I was looking for more details on just which media moguls Sarkozy is tight with, which brought me to this breathless bit at AntiSarko.net (I kid you not):
Nicolas SARKOZY est donc au centre de l'actualité médiatique. Il faut dire que les médias sont très demandeurs de petites phrases radicales et d'apparitions fracassantes, mais rappelons que cette faveur est aussi liée aux relations étroites que Nicolas SARKOZY a construit au fil du temps avec les grands « patrons » des médias. Arnaud LAGARDERE et Martin BOUYGUES sont des amis très proches du ministre (Martin est même le parrain de son fils). Grâce à leur pouvoir et à la concentration monopolistique des médias privées, ces bons amis entretiennent une forme de dictature médiatique qui pour la première fois avec une telle ampleur, présentent un homme politique comme un pur produit de grande consommation.
And then searching on LAGARDERE and BOUYGUES, on EuroTrib, I found these clarifications in your Crisis at Libération -- Part One from last November:
Some of the names that feature above as whole or part owners or runners of newspapers have other media interests, and are closely associated with Nicolas Sarkozy. Martin Bouygues runs the Bouygues public works and telecommunications empire and owns the Number One French TV channel, TF1 (totally pro-Sarko). Close friend of Sarkozy. Arnaud Lagardère owns an empire that includes a chunk of EADS and above all most of French publishing and a nice piece of American (Hachette). Close friend of Sarkozy. Alain Minc, ultra-economic-liberal pundit and consultant, close friend of Sarkozy. Edouard de Rothschild downplays it, but is a friend of Sarkozy. Sarkozy is certainly highly media-conscious and misses no opportunity to appear on TV, using his position as government N° 2 to get himself invited to TV news, or organising photo-ops and inviting TV and press. I think it's fair to say no French politician has done anything like as much of this in the past. And there are voices that insinuate, or say outright, that Sarkozy is using his influence and that of his friends to muzzle the press of the centre and the left - in view, of course, of the presidential campaign, and of the ten to fifteen years he can hope to have at the Elysée after that.
Martin Bouygues runs the Bouygues public works and telecommunications empire and owns the Number One French TV channel, TF1 (totally pro-Sarko). Close friend of Sarkozy.
Arnaud Lagardère owns an empire that includes a chunk of EADS and above all most of French publishing and a nice piece of American (Hachette). Close friend of Sarkozy.
Alain Minc, ultra-economic-liberal pundit and consultant, close friend of Sarkozy.
Edouard de Rothschild downplays it, but is a friend of Sarkozy.
Sarkozy is certainly highly media-conscious and misses no opportunity to appear on TV, using his position as government N° 2 to get himself invited to TV news, or organising photo-ops and inviting TV and press. I think it's fair to say no French politician has done anything like as much of this in the past. And there are voices that insinuate, or say outright, that Sarkozy is using his influence and that of his friends to muzzle the press of the centre and the left - in view, of course, of the presidential campaign, and of the ten to fifteen years he can hope to have at the Elysée after that.
Goddess Democracy, look down and weep! indeed. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
The fact is that the MSM are often favourable to the right anywhere, because one of the defining characteristics of what we call "the right" in political party terms is that it is there to defend money, property, business. But there's a particular set of youngish (at least, not-so-old) media bosses who are part of Sarko's personal circle. There are not many French media pies they haven't got their fingers in.
i do not see that especially with a ridiculous 96% of the journalists voting left (Poll from Marianne few years ago)
Your sourcing is vague. 96% is indeed ridiculous. But even if a majority of journalists "vote left", tell me where the left-wing media are.
