The senators listen to the bosses of the press, one after the other, before making a report on the concentration of the media in France. The first, Wednesday evening January 19, was Vincent Bolloré. The boss of Vivendi is preparing to buy Lagardère. His very large group owns Canal + and especially CNEWS, a news channel in which the polemicist Éric Zemmour worked for a long time.
The senators accused Vincent Bolloré of having ” made a presidential candidate, adding that no one could believe that Vincent Bolloré had nothing to do with the channel’s political line.
” I think you take little bits of things, put them together to try to make a story, retorted Vincent Bolloré. One could, for example, say that I am a deconstructionist, woke. You’ve seen the controversy over “iel”: “iel” is Le Petit Robert, and Le Petit Robert is Editis, it’s Vincent Bolloré. So Vincent Bolloré is a deconstructionist, that’s it. »
And the boss of Vivendi to continue: “ You have tens of thousands of hours on our programs. And as for Zemmour, forgive me, but he was publishing books in the hundreds of thousands of copies long before he returned to CNews. I remind you that he’s on Le Figaro, I remind you that he’s on 6. And coincidentally, it’s when he’s on CNews that the problem arises. I repeat: there are so many currents of thought in our books, in our broadcasts. Nobody thought, nobody knew, that he was going to be President of the Republic! Frankly, this is unreasonable! »
► To read also: French presidential election: Zemmour in competition with the rights in Hauts-de-France
The influence of a media empire
Leading shareholder of Canal+, two major publishing groups (Editis and Hachette), numerous newspapers (Prisma Media magazines, JDD, Paris Match), one of the heavyweights in advertising/communication (Havas) and Europe 1 radio, Vincent Bolloré is the figure who best illustrates the influence of a media empire on public opinion and his hearing was at this highly anticipated title.
Asked about the many departures from the newsrooms he already or soon controls (Canal+, Prisma Media, Europe 1), he affirmed that journalists work ” like the sea, a wave leaves, another returns “.
On the merits, he presented slides and an argument explaining that the French media giant Vivendi which he controls is in fact ” tiny ” facing ” real danger » from the foreign competition of the giants of the net, the Gafam (Google, Amazon, Apple…).
Other press and audiovisual magnates will appear in the coming days before this commission of inquiry, which is due to report in March on the economic and democratic consequences of such a concentration.
The hearings of Bernard Arnault (Les Echos, Le Parisien, Radio Classique), Patrick Drahi (BFMTV, RMC) and Martin Bouygues (owner of TF1 which plans to merge with M6) are notably planned. Those of Xavier Niel and Arnaud Lagardère have been postponed to an as yet undetermined date.
► Read also : Bolloré, out of Africa
(and with AFP)