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afkc, Bill Clinton, campaign, carla bruni-sarkozy, expat, france, Francois Hollande, French election, journalism, le figaro, media, Monica Lewinsky, Nicolas Sarkozy, paris, politics, radio, Thomas Jefferson, travel, tv, U.S., valerie trierweiler
How much money they make, their religions, their families and family statuses… Our visual journalists laid it all out in a diagram comparing American Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.
It was a cool graphic and, in an afternoon meeting, someone launched the idea of doing a similar thing for the roughly 10 candidates of the French presidential election.
‘But where would we find that information on them ?’ One journalist asked. ‘You would loose so much time trying to find it out.’
You Americans, can you imagine a world where it would be difficult to find out details like a candidate’s religion or income or personal life ?
Right there is the big difference between the media and the American elections and the media and the French elections.
The question of religion
Mitt Romney, a current Republican hopeful, is Mormon. Pretty much every American media source has been talking about how this may hurt his campaign. In short, his out-of-the-mainstream religion is a major issue for some voters in the U.S.
I have been interviewing a lot of people about Mormonism in France this week and I have asked them all whether they think France would be ready for a Mormon president.
Everyone has told me that, in France, it is a non-issue.
‘People’s religions don’t really have impact,’ the mayor of a Parisian suburb told me. ‘Spiritual ideas… we don’t read them in the same manner.’
France also doesn’t read other personal life questions in the same way.
Love or something like it
Remember when Bill Clinton was almost impeached after the Monica Lewinsky scandal ? Admittedly, that scandal also had the lying under the oath thing… but, frankly, that just wouldn’t happen in France. I mean, former president François Mitterrand had a daughter with another woman while he was married to Danielle. No biggie. We still love them all. Yet, in the US, we find that stuff so interesting that we are still digging up stuff about the extra-marital affairs of our founding fathers. And, even more importantly, there are people who have changed their opinions about Bill Clinton, as president, because of Monica or Thomas Jefferson, because of Sally Hemings.
That said, that may be changing. The French presidential elections this year are more ‘people’ than ever before.
It may have started with Sarkozy, whose extravagant ‘bling-bling’ lifestyle, his breakup with his ex-wife and his relationship with former Italian supermodel Carla Bruni all made headlines.
But this trend has been accelerated by the DSK scandal. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, was expected to run for president and beat Sarkozy. Then, last May, he was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. The scandal got more and more tabloid. There were other accusations of assault, allegations of involvement in an international prostitution ring and DSK admitted to a sex addiction.
France and the French media literally did not know what to do with themselves. Personal life and politics traditionally are kept very separate. Yet this stuff was sordid and it was taking over the French media: it was politics à l’americaine.
A different take
Still, the relationship of the French media with politics remains very different from the American relationship. Some limits are even government-ordained, for example, there is a rule that all candidates must get equal speaking time on TV and radio. There are government employees who literally sit in an office and clock the amount of time candidates appear on each TV and radio channel.
I recently worked on an interview about the companions of the principal French presidential candidates in this year’s election. YES, the election is more ‘people’ than ever before and everyone wants to talk to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Valérie Trierweiler, Socialist candidate François Hollande’s companion. But there is still a level of distance and respect. Check out the article about them. It is really interesting.
The good stuff
Just as a last thought, I have to say that I think the French press are very good to avoid the ‘people’ angle of this year’s elections.
Because it is juicy stuff.