To the point: Hollow speech

I will take the liberty of quoting from it here: "I can no longer listen to the politicians. I can no longer look at their fetuses. I don't like to follow political discussions anymore. I have had enough. I don't care who is elected and who is not. Yesterday on SF the continuation of this endless loop discussion of the state radio: There is a Mr. Müller from the FDP, Mr. Blocher, a woman, whose name I don't have to remember, from the center and then Mr. Fehr from the SP. (...) It's over. I don't like to listen to this stupid chatter anymore. What kind of people are these who seriously think they are stars. They're all pompous roosters and hens who worry more about the right lighting for their election campaign photos than about anything else. And hop from headline to headline thinking this is about politics." What Messmer writes here is balm to my soul. Last week, I had the pleasure of having to endure two political representatives at the Swiss Media Congress.

The first contribution came from Media Minister Doris Leuthard. One would expect a Federal Council speech at the Media Congress to offer some content and depth. But no, it was just a call for joint action between publishers and SRG regarding SRG's controversial online activities. The statement that the technological environment has changed a lot in recent years and that the Internet and mobile devices (soso) pose new challenges for the media probably did not bring any new insights either. The fact that an obscure episode from the last century had to be used as a backdrop was just embarrassing. Last year, Leuthard was unable to land because of fog; this year, unfortunately, the sun was shining.

The next day then the elephant round of party exponents. Only just two presidents thought it necessary to appear (Pelli and Brunner), the other parties sent representatives, which was a stroke of luck for the CVP. Norbert Neininger was a brilliant moderator, but what good is that if, with the exception of one participant, only phrases are trotted out. This week, the Syndicate of Media Professionals SSM published a survey of politicians on their satisfaction with the Swiss media. What came out of it? Nothing at all. The well-known banalities repeated many times, such as lack of research, lack of diversity or pseudo-primeurs. To quote Messmer once again: "I don't like to listen to this stupid gibberish anymore."

Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief pc.meier@werbewoche.ch