For a certain number of French people, it is a daily cathodic meeting at 7 p.m., on CNews. In two years of existence, this talk show has seen its audience increase tenfold: up to 900,000 viewers. Presented by Christine Kelly, Facing the info could be titled “Facing Zemmour” … The polemicist has made it a platform which he uses every day to develop his favorite themes, in particular immigration, in front of viewers … or voters?
Vincent Bolloré’s profitable strategy
Bringing Zemmour to CNews, it was Vincent Bolloré himself who took care of it. The powerful shareholder of the Canal + group would have recruited him in person after meeting him for a lunch, according to journalist Etienne Girard. The strategy paid off, since CNews has since come to occupy the first place in news channels.
Far from censoring the polemicist, the channel offers him unexpected speaking time. CNews was however condemned by the CSA to a heavy fine, after remarks on the foreign minors which earned Eric Zemmour prosecution for “incitement to racial hatred” … it did not respond to repeated requests for an interview from “Further investigation”.
In May 2011, Zemmour monopolized half of the speaking time in “Face à l’Info”
Journalists from the magazine watched the show Facing the info throughout the month of May 2021, when the idea of a candidacy of the polemicist began to take shape. After calculation, here is the observation they drew from these twenty programs.
Over a little over an hour, the duration of Facing the info, Zemmour will have monopolized on average 33 minutes, that is to say half of the speaking time. Sometimes with very long tirades: in May 2021, his record was 8 minutes without interruption.
On CNews in May 2021, Eric Zemmour will have spoken nearly eleven hours in all. Much more than all his declared or supposed adversaries in the presidential election … together. According to the CSA’s count, here is the rest of the podium: about three hours each for Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Emmanuel Macron, or three times less. Next is Marine Le Pen, with one hour and twenty-five minutes. The others were only given a few minutes.
Last September, the CSA decided to count the speaking time of the possible candidate. In the process, CNews was forced to dismiss its star …
Extract from “Zemmour: Veni, Vidi, Vichy”, a document of “Complément d’inquête” to be seen on November 4, 2021.
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