16 april 2005

 

We want Euro-FOX, now !


The not-so-fine moments of the Flemish media:

- a leading journalist of the Flemish equivalent of the BBC gets paid € 600 by the far-right and separatist political party Vlaams Belang to host a debate, organized between the same political party, between Vlaams Belang-strongman Filip Dewinter and senator Jean-Marie Dedecker, the maverick of the VLD ("Vlaamse liberalen en democraten" - Flemish liberal and democrats - European style, that is).

- the chief editors of two flemish self-declared quality newspapers, accompanied by their spouses, are invited to Toscane by senior politicians, write, upon their request, a book, making them, not only a witness, but also an accomplice, to one of the filthiest conspiracies in Belgium's post-war political history. That did not refrain them to write comments about it in their own newspapers, minimizing the whole thing, not mentioning essential information, such as the presence of the prime minister at the conspiracy. Shortly afterwards, one of the editors was promoted to a significant political position.

- a journalist commenting about the forced resignation of a cabinet member because of lies and of not repaying debts, while not mentioning that the partner of the journalist is both the lawyer and the claimant of the targeted politician.

Those not-so-fine moments were mentioned in the weekly satirical column of Koen Meulenaere in Knack, a leading Flemish weekly. Admittedly, it is often difficult to distinguish fact from fiction in his columns, but in this case, there is little doubt about the truth of these allegations as I heard of them before.

I thought Meulenaere's column was a fine opportunity to bundle them here in this post. It demonstrates that a certain dose of scepticism is in order vis-à-vis our media and, in addition, that some genuine competition of ideas and coverage in our media is surely needed, as my fellow freedom fighter Michael certainly will agree.
# posted by Peter Fleming @ 7:40 p.m.

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