Reuters
“ROME. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi yesterday said he had "nothing to apologise for" over the sex scandals surrounding him and did not fear blackmail, while boasting his support among Italians was at record highs.
The 72-year-old, whose reputation has been battered by often explicit disclosures about his womanising and parties with prostitutes, called people who spread such stories "anti-Italians who should be ashamed of themselves". There was no sign of remorse in Berlusconi’s pre-vacation news conference to present the successes of his first 14 months in office. He spared no praise for his role on the diplomatic stage, saying at one point he had shown a "touch of genius".
"Nobody can blackmail me and I have no skeletons in the closet. I have nothing to apologise for in my private life, not even to my family," he told reporters. Berlusconi’s wife Veronica Lario said in May she wanted a divorce over his relationship with a teenage girl from Naples who got a 6 000-euro necklace from him for her birthday.
That disclosure was soon superseded by stories of escorts spending the night at Berlusconi’s home and reports of intimate conversations secretly taped by one woman, Patrizia D’Addario, who was promised a European Parliament seat.” — Reuters
The above story can be best understood through the critical political economy of media which explains the impact of media ownership, control and manufactured consent. This story is quoted from the Reuters, which is from Britain. It is shocking if the story is true, why Italian newspapers, including Berlusconi's media did not cover the issue.
This probably explain the untruth, unfairness that global media have to certain individuals. This propably explains the five media filters that were mentioned by Herman and Chomsky in their book entitled, “Manufactured Consent”. It is amazing the way global media report their stories. Normally it is clear that meadi is oftenly used or muzzled by the dominant elite to save their interests. Sure if Berlusconi is involved in sex scandal as reported by “Reuters”, why are the media not exposing that to the Italians citizens and the globe at large.
Media across the globe be it public or privately owned, uses selective measures to avoid to cover stories that demeans the elite status quo.I wish to hear from others how they view this issues and will be very much happy if any who happens to read this story can email me on masuku.caven@gmail.com. I am a media practitioner who practised journalism for sometime and i am now a trainer. Once a journalist always a journalist.
