How servile is the media in France?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Except that Mediapart certainly isn't part of the 'ultrapartisan activist blogosphere'. From the very beginning it tried to become part of the established and respectable press. The only difference is that Plenel and his friends thought (falsely) that printed press is/was doomed and that internet was the only way to survive while staying independent. They've obviously been proved wrong since then: the website doesn't rack up enough money so they now publish a printed monthly version.
The same applies to Rue89 and Bakchich Info. Neither of those are part of the blogosphere, just online newspapers. All have been created by former 'pen and paper' journalists (from Libération, Le Gri-Gri International, Charlie Hebdo), who reached the same conclusion: printed press sucks.

Though I can't really say Rue89 has high quality standards (half of the redactors are students doing a placement there), it certainly is the case for Mediapart and Bakchich. Both of them would make most printed newspapers look like mere amateurs.

The digital media is one thing. There have been exciting developments, and radical changes in the media in the past decade. It will have, and has, an impact in the media as much as television had when that was introduced alongside the written word and radio. I am still not sure what positive and negative effects it has and will have.

The other thing is servility of the press. It is true that investigative journalism isn't up to the same level in France as it is in the Anglo press. Whereas the Holy Grail for an American reporter is to bring down the president with a scandal, the Holy Grail for a French reporter is to become a public philosopher, to write lenghty political-cultural essays with a verbal gem in every paragraph and quoting at least five thinkers, to heed Baudelaire's word that every real poet, which in our times must be understood to mean also every real reporter, must be an 'incarnation', by which he meant that they 'put their entire soul, their entire heart, their entire religion, their entire hatred into that horrible essay', which has the effect that the reporter himself becomes the topic, the subject and object trading places, the actual relevance becoming lost in beautiful words and erudition, struggling not to be drowned in the writer's all too lenghty sentences and diversions that serve no discernable purpose other than to show off the real topic of the essay, the author and his impressive education. Etc and blahblahblah.

We could do with a press that shows a bit more agression, more directness, more willingness to enter the mud pit and get dirrrty.

Seriously, what really makes me speechless here is the fact that the government still hasn't resigned. Everyday brings a new proof that the minister, his wife and the government as a whole are crooks and thieves, but no. They'll just stay here and call the newspapers 'fascists' and 'nazis'. We've heard audio recordings proving it, accountants have given evidences... Here was I thinking Berlusconi's Italy was bad...

What makes me speechless is how cheap it is to buy politicians. I think you are legally allowed to donate € 7500. This pocketchange will actually buy you time with a grateful politician.

€150.000 makes a president / party grateful, and will get you tax perks. Wealth that's easily transferable is not simply taxed, tax is negotiated. The wealthiest Frenchmen negotiate their taxes directly with the minister, so as to prevent them from moving to our dear neighbouring tax havens in Switzerland or Monaco. So what do you do? You make sure you are friends with the minister, with his wife, with the party. And likewise, politicians ensure they have the right connections so they have the funds they need. It is often noted that career politicians, who have not worked for decades nor entered politics with any meaningful financial assets, retire wealthy, in the possession of luxury appartments, art, bank accounts.

It is all rather dismaying.