prone to die than Lichtensteinians? Why is it that ONLY in Burma a military regime can choke its own people and kill harmless Bhuddist monks, while keeping nobel peace price recipient Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 14 years?
You must be hinting at some genetic disorder that we italians are not aware of. Well, Mr. Franchetti, let us know as soon as they find a cure! We’ll be waiting in expectation.
Best regards
Francesco Creta