- Christophe Barbier, Pascal Praud and Jean-Pierre Pernaut have stood out in recent weeks for their interventions in the media.
- Between rant and expression of their opinion, media commentators seem to get out of their role.
- The coronavirus crisis plunges society into uncertainty and pushes editorialists to leave their area of expertise.
Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, this has been the festival of cookie-cutter notices on major news channels. Editorialists and presenters come to give their opinion on the management of the health crisis and the respect or not of containment by the French, sometimes presenting themselves more as correcters of wrongs than as chroniclers.
Christophe Barbier, Pascal Praud or Jean-Pierre Pernaut (to name but a few) were thus noticed in the exercise, already well established before the coronavirus crisis, on the continuous news channels, of ultracrepidarianism , namely the behavior which consists in giving its opinion on subjects on which one does not have especially competence.
“Overall the teachers, at some point, you have to go! "
Before getting to the heart of the matter, here is a non-exhaustive overview of the remarks heard on the small screen in the past two months. "How far to protect the population we take the risk of an economic crisis […] but at some point to save a few lives of very old people, are we going to put a few thousand people out of work?" "Insisted Christophe Barbier on the set of BFMTV on February 25. Last Thursday, the former editorial director of L'Express attacked overweight people, causing an uproar online.
🚨 Christophe Barbier (BFMTV) 🚨
“Something struck me, when Professor Salomon made his point, there are sign language interpreters next to it, and there are 2 ladies who are obvious overweight, they come to work every night ... They have the right to work »pic.twitter.com/Rx1TH3bfG9
No better on the side of Pascal Praud, presenter of the highly controversial program L'Heure des Pros , on CNews, which urges teachers to get back to work. "When I hear the teachers who are not going to help Macron on May 11, say that they do not want to come back, because security, because sanitary, etc. : there will always be good reasons not to return. "And to add:" I'm not going to make friends by saying that, but overall the teachers, at some point, you have to go! So what has happened to editorial writers and TV presenters in recent weeks?
🚨Pascal Praud (CNews) #hdpros 🚨
“When I hear the teachers, who are not going to help E. Macron on May 11, say that they do not want to come back because security, sanitation ect there will always be good reasons not to come back ”
“ There's a point on May 11, you have to go ”pic.twitter.com/2j8faDTkml
"Traditionally, editorialists came from political journalism, very articulate, with a certain number of solid knowledge," observes media sociologist Jean-Marie Charon. Historically, France likes this media figure who makes the link between different forms of knowledge and who, why not, would be able to draw a political, even philosophical perspective. The coronavirus crisis has not really changed the situation, it has especially accentuated the perverse effect of continuous information which has multiplied the spaces for discussion and debate to fill the void.
The perverse effect of continuous news
The crisis puts a spotlight on the way of functioning of these chains which call upon editorialists, such as Christophe Barbier, to comment every day the news, without discrimination. “By definition, they are nothing specialists. Going beyond their field of competence is, in a way, in the moral contract which binds them to their chain ”, underlines digital sociologist Baptiste Kotras. But this is not unique to the news sequence of recent months. "We could already see this tendency to get out of his area of competence before the coronavirus," continues Jean-Marie Charon.
This has been particularly striking since the start of the health crisis because it involves mobilizing strong knowledge, far removed from the expertise of editorialists. "It leads them either to repeat what circulates everywhere without real added value, or to express personal points of view, without realizing to what extent this mode of expression discredits the function of journalist", he continues.
The particularly uncertain nature of this pandemic does not help them. For the time being, the medical profession is still discovering new symptoms, is not sure of the origin of the virus or of the degrees of harmfulness, and has not yet found a treatment… "The State and health professionals are plunged into uncertainty and the media commentators are also caught in a situation where they have to express themselves when no one knows anything for sure ”, notes Baptiste Kotras. Their media role then becomes particularly risky.
The weakening of the viewer
And, on the other hand, the viewer, more and more educated, is able to identify the errors, which can create distrust. "The editorial writers are undoing the fact-checking work put in place by many newsrooms", deplores Jean-Marie Charon who warns against a system which weakens the public.
“In a society where people have fewer and fewer collective social resources (religion, association, political parties), where people are increasingly alone in the face of daily life, their only resource is the media. If the media get it wrong and they get it wrong, they weaken it, ”he explains. From there to question the relevance of the editorialist on a set, it is not said. With tight economic models, newsrooms tend to favor good, ready customers, available to answer on all subjects. At the risk of saying everything and anything.
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"I'm in a rant", Pascal Praud or the theater of info
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- Confinement
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Jean pierre pernaut
- BFM TV
- CNews