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...discussion of what's wrong with Italian politics eventually leads to the question of what's wrong with the country's media. In a nation where the Prime Minister controls the airwaves, only one out of 10 people buys a daily paper, compared with one in five Americans and three in five people in Japan, according to the World Association of Newspapers. Italians, it seems, don't care to read the news...
...private affairs pass, particularly after being praised in July for the G8 summit he hosted in earthquake-stricken L'Aquila. "But he feels defamed," says the aide. "He has faced daily attacks for months and has decided not to take it any more." And so the prime minister apparently decided it was time to double down. On July 29, in news that then got scant attention, the Berlusconi family newspaper, Il Giornale, hired back its former attack-dog editor-in-chief Vittorio Feltri, the first move in what has turned into a major end-of-summer counter-offensive by Berlusconi...
...daily newspaper, was a "homosexual known to the Italian secret services" and had paid damages to a woman in a 2004 harrassment case. Feltri wrote that he was publishing these accusations against Boffo, who had criticized Berlusconi's private life, as a response to his "moralistic campaign" against the Prime Minister. Il Giornale also hammered away at the Church for past scandals involving pedophile priests. After repeatedly and vehemently denying Feltri's charges, Boffo resigned on Thursday, saying "my life, the life of my family and my newsroom have been violated in an act of sacrilege." He accused Feltri...
...Boffo affair, which on the surface ended in apparent victory for the Prime Minister and as a slap against the Catholic Church, could nevertheless backfire on Berlusconi. The impression that he is now out for blood - and that no one is safe - may convince top Catholic politicians to abandon the Prime Minister despite his support for their legislative priorities on gay partnerships and euthanaisa. "There's a limit to everything, and once you go beyond the limit, things get dangerous," says one influential Catholic editor. "These incidents that spread chaos, scare everyone. The situation now is very fluid." Nonetheless...
...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 to 20 million Italians, his enamored supporters, that he is perfectly...