Word: mentana
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Enrico Mentana, the most respected newsman on Berlusconi's Mediaset network, abruptly announced his resignation after company executives refused his request to cut into a reality television show following the death of Eluana Englaro, a comatose Udinese woman whose right-to-die case had riveted the nation. Almost immediately, Mediaset accused Mentana of striking a deal to go to Murdoch's All-News Italian station...
...Mentana vigorously denies any deal has been done, but it's not hard to see why such rumors swirl. Just last month, Sky Italia recruited Rosario Fiorello, one of Italy's top television entertainers, to present a new variety show. Fiorello has worked for both Mediaset and state-owned television and radio network RAI. Before Fiorello's Sky Italia's deal was signed, Berlusconi invited the Sicilian singer-impersonator to his Rome palazzo to convince him not to work for "the enemy," according to Fiorello. The wooing session failed. (See pictures of the good life in Italy...
...Italy, where the state broadcaster's board - as well as top newsroom posts and even minor acting jobs - have long been divvied up as political spoils among the factions of both the ruling coalition and opposition. "Most Italians see it as just one conflict among many," said Enrico Mentana, who for 10 years has been the director and anchor of Mediaset's leading nightly news broadcast...
...Mentana himself is an example of the paradox of the Italian broadcasting scene, with his Canale 5 show more likely to be critical of its top shareholder than two of the three rai stations. A RAI reporter who requested anonymity said that most people inside the industry believe the public stations are becoming more beholden to the government than their Berlusconi-owned competitors. "The atmosphere inside rai is atrocious," said the state TV reporter. Still, the private network has its own inherent limits: Mediaset's vice president is the Prime Minister's son, Piersilvio Berlusconi. Mentana thinks Berlusconi Sr. should...