The media in all democratic nations need to accept a reality that is hard to say, and yet consciously or unconsciously, they experience this phenomenon on a day-to-day basis: in all democracies, the media, and specially the most respectable and democratic among them, in the short term, have an interest in ensuring that the populist parties are elected, precisely because they are further removed from these parties.
For a newspaper, like any other media, nothing is more annoying than having to support a government, a policy: no one likes to read praise and compliments to the established power, and even less so when made in writing. On the contrary, nothing is more amusing than to criticize, fight, and even think that through criticisms one can bring down a powerful man or woman. The same is true of other media. They also guess that the election of a populist would give them a new role of great benefit, and they would see, even if they do not admit it, only advantages to finding themselves in this situation.
Ironically, the media by dreaming unconsciously of being the only ones who are critical of a populist power put themselves in the position of the populist, who came to power only by criticizing all other powers.
What is currently at stake in the United States at this moment should serve as a warning to us. It is not the excessive attacks by the American media that got Trump elected, on the contrary, it is their weaknesses and their blunders, much more than those of Hillary Clinton. Today, the media hostile to the new government, derive a large audience from his election; and also greater revenues: in fact never since the advent of the Internet and its threats to the media, such a resurgence of interest in newspapers and television programs content has been seen. And all those who have been fortunate enough to be declared by the President as the « enemies of the American people » have seen their turnover increase significantly, to the extent that they do not know if they dream of succeeding in overthrowing him, out of regard for democracy and to test their own power, or whether they would prefer not to succeed too quickly in doing so, in order to exploit as long as possible this unexpected gold mine. Unless they jump for joy in advance when they imagine how Vice President Pence could become, once Trump is dismissed, a pretty nice target; as he dreams of transforming the United States into a fundamentalist theocracy.
A very dangerous game: one day, one of these populist presidents, who would have been one of the creatures of his opponents, will decide that these « enemies of the people » should be thrown in jail; and this will be the end of American democracy. This has occurred in the past in Europe. This has also occurred in many countries, such as Turkey. And threatens to be the case in the Netherlands, Italy, and even Germany.
In France, we could witness the exact same evolution: Will the media, like the American press, hope to enjoy a resurgence in terms of financial health by becoming, (after the taking of office of Marine at the Elysée and the victory of the Front National, which would follow, in the legislative elections,) the main opposition force? Do they realize, as of today, that they are sowing the seeds for such an outcome and are playing into the hands of the National Front, by not attacking them as seriously as they could, by not treating them as a party like any other party; by not describing the chaos of her coming to power, by not analyzing in detail the absurdity of her program, by not by denouncing as much as they could the enormous scandals that constitute the behavior of their leaders, by not criticizing their corruption, their theft of public money, and all kinds of sneaky back door schemes, by not speaking enough of their dishonesty with regards to finance, politics and morality? Do they sincerely believe that to make the National Front a prime target of their criticisms would be playing into their hands? Will they, in the remaining weeks, only denounce the errors and mistakes, however guilty they may be, of the democrats?
In any event, by postponing the reasoned criticism that they should direct at them today, and by treating the National Front as a democratic and approachable party, they would run the risk of being remembered by history as their objective allies.