Television Presenters

"Girls need to know that professional life is not a game of seduction. Would I dress sexy if I had a female boss?"

"I was seen as sour or aggressive, whereas if I had been a man, they would have said I was determined."

"The incompetence of men in power is causing too much damage. We must no longer apologize for existing. We are more talented and more competent, and we demand power."

"I am appalled by rude and sexist politicians like Salvini who campaign in their underwear or Trump who say things like “you grab women by the p***y.” How can anyone think of entrusting the country to a man who has said such a thing? At the very least, he will mistreat women and citizens."

"Europe needs to be “fixed,” but not destroyed. For a thousand reasons, not least because it guarantees peace and democracy, two things that we, with our short memories, too often take for granted. The latest poll tells us that 8 out of 10 young Italians feel like European citizens. And that reassures me."

"It is no longer tolerable that so many important countries in the world, from the US to Brazil, are in the hands of an international group of misogynistic rednecks who harm not only women, but everyone."

"In all democracies, starting with the American one, if someone lies about their private life, what kind of politician can they ever be?"

"The battle for women's empowerment goes hand in hand with the battle for the survival of the planet."

"The idea of borders and integration is in my DNA. [...] Precisely because, as a child, I was always considered “different.” At home, I spoke German, and our family traditions were decidedly Austro-Hungarian. But you can be different anywhere."

"The three male “Vs”—vulgarity, violence, and visibility, the result of impotent and aggressive masculinity—must be replaced by empathy, diplomacy, and patience. Men must be re-educated. We have read many books about women who love too much or work too hard. Well, it's time for men who love too little or work too little to go back to school. Let them learn to be more feminine."

"Lilli Gruber, Basta! Il potere delle donne contro la politica del testosterone, Collana I Solferini, Milano, Solferino, 2019. ISBN 978-88-282-0311-7"

"The commentators represent different points of view, but they share the ability to offer original and non-trivial thinking. I find them well suited to an in-depth program."

"I have great respect for journalism and journalists who do their job seriously. One of the fundamental principles of serious journalism is to distinguish information from entertainment. These two genres should not be mixed. Journalism is one thing, entertainment is another. For too many years now, we have been accustomed to seeing infotainment on TV, which has destroyed serious journalism. Be wary of those who want to sell you reality and information by entertaining you. But what does entertainment have to do with information and journalism? Nothing, absolutely nothing."

"I felt, and still feel, the need to describe a very complex reality that is often reduced by the media to sterile clichés. This feeling has been reinforced by developments in relations with Islam since September 11, and the Iran issue is a striking example of this. Today, rather than proclaiming axes of evil, it is more important to build axes of good."

"Interviewer: You have identified a “Gruber style”: blunt, even aggressive responses. Did you study your character? Lilli Gruber: I never study characters. I just try to do my job with my back straight, without professional scoliosis. I could say that when women are determined, they become annoying and castrating, but when men are determined, they become decisive and virile. I'll leave it to others to judge the “Gruber style.”"

"In Scandinavian countries, but also in a large and important country like Germany, there are many women at the top of parties and institutions. As always, it is first and foremost a cultural problem and then a political one, which needs legislative incentives to evolve. Therefore, gender quotas, however odious from a philosophical point of view, remain a necessity for a transition period that should be as short as possible. Italy cannot afford the luxury of giving up the great resource that women represent."

"(Speaking of propaganda during the Iraq War) Television fiction seems to be gradually replacing the reality of journalistic reporting. This is necessary to prevent public opinion from rebelling and putting pressure on governments that have already once ignored the protests of the majority of their citizens opposed to war in order to engage their country in a conflict with no way out. [...] Our leaders want us to live in the best of television worlds. Unfortunately, this paradise is the hell of democracy."

"Never go against the flow, or you risk not reaching your goal."

"In the third grade classroom, on a day I will never forget, a nun came in and told us how evil the Germans were, that they killed ten Italians for every one of their soldiers who died, and then used the fat from their corpses to make soap. [...] And in the class, suddenly silent, a classmate pointed her finger at me and exclaimed: “You're one of them too, Gruber!”"

"You must say “not” to the men who deny you power, profit, and pleasure."

"Power may well be disgusting, as men keep telling us, but in the meantime, we want it."

"(About South Tyrol) I am convinced that this land, seemingly small and peripheral compared to empires and republics, has been an important crossroads, both for the history of Europe and for that of our country."

"Reading Anna Politkovskaya's A Russian Diary in the knowledge of her terrible end – at the hands of an assassin in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment block – it seems to foretell that she could not possibly be allowed to live."

"By 2002, Putin was taking full advantage of the Bush-Blair 'war on terror' as cover for Moscow's wholesale crackdown in Chechnya. Anna became increasingly isolated. She reported the extra-judicial killings, kidnappings, rapes, torture and dissapearances that characterised the Russian forces' methods as they struggled to contain the Chechen War, and she often reported these alone. Increasingly Anna felt, and wrote publicly, that Putin's policies actively nurtured the very terrorists they were supposedly designed to defeat. Threaded through these accounts is her deep conviction that Putin's path to the presidency was shaped around, and dependent upon, his pursuit of the Chechen conflict. She even links some of the specific torture practices that she uncovers in Chechnya to those extolled by the KGB and its successor the FSB in their training manuals."

"For many of us who continue to aspire to the highest standards of journalism, Anna Politkovskaya will remain a beacon burning bright, a yardstick by which integrity, courage and commitment will be measured. Those who met her over the years can testify that she never allowed her feet to leave the ground, never basked in fame or celebrity. She remained modest and unassuming to the end."

"As I read A Russian Diary I wondered what on earth we have embassies in Russia for. How did it happen that our leaders so steadfastly ignored what they knew Putin was up to? Was it the hunger for gas? For the riches of the outrageous post-Communist sell-off of Russian state assets and manufacturing resources, through which our financial institutions participated in the rise of the thieving oligarchs? Or was it the blind desire to keep Russia 'on side', whatever the cost to her own impoverished people?"

"I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read."

"‘Absolutely yes’: Simona Ventura is no longer capable of saying “yes” or ‘no’. Like all children, and like Fedro from Grande Fratello, she feels the need to add the reinforcing adverb, even in contexts where it is totally unnecessary. This was pointed out to her yesterday during Quelli che il calcio. In a single evening, she managed to reach record heights; and yesterday she didn't hold back, closing the programme and handing over to q:it:Enrico Varriale with an ‘absolutely yes’."

"The problem with Cuccarini is that she is not as cynical as Maria De Filippi nor as chaotic as Simona Ventura. She truly believes in dancing, commitment and talent. At times, she risks becoming overly emotionally involved in the stories told by the contestants."

"One hundred years after the first Futurist manifesto, Simona Ventura demonstrates the vitality of that movement. She sets television alight just as Marinetti set theatre evenings alight, sparking fights and taming them at the same time. Thirty seconds of Simona's free-wheeling commentary on air make Carlo Conti's well-mannered phrases and Barbara d'Urso's flirtatious introductions seem cloyingly academic. They become insipid and convoluted, obsolete and unpalatable, like the poems of Pascoli and Carducci."

"Ventura is the only television star dressed by two designers at the same time. From the neck down to the knees, she wears Dolce & Gabbana, and from the knees down, she wears orthopaedic garments by Mario Gualerzi of Castiglion dei Pepoli."

"A presenter is always a presenter; you must be credible and authoritative. Recording allows you to cut out dead time and give rhythm, but that doesn't mean that anyone can present. The narrator must be at the service of the programme and accompany the viewer."

"I like risky projects, I'm a soldier, not a general. I don't sit around waiting for phone calls, the things I'm given aren't easy. The fear of not being there, no, my past speaks for me and you can't erase it. I like to put myself out there, challenges are won and lost."

"To be allowed on television, you have to belong to the new television species created during the Berlusconi years, but which is still in vogue. The figure of the paraculo, yes, write it down, the one who never takes sides, who blends in, who makes indifference his banner. [...] Names and surnames, as I do in show business. Bonolis, who declares that he feels neither right nor left, Fabio Volo, who boasts of being indifferent, Simona Ventura, who defines herself as equidistant, candidly adding that she worked at Mediaset while being pursued by rumours that she was Galliani's lover and that she let him believe it. [...] Gene Gnocchi, Fiorello, Fabio Fazio, Baudo himself. [...] They are the heroes of TV opportunism, the ones with the glossy masks. They work on the condition that they do not disturb, not realising that opportunism is a form of corruption."

"Interviewer: Do you still divide people into two categories: good people and cockroaches? Simona Ventura: I divide them into two categories: good people and bad people. I don't fight people who are not decent, I just watch and move on."

"I want to work and live in peace. Does my product work? I'm here. Does my product not work? I'll open a pizzeria. That's it."

"I had a lot of red carpet treatment at Mediaset even though I was the last wheel on the bus. They even gave me better food in the canteen. The guys from Gialappa's tormented me: sing, talk, is it true or isn't it true?"

"[...] I am the most impartial person in the world. I have intrinsic, automatic equality."

"My life is a diet. I should weigh around 60 kilos, size 42. If I go down to 59 kilos, my face falls. If I go up to 63 kilos, I look like a whale on TV. My problem is my bottom. And then my clothes."

"There's no point in worrying. Every time the government changes, the Rai changes."

"I am a showgirl, I have to be spectacular. I hate women who play it minimalist on television."

"Ours is a satirical programme. The important thing is that satire attacks power wherever it comes from. In Rome they say: whoever's turn it is, doesn't sulk. (talking about Quelli che il calcio)"

"The Isola dei famosi where I invested my passion, blood, work and sweat has become something else, a kind of "Grande Fratello on the beach”."

"(About the Sanremo Music Festival 2004) The record companies wanted to destroy the event [...]. They didn't send any singers, they were all young people, almost all unknown or not signed to record companies. Marco Masini, who won with “Uomo volante”, was not signed to a record label at the time. [...] It was a precursor to today's talent shows, and with hindsight it is recognised as very innovative. [...] It was a train that passed by and I jumped on with my eyes closed. I knew there wouldn't be many opportunities. Sanremo gives you your presenter's licence, even if it was a very difficult, extremely difficult Sanremo."

"At the age of nineteen, after my first sexual encounter, I became pregnant. I decided to have an abortion, a difficult choice that I would never make again in my life. It was a traumatic experience that happened just a few months before my final exams. My father still does not know, and the father of that child will never know."

"I would give up beauty. But then no one would want me anymore."

"If you're not smart, how can you survive in this world?"

"I've always been distant from politics. I'm extremely apolitical."

"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)"

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