Journalists From Italy

"In fifty years' time, books such as The Force of Reason will be viewed with the same horror with which we view Mein Kampf today, and we will wonder how it was possible."

"The political power of a TV network does not lie solely or primarily in the information it provides directly about politics, but in the culture it disseminates through its entire programming schedule. If in 1994 the entrepreneur Berlusconi, despite running for office for the first time and being a political novice, was able to win the elections with percentages similar to those of a large mass party such as the Christian Democrats, it was not because his three networks campaigned for him (at that time, his opponent also controlled three networks), but because for a dozen years, owning the entire private national television system, he had been able to educate Italians in his culture and preferences."

"Theologians, both Christian and Muslim, especially in the Middle Ages, have always been struck by the power of money and the devastation it can wreak on the human soul. More secularly, orthodox Marxists have condemned it as a “means of appropriating other people's money”. Psychoanalysts liken it to excrement, because of the pleasure derived from both expelling it and retaining it."

"Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize winner, has stated that he ‘does not rule out a military strike against Iran’. Israeli President Shimon Peres, Nobel Peace Prize winner, has said: ‘An attack on Iran is getting closer’. Why don't we also give a Nobel Peace Prize, posthumously, to old Adolf Hitler?"

"Bruno Vespa was a journalist who served the First Republic completely and utterly; as the bard of the Christian Democrats, rewarded with the position of director of TG1, he was subservient to his masters and real employers, namely the various secretaries of Biancofiore, and whose only act of courage in a life spent as a servant was to admit that he was one when (but it was already the last days of Saigon) he said, “My reference publisher is the DC”. Bruno Vespa is to the First Republic what Mario Appelius is to Fascism. admitting that he was when (but it was already the last days of Saigon) he said, “My editor is the Christian Democrats”. Bruno Vespa is to the First Republic what Mario Appelius is to Fascism."

"There is a man in Italy, w:Adriano Sofri, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder of a police commissioner outside his home, after nine trials, one of which, in a case that is extremely rare in Italy, was reviewed, thus enjoying the maximum guarantees that a state can offer one of its citizens. Yet Sofri served only seven years in prison and, without being able to take advantage of the normal benefits of the law, which do not kick in after only seven years out of twenty-two, he has been free for some time and writes in the most important left-wing newspaper, La Repubblica, and in the best-selling right-wing weekly, Panorama, and from those columns he lectures us daily and is honoured and paid homage to by the entire intelligentsia who, despite all the court rulings, considers him, a priori and by divine right, innocent."

"In reality, no representative democracy is a democracy, but rather a system of organised minorities that prevail over the majority of citizens taken individually, suffocating them by severely limiting their freedom and keeping them in a state of minority. It is a system of oligarchies or polyarchies."

"Fallaci is a great journalist for the same reason she is a mediocre novelist. She is an enormous, protruding uterus that embraces a wide swath of reality. But what she gains in breadth when she writes articles, she loses in depth when she writes books."

"Faced with this, should we remain silent or denounce the hypocrisy of that clearly false defender of press freedom, Ferruccio De Bortoli, former communist masquerading as a sincere democrat, editor of Corriere, who has already been punished by his readers, who are abandoning him in double-digit percentages?"

"What is populism? In politics, it is the tendency of a person to appeal directly to an undefined ‘people’, whom they consider to be the bearers of positive values, in contrast to an undefined ‘elite’ (which we might call ‘the caste’, ‘the powers that be’, ‘the left’, sometimes ‘the right’, often ‘the politicians’, etc.), who are the bearers of negative values. From the populist's point of view, the people are obviously those who agree with their ideas, who applaud them and do not question them. Outside the people, and motivated by pernicious intentions, are those who do not follow the leader's ideas, or who in some way oppose or distort them, or simply doubt them."

"(About q:it:Dario Mellone) He wanted to devote himself, body and soul, to his great passion: painting. It was a solitary and total love. When I went to visit him, he would often entertain me with stories about his latest works. He would explain them to me in great detail, momentarily stepping out of his shy and reserved character."

"The web was born as an attempt to open up the world and everyone's minds, but it has been reduced to a world where each of us seeks confirmation of what we already think."

"What can be said about the young leader Renzi? He is a talented individual with a lack of manners. Il Corriere has supported his economic reforms, which are beneficial to the country, but has strongly cautioned against his interpretation of power. He disdains institutions and does not tolerate criticism."

"Besozzi dismantled the clumsy official version of the end of the Montelepre bandit (Salvatore Giuliano) and shed light on the links between the Mafia (not only in Sicily, which got rid of the now inconvenient Turiddu), politics and various state institutions."

"The truth exists, but we can never know if it is what we are saying."

"(About Tommaso Besozzi) He is both a reporter and a historian. He uncovers the invisible threads of mafia power, the conveniences that drive the island's powerful forces to use the bandit as their executioner, commissioning him to carry out the Portella della Ginestra massacre on 1 May 1947."

"Corruption is a hidden tax that discourages foreign investment, distorts markets, undermines merit and tramples on citizenship."

"A constitutional state is based on the separation of powers and the constitutional principle of equality, especially before the law."

"Bossi does not appear, even to foreigners, to be in full possession of his faculties."

"(Following the appeal by several members of the Popolo della Libertà party for clemency to be granted to Silvio Berlusconi) The demand for clemency, which is granted exclusively by the head of state and is strictly regulated by law, resembles an irregular and disorderly motion, undue pressure, useless in substance, dangerous in form, which would give the world the unpleasant impression that deliberate acts – which by their nature are decided with a cool head and at a distance from events (otherwise they would sound like a delegitimisation of the judiciary) – are possible by breaking down doors at the Quirinal Palace."

"Rating agencies assess the reliability of debtors. They form an oligopoly that is sometimes collusive. And they are among those most responsible for the financial crisis. To give just one example, they gave Lehman Brothers a triple A rating, the highest possible, shortly before it went bankrupt."

"Over time, dear readers, I have learned that newspapers must be uncomfortable and feared in order to serve a useful civic function. They must be uncomfortable even when they are moderate and balanced, like the Corriere. The truth is that good journalists often know more than those who would like to silence them. In this country, with its modest culture of rules, information is considered by much of the ruling class to be a necessary evil. It is one of the many signs of backwardness. Like it or not, news is news. Facts are facts, even when they contradict the opinions of the writer. And investigative journalism is a civic duty, as well as a professional one. Because democracies thrive on transparency and debate, on attention and respect. Where there is transparency, there is recognition of merit, competition and growth. Opacity leads to regression. A democratic society does not decline only if it has an informed and responsible public opinion, which, as Luigi Einaudi, a contributor to the Corriere and President of the Republic, said, must be provided with the ingredients it needs to make choices. Not only at the ballot box but in everyday life. Knowledge in order to deliberate. Public opinion, the cornerstone of an advanced democracy, is made up of citizens with a critical spirit, not subjects who swallow everything they are told. And opinions must be respected. All of them."

"I prepare thoroughly and set myself a goal. And I usually manage to achieve it."

"We are neither credible nor serious. No one invests in Italy anymore, and those who lend us money want us to pay extortionate interest rates. Our image is in tatters. Those who work abroad feel deeply humiliated, accompanied by a growing sense of injustice at the way our country is being treated."

"Giorgio Meletti, Nel paese dei Moratti. Sarroch-Italia: una storia ordinaria di capitalismo coloniale, Chiarelettere, 2010. ISBN 9788861901186"

"She, an unyielding fighter from her American retreat, loved to go against the grain. But alone."

"Gianni Dragoni e Giorgio Meletti, La paga dei padroni, Chiarelettere, 2008. ISBN 9788861900578"

"Martini was always careful not to overwhelm others with his own culture, discreet in entering into the lives of others but generous in understanding their weaknesses, humbly placing himself in the position of those who suffer, those who no longer believe or have never believed."

"Giovanni Floris, Mal di merito. L'epidemia di raccomandazioni che paralizza l'Italia, Rizzoli, Milano, 2007. ISBN 978-88-17-01957-6"

"[Regarding the upcoming elections for President of the Italian Republic in 2013] Franco Marini turned 80 last week and is preparing for his final attempt to crown a career marked by prudence, impartiality, good neighbourliness, and a popular wisdom of which he is considered a masterful prophet."

"Letta learned from the Christian Democratic school that you cannot hold on to power for 50 years just by making compromises and taking steps backwards: there comes a time when you have to draw a line. In a word, take risks."

"Giovanni Floris, La fabbrica degli ignoranti, Rizzoli, Milano, 2008. ISBN 978-88-17-02486-0"

"The first thing to say is that we do not deserve the mistrust of the markets. Families do not deserve it, as they work and save more than the European average. Businesses do not deserve it, as their exports are growing at the same rate as those of Germany. The politicians who deceive citizens by pretending to cut their spending and then scandalously going on holiday until 12 September deserve it."

"It is difficult to propose a reform of the university system that guarantees results. The idea that competitive examinations ensure excellent professors for all universities certainly does not seem to work. The reality is that if a department wants to hire an incompetent candidate, it will always manage to do so, regardless of the complex rules of public competitions. (p. 163)"

"Deaths at work are not a meteorological phenomenon. In 2009, in Italy, they fell below a thousand for the first time, three for every working day, and according to INAIL (the National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), the decline is also due to the crisis and the economic slowdown. In our system, therefore, a certain number of corpses is considered a natural product of industrial metabolism."

"But what is stopping meritocracy in Italy? Why has respect for ability and talent, which seems to have developed in the Anglo-Saxon world, not developed here? Giuseppe De Rita blames the education system, particularly state schools, which have levelled everything down, while economist Diorella Kostoris points out that in Italy the dominant idea is to protect those who do not deserve it. Thus, the system guarantees everything to everyone, and the result is that it causes adverse selection, i.e. it penalises the best instead of rewarding them. (p. 169)"

"When a colleague mentioned the phenomenon of early graduates during a dinner, we all thought he was referring to young prodigies who had managed to finish their studies in record time. In reality, early graduates are not prodigies, but rather individuals who, thanks to agreements stipulated by the institutions where they work or the professional associations to which they belong, were able to enrol directly in the second or third year of their degree programme. (p. 187)"

"In Italy, to get something, you don't have to deserve it: ‘if you have to, make them feel sorry for you’. Closed systems are those that, hermetically sealed off from the surrounding reality, end up living a life of their own, based on rules, values and principles that are not shared by anyone other than those who are part of the system. In a closed organisation, we have leaders who would be followers elsewhere, we have performance evaluation criteria that would not be recognised as such in any other environment, we have numbers that would not be classified in other contexts. We have barons who would be squires elsewhere. (p. 195)"

"Why do I look pissed off? – begins the young manager, glaring at his audience as he paces up and down the stage at the company convention – I look pissed off because I sense mistrust, I sense expectation, I sense those critical looks you get when you watch a football match and you can't believe what's happening... everyone's an expert, why?"

"Those who get their hands on a professorship never let go and can afford to build their own power system: the privileges and prestige associated with teaching allow them to cultivate interests, and thus being a university professor can become a way to obtain commissions, consultancies, contracts, contacts and jobs useful for private studies. Without any exchange of money, but only through the exchange of favours and kindness, a system of power is consolidated that cuts out those who have no power. (p. 199)"

"Everything has a future, if you invent something."

"The absolute lack of trust we have in the words and power of school to solve problems is condemning this country to decline. We have now shifted our focus from what can be given in terms of skills to what can be spent in terms of money: this is causing infinite damage to society, which is becoming permeated with the certainty that money can solve everything."

"The Finnish paradise was born in 1995, the year in which the system was completely reformed. When presenting the reform, the Minister of Public Education said that he dreamed of a school that would stimulate creativity and reflection, entertain and not humiliate. It seems he got what he wanted. What about us?"

"The religious person proclaims the truth, the journalist seeks it. And if he believes he has found it, he must verify it, not trust it immediately. The thread of truth is a necessity for the journalist who reports: seeking the reason behind things means concentrating, analysing, studying, and giving importance to the words one is using."

"Pragmatism helps you achieve your goals, but it also makes you forget them."

"Politics on TV can be very easy, even for politicians, or for politicians who pretend not to be politicians: populist politicians."

"Power is not contested, it is conquered."

"I have always believed that being on the right means defending opportunities for everyone, while being on the left means working hard to ensure that everyone has more opportunities."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) For once, the prime minister is being asked to think only about the country."

"I am sure that we should not be elitist. But the idea that because those who are in power now are not doing a good job, they can be replaced by anyone else because they are all the same, is a dangerous idea for the construction of a society. The idea that money is seen as a symbol of sin, that any step away from poverty or simplicity is a step away from purity, is a very dangerous idea."