Drudge Headline 7/20/03
MAG: Berlusconi Denies Political Pressure on Italian Secret Service to find Iraq-Niger UraniumLink... 

(OMED: Matt Drudge's headline crew should reflect on their technique.  This sort of thing is redolent of standard liberal media practice, which is to utilize a headline that has a beneficial liberal propaganda slant to it, whether such usage is an appropriate reflection of the content to which it refers, or not.  The MAG in the Drudge banner link was Time's online edition, which had the following headline and subhead:)

10 Questions For Silvio Berlusconi

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi speaks freely and carries a big stick. TIME's Jeff Israely talked with him on the eve of his visit with President Bush.

(OMED: We have altered the original Time text, below, to make it comprehensible.  The first question and answer in the interview is repeated so that if the headline link to the original (above) is no longer valid, you can see here why perhaps the most famous news magazine on Earth deserves criticism from a professional standpoint. One expects their questions to be obviously constructed out of a blatent leftwing bias, but does not expect their physical presentation to be unprofessional.  First, an example of what they did wrong.)   

Saturday, July 19, 2003 -- 

The U.S. has taken a lot of criticism in Europe lately. What are the important things about America that some Europeans do not understand?  Some Europeans don't understand that the world changed radically after Sept. 11. On Nov. 10, 2001, in the most beautiful piazza in Rome, we organized a rally in solidarity with an attacked and offended nation and flew the U.S. flag. We were the only ones to do it, and we are proud. I think we are making some headway, though, with the idea that anti-Americanism and anti-globalization are not progressive politics but are pure ideological trash. 

(Oregon Magazine repairs the amateurish construction of the above, and all the rest of the Q&A's, to make the piece decipherable. By doing that, we have allowed the reader easy access to the character and opinions of Berlusconi.  In our judgement the first is shockingly honest for a politician, and the second is precisely logical and uncluttered by obfuscation.  The TIME reporter, of course, is an idiot.  His questions are standard liberal fare -- slanted whenever possible to taint the interview subject in the reader's mind.  [Essentially, most are charges more than they are questions.]  But, readers ain't what they used to be.  The new Conservative media, radio and the net, have done a good job of  explaining liberal journalism techniques to the former victims of the American mainstream press. Quite a few readers can now instantly spot a liberal flack at work.)

TIME: The U.S. has taken a lot of criticism in Europe lately. What are the important things about America that some Europeans do not understand? 

BERLUSCONI: Some Europeans don't understand that the world changed radically after Sept. 11. On Nov. 10, 2001, in the most beautiful piazza in Rome, we organized a rally in solidarity with an attacked and offended nation and flew the U.S. flag. We were the only ones to do it, and we are proud. I think we are making some headway, though, with the idea that anti-Americanism and anti-globalization are not progressive politics but are pure ideological trash. 

TIME: You and President Bush are both businessmen who became political leaders. Is there a bond you share?

BERLUSCONI: It's a matter of sympathos. That's a Greek word from pathos—to understand and feel together. We share a clarity in the way you say things: yes is yes, no is no. We also share an ideal that whoever is the leader must show the people the right road. We only met two years ago, but I feel I know him like I know my grammar school friends. 

TIME: They say we live in the age of the American empire. Are there lessons the Roman empire can offer?

BERLUSCONI: My name is Silvio, not Caesar or Augustus. But the political tradition of ancient thought, filtered in Italy by Machiavelli, says one  thing clearly: every prince needs allies, and the bigger the responsibility, the more allies he needs. 

TIME: How would you explain your ownership of three television networks, the largest publisher in italy and other media holdings to the American people? 

BERLUSCONI: My own TV stations are critical of me. I can't blame them. How do you demonstrate your independence? By criticizing your own boss. I believe I was the most hands-off TV owner ever in Italy. Since I entered politics, I haven't made one phone call to my business group. 

TIME: You created problems at the European Parliament by jokingly referring to a German member as "perfect" for the role of A Nazi prison guard. Have you ever thought to adopt a more cautious approach?

BERLUSCONI: I'm not a traditional politician, and I have a sense of humor. I'll try to soften it and become boring, maybe even very boring, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. 

TIME: Has your success as a businessman influenced the kind of politician you are?

BERLUSCONI: Private television in Italy, which I founded, became an element of liberty, in breaking the monopoly of state TV. The link between my experience as an entrepreneur and that of a politician is all in one word: freedom. 

TIME: It seems that at least a part of the disputed evidence accusing Saddam Hussein  of seeking uranium in Niger originated with the Italian secret service. Was there political pressure to find proof of weapons of mass destruction? 

BERLUSCONI: There was no political pressure. I had no knowledge of these facts. 

TIME: You supported the war in iraq. If no weapons are found, will the war be considered justified?

BERLUSCONI: First, the war was important to liberate the country from a dictatorship that existed for more than 30 years. Second, I stated in press conferences that weapons of mass destruction would not be found. This is on the basis of logical reasoning. If I was in the position of President Saddam Hussein, I would have made these arms vanish, either by destroying them or sending them out of the country. 

TIME: Then why do Bush and Blair keep insisting that Weapons will eventually be  found?

BERLUSCONI:  Look, I hope we can find them. It would make things much more clear.  But it doesn't seem such an important theme. 

TIME: What do you really think of German tourists?

BERLUSCONI:  Ich bin ein Berliner. 

(OMED: Ever since he first said it, we've carried a statement by Berlusconi on our editorial page.  It is, like his answers above, brilliant and concise.  As you might suspect, it irritated the hell out of American and European "journalists," and stimulated outrage from the liberal-befouled groups, political and cultural, which control most of Europe, these days.  Here, for your enjoyment, is that statement.
 

Speaking of Berlusconi England's Guardian newspaper said, "Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's richest man, its prime minister and foreign minister. He is a populist with endless access to television - after all, he owns most of it, along with slices of virtually every other Italian business "

The only problem with that statement is that it is a bald-faced lie.  Until Berlusconi came along, Italian television was essentially a leftover system from WWII, when a fellow named Mussolini ran the place. Italy's unions, that is to say, communist labor organizations, were very unhappy when Berlusconi introduced free speech to the Italian airwaves.  And, of course, if communists are unhappy about something, all of Europe, the Swedish Nobel committee, America's academic community, Democrat Party and  mainstream media is unhappy about it, as well.)

Original text © 2003 Oregon Magazine  The rest of the text belongs to TIME Magazine. We are not going to charge them for our repair of their original unprofessional  presentation.