We are in March 2013. Blogs are still in fashion, Laurent Ruquier’s talk show, We are not in bed, still teases the 2 million viewers and Do not touch My TV ! just passed the million mark. It was at this time, two years after the sordid murder of the family of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, still untraceable, that the thesis of an “Xav” American intelligence agent, disguising his exfiltration with his family as a crime , takes shape on the blog of his sister Christine. At the time, this version, as incredible as it was far-fetched, was relayed in the press, before evaporating in the information flow. One theory among many others.
This time it is March 2024. Blogs have become has been. We are not in bed does not exist anymore. Do not touch My TV ! has more than 2 million viewers. The teams from the CNews channel and a Cyril Hanouna who has become a star of the PAF have just been questioned as part of the commission of inquiry into TNT frequencies about pluralism, journalistic ethics, the propagation of fake news, etc. However, it is today that this thesis of American flight has resurfaced with great fanfare.
Mixture of true and false
On March 9, Christine Dupont de Ligonnès and her husband Bertram de Verdun were the guests of the show What an era!on France 2, on the occasion of the release of their book Xavier, my brother, presumed innocent (Harper Collins) to give, as the expression goes, “their” truth. Where we learned that “people would have participated” in the development of an official scenario, and that it would not be “excluded” that the children were alive. Version reaffirmed more clearly a few days later on BFMTV by Christine Dupont de Ligonnès. To know that his brother would be alive and well, “somewhere with Agnès [sa femme] and the children”. DNA samples, which attest to the identity of the victims? Faked – the weights and heights recorded would not be consistent with those of the children. What if the bodies had been substituted?
How could such hypotheses, contradicting the material evidence of the case, have been unpacked on several major PAF channels, despite the episode of the arrest in 2019 of the fake Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, which had earned in many ways to take over fake news? “The mixture of truth and falsehood is enormously more toxic than pure falsehood,” wrote Paul Valéry, prophesying one of the essential cogs in the making of conspiracy. However, as incredible as the thesis of the two authors is, it is based on something. A letter dated April 2011, signed Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès in person and intended for family and friends, in which the father says he has worked for several years for the American agency to combat drug trafficking (Drug Enforcement Administration). “An essential witness in a future trial involving senior figures in international drug trafficking”, in his own words, he would be part of a witness protection program… The groundwork for a James Bond-style scenario has been laid.
We could perhaps also put forward, to explain these lunar interviews, the natural sympathy that can arouse individuals affected at the forefront by such a sordid affair, or even the veneer of seriousness that the edition of a work can give. In 2002, the conspiracy theorist Thierry Meyssan, who published his book September 11, 2001, the terrible imposturehad been the featured guest on the show Everybody talks about it (France 2) presented by Thierry Ardisson – which had earned the president of France Télévision a harsh letter from the Superior Council of Audiovisual, denouncing Thierry Ardisson taking “on his own account, without the slightest critical distance or precaution of language, the propagation of obviously false information, after having explicitly granted its author labels of legitimacy and respectability. Recently, thanks to the Covid crisis, certain individuals, like the geneticist Alexandra Henrion-Caude, were able to benefit from media invitations spurred on by the publication of very scientifically controversial works.
“Privileged soul”
Certainly, several of the channels having taken the initiative of inviting the co-authors of Xavier, my brother, presumed innocent took precautions this time. On the set of What an era!, whose treatment was strongly criticized, Léa Salamé nevertheless confronted her guests with the numerous facts going against their version. As on BFMTV, Christine Dupont de Ligonnès was asked about the Philadelphia prayer group, which was allegedly founded by her mother. The latter, which would today be headed by the interviewee, was also the subject of an investigation for abuse of weakness before it was closed without further action in January 2023. Response from the person concerned: ” There has never been a prayer group […] My mother is what we call in Catholic language a ‘privileged soul'”, she replied, specifying that a few people had simply approached her when “they found out”.
The fact remains that, since then, it is mainly the best passages from the interview with Christine Dupont de Ligonnès which have been circulating on social networks. Quickly forgotten are the counterpoints provided by the interviewers or, in the case of the special program devoted to BFMTV, by the various guests. The version of the two authors is already broadcast everywhere. But isn’t it precisely this type of sequence that has already caused some people to be strongly (and rightly) criticized for having made it possible to propagate conspiracy theories in this way? In 2023, Arcom, for example, imposed a fine on C8 after a former cocaine trafficker had supported on Cyril Hanouna’s show the conspiracy theory of “adrenochrome”, a drug which would be made from ” blood of children.”
“Hanouna without the noodles in the pants”
In a paradoxical reversal, the broadcasts usually called into question for their partial treatment of information have been able to play the role of policemen of rationality. On March 12, it was on the CNews set that the former deputy and magistrate Georges Fenech recalled that “these are still serious accusations against the judicial institution. I would suggest that the public prosecutor issues a press release to remember that all the autopsies had been carried out according to standards, that the DNA had perfectly identified the victims. What surprises me is that a publisher was able to publish something like this!”
On Sud Radio, essayist and former magistrate Philippe Bilger denounced “conspiracy promotion” and the fact of “giving light to such absurdities”, following in the footsteps of columnist Guy Carlier. “Léa Salamé, it’s Hanouna without the noodles in Dechavanne’s underwear. Conspiracy is in fashion […] I’m waiting for the next show What an era! where they will come and explain to us that Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès left with Kate Middleton”, he quipped on March 19. There is no doubt that the detractors of public service are rubbing their hands.
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