Nicolas Sarkozy portrayed as a 'Bonaparte of media battles'

Jean-Noël Cuénod comments on the media strategy of Nicolas Sarkozy, accused of censuring an article in the 'Journal du Dimanche' (JDD). "The new president of the Republic is personally acquainted with all of the decision makers of the French media sphere, as well as the journalists 'who count'. ... There is no doubt that Sarkozy wants to control his image and his messages, right down to the last pixel and comma. But the thing is that this Bonaparte of media battles may be a bit late on the scene. The latest turn of events shows this. The JDD ditches an article that says that Cecilia Sarkozy may not have voted [in the second round of the presidential elections] and a few days later the story is circulated by journalists on the Internet ! The result is that the media is seizing the information to make a big deal of it, blowing it up into dimensions that it wouldn't have had if the JDD had published the initial article in the first place."

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