Coronavirus, spread slows. News less pessimistic. Eurispes-CoRiS Sapienza Television News Observatory’s Report
Covid-19: the infection slows down, prime time rejoices. Ok to budget variance; Tg3 and Tg5: “Berlusconi’s line passes”. Maradona’s farewell “scores” 27 headlines.
News from 23 to 27 of November – Reporting on the pandemic still dominates the evening news, with mandatory openings for the Monday, Tuesday and Friday editions. The slowdown in contagions, with the long-awaited drop in the curve of positives and patients in intensive care, allows prime time to offer a less pessimistic reading on Monday on the progress of the Covid-19 war, which is confirmed on Friday with the announced change of colour for many regions. The tones are thus becoming more reassuring, despite the high number of victims, which again on Monday exceeded the 50,000 mark since the start of the pandemic. The high mortality rate of the epidemic in our country nevertheless remains the focus of attention for Tg5 and Tg La7, with Mentana covering it both Tuesday and Friday.
As was the case the previous week, politics returns powerfully in the lineups, taking a quarter of the headlines. The scene is dominated by the “pacification” reached between majority and opposition, with Thursday’s bipartisan vote on the budget variance. Headlines for all and opening for Tg4, with numerous political leaders interviewed by the main newspapers: Salvini on Tg1, Conte on Tg5 and Zingaretti on Tg3; the Pd secretary reiterates that the episode does not constitute the basis for a government reshuffle. In dealing with this rapprochement, it is singular that both Tg5 and Tg3 emphasise how “Berlusconi’s line” (also taken up by Tg1 and Tg La7) has passed, while for Tg4 and Tg2 it is the “united centre-right” that has triumphed. Attention remains high on the Mes front, framed by Tg La7 but also by Tg4.
In mid-week, the sudden death of Diego Armando Maradona took centre stage. The death of the absolute champion of world football, one of the symbols of the redemption of the South of the world and a myth for Naples, overturned the prime time schedules, obtaining, between Wednesday and Friday, 9 openings (single headlines for Tg3 and Tg2) and 27 headlines. For some media, the news took up to 3 headlines per edition, divided between the events in Argentina, the condolences of the Neapolitan fans and the analysis of a figure made “mythical” both by his triumphs and by the evidence of his fragility.
For Tg2 Trump “concedes” victory. Iran and the Regeni case, Tg La7 focuses on the Middle East front. Calabria odyssey, Longo appointed.
The foreign affairs page deals with Trump’s first concessions who, while not renouncing legal battles, gives “green light” (Tg2) to Biden’s succession. Studio Aperto and Tg4 broadcast the League’s appeal to the European authorities for intervention, so far denied, in the case of the fishermen kidnapped in Libya by Haftar’s forces. On the Middle East front, Friday’s Tg La7 headlines (together with Tg3) on the killing – probably by the Israeli services – of the Iranian scientist in charge of the nuclear programme; the director, Enrico Mentana, makes a very harsh comment on Israeli actions. Also on Friday, Tg La7 headlines an important new development in the investigation into the death of Giulio Regeni, which would nail the al-Sisi regime to its direct responsibility in the kidnapping and death of the young man.
Tg4 returns on Friday to open up on the Calabrian health “chaos”, while the other news outlets welcome the appointment of Prefect Guido Longo as Commissioner. Studio Aperto, Tg4, Tg5, and Tg La7 also headline the arrest of Roberto Recordare, a businessman under investigation for money laundering by the public prosecutor’s office in Calabria and suspected of being the «economic mind of ’Ndrangheta, Camorra, and Cosa Nostra», and of having managed funds worth as much as 500 billion euro for the mafias in the last decade.
