But yesterday's supervisory board meeting (see Libération, Le Monde) came up with a shock: Alain Minc, pro-Sarkozy pundit and business consultant, considered as the guiding hand of the big-money takeover of the newspaper, was officially reinstated as chairman of that board despite the fact that he did not get an absolute majority of the 20 votes as the statutes require. This was a face-off between the representatives of journalists and staff, and the representatives of "external" shareholders. Minc was declared winner of the vote, and the journalists' representatives walked out. Supervisory board meetings were then held in their absence for two other companies that are part of the Monde set-up, and Minc elected chairman of these two boards.

In other words, the journalists' bid to clear out the big-business icons at the head of the paper was faced down by other business shareholders. Colombani is out, but Minc is definitely still in. The journalists consider the election illegal, and will take it to court. Meanwhile, by walking out, they prevented the election of Colombani's replacement at the head of the board of directors, Pierre Jeantet. So Le Monde is technically without a boss, and there's a situation of open crisis. Alain Minc is talking it up to make it look like the journalists are (of course) endangering the life of the paper. What's clear is that the business interests involved, though they couldn't hold on to Colombani, will use dubious methods to keep Minc at the head of Le Monde.

Meanwhile, the French financial press is in turmoil. Pearson, owner of the FT and of Les Echos, wants to sell the latter. The owner of the other French business paper, La Tribune, Bernard Arnault, boss of luxury goods company LVMH, has put up an offer of €250m that is likely to succeed. The journalists and staff of Les Echos are greatly exercised about how independent they will be when one person owns the country's two major financial titles. (This has raised more than a smile here on ET, since the same journalists have churned out pro-business drek for years without the slightest worry re independence...)

Arnault has now let it be known he will sell La Tribune if he buys Les Echos. And who is shaping up as buyer? Not another Sarko-supporting businessman? Why yes, none other than the Malta yacht lender, Vincent Bolloré.  It's a small world... At least, theirs is.

Lastly, one of the best programmes on French TV has been terminated. Arrêt sur images (ASI), on public TV's fifth channel France5, had built itself a solid slot on Sunday lunchtime with its deconstruction of television and how it works -- particularly with regard to news and journalism. Its founder and host, Daniel Schneiderman, got himself in trouble for writing things he was not supposed to write and was fired from Le Monde (where else?). Now he is about to be fired from France5 for having publicly protested about the closing of ASI. He and others from ASI have a blog called Big Bang Blog where the story can be followed through blog posts.

ASI was always interesting, usually relevant, often revealing and useful. It functioned as a watchdog for media folk -- a forum where dishonesty, blind propaganda, technical tricks, could be dissected and denounced. It taught people a critical view of television (and to some extent other media, radio, press), it taught them how to watch. Schneiderman is far from having friends everywhere, and critics from further left pointed to his lack of radical fervour in developing a fundamental critique of the entire establishment. But he was there with ASI when they were talking to... Not many people.

The decision to get rid of ASI and Schneiderman comes from on high, in the grand tradition of French public-service media. No convincing reason has been given for it. This show was an annoying obstacle in the way of a smooth-talking machine. One of the main things about manufactured consent is that you don't need to have all the journalists and media people gushing their support of you. You need to have most of them not attack. You need them to know where is the line they should not cross. The new Sarkozy regime just drew a line in the sand.

If you want to protest, an online petition supporting ASI has already collected nearly 130,000 signatures. Shall we add a few more?