Is The USA Getting Its Very Own Berlusconi?
It seems Republican Presidential wannabe Mitt Romney has bought the massive media conglomerate Clear Channel – possibly with a view to having his own media mouthpiece during his presidential run, posssibly to counter Fox’ stranglehold on the GOP’s messaging, who knows.
What we do know is what a similar situation did for Italian politics:
That the Italian elections of 2001 were won by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy?s biggest media mogul, surprised no one. Berlusconi?s media muscle was a major factor in his success, but not in the way that many might imagine. There is little evidence that Berlusconi used his three television networks to broadcast overt propaganda, still less that the Italian electorate are so unsophisticated as to be bludgeoned into supporting him through saturation of their TV screens. In fact, the impact of Berlusconi?s media empire was both less obvious and far more significant than that.
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Berlusconi?s television empire counted more as a resource for negotiation and bargaining with other political, economic and social actors than as an instrument for propaganda. At the hub of an empire with tentacles reaching across multiple media and financial services, Berlusconi clearly had resources unavailable to any other politician.
To some extent, this is a result simply of the sheer economic size of his holdings. His personal fortune alone could bankroll an election campaign. We still do not know exactly what economic resources he used, and whether they were compatible with what is allowed by law. But it is crucial that Berlusconi?s empire is based in television and in the mass media more generally: television does have a central role in modern economic, political and social life ? though in a more subtle way than many commentaries on Berlusconi suggest.
Staff transfers: business to politics
First Berlusconi was able to draw on a wealth of human resources within his economic empire, resources which have particular relevance to the conduct of politics in the media age, and which are not in abundant supply in Italy outside Berlusconi?s empire: this is one of the lesser-known political consequences of media concentration. Berlusconi called on these resources seven years ago when he created the structure of Forza Italia, which was mainly based on employees transferred from his Fininvest organization. He did it again in the last campaign, using personnel from the old and new Mediaset structure (the former Fininvest) and above all from his advertising sales unit, Publitalia.
There are numerous examples of this staff crossover, from business to politics. The most important one regards Berlusconi?s pollster in the 1994 campaign, Gianni Pilo, who was in charge of Fininvest?s market research department until just a few days before the owner of the television company for which he worked prophetically entered the race. Marcello Dell?Utri, who was fundamental to the organization of Forza Italia, had been general manager of Publitalia.
Secondly, in Italian politics, bargaining among political elites is crucial and endemic. Berlusconi”s wide-reaching empire puts him in an extremely favourable position to horse-trade. He has jobs and business opportunities to offer. And even if he is careful not to run blatantly afoul of Italy?s rules on pluralism in election coverage, he can use the content of his media outlets in more subtle ways to advance his political ends, offering other politicians favourable publicity or support on particular issues in return for their cooperation.
There are no guarantees Romney won’t do the same.This is not a positive development for US politics.
Read more: US politics, Media, Clear Channel, Mitt Romney, GOP, Presidential election 08
