Word: berlusconis
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...Silvio Berlusconi's struggle to outrun revelations about his private life has kept headline writers from Tallahassee to Tokyo busy for nearly six months now. The latest chapter began on Sept. 8, with the leaked court testimony of a Bari businessman accused of bringing prostitutes to the Italian Prime Minister's private residence in Rome. Though the deposition by Gianpaolo Tarantini confirmed Berlusconi's earlier claims that he didn't know the women were being paid, its contents were so juicy, it set off a whole new round of coverage. When Berlusconi was asked about Tarantini's testimony two days...
While much has been made of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's grip on Italian television - he owns three of the biggest commercial stations and in his role as Premier has influence over state broadcaster RAI - the country's printed press has its own conflicts of interest. The Fiat holding group has controlling stakes in Milan daily Corriere della Sera and Turin-based La Stampa. Daily La Repubblica is owned by Carlo De Benedetti, a business rival of Berlusconi's with interests in energy, automobiles and health care. Il Sole 24 Ore, the country's financial paper, is owned by Italy...
Direct government influence is not out of the question in modern Italy, either. In June, Berlusconi urged companies not to buy space in publications "that sing the songs of dissatisfaction and catastrophe" - a reference to newspapers covering the salacious allegations surrounding the Prime Minister's personal life. "Would this be accepted in any other corner of the world?" asks Levi. "The Prime Minister telling companies where to place their...
...years have seen the rise of free dailies, handed to commuters outside subway stops. With limited budgets that rule out big-name commentators, they've had to offer their readers something new: straight news. On a recent Thursday, when the front page of La Repubblica offered three articles on Berlusconi's admission that he was "not a saint," the free Metro carried a much more relevant headline: "H1N1: 15 Million Youth To Be Vaccinated." Online, Beppe Grillo, a comedian turned political blogger, has a large, vocal following. As does dagospia.com, Italy's left-wing retort to the Drudge Report. Read...
...paradox, of course, is that that his filing lawsuits over the scandals sets off another round of ribald accounts of Berlusconi's private life. The latest suit was filed Wednesday against another left-leaning Italian daily, L'Unita, which had referred to a comedienne's sketch about Berlusconi allegedly taking medical injections that allow him to have sex. The Prime Minister's attorney, Niccolo Ghedini, explained to the daily Corriere della Sera on Friday that if necessary Berlusconi would testify in the libel case to prove that he is not impotent: "And why shouldn't Berlusconi be allowed to explain...