To laugh and cry

There are a couple of horrific details in the Bari investigation on prostitution and drugs, which involves the President of the Council. One will makes you laugh while the other will makes you want to cry. What'll makes you laugh is a particular narrated by Patrizia D'Addario, the girl who told to have been invited twice in the private residence of the premier.

According to the description of these visits in addition to her there were 20 other girls, so that she thought that looked like a harem. Berlusconi had an heavy make up and that we could imagine. After a bit of gossip the evening continued with the screening of more than one hour of filming of Berlusconi with Bush, at the G8, in the election campaign. "It was painful, boring" said the girl to newspapers in Italy and abroad. This is the particular that makes you laugh.
But how, our beloved Prime Minister who cares so much about his reputation as a seducer invites 20 young girls at home and keep them more than an hour seeing filming of himself? But why? He could have done best resorting to the classic collection of butterflies, especially when studded with precious stones such as those that, according to many girls, the premier loves to give to his female guests. After the film follows the choir of the party's song "Thank goodness there is Silvio" sung by the girls that even run a short choreography with their arms.
We are at a level of personality cult that could embarrass even the "dear leader" of North Korea Kim Jong-Il.
Patrizia D'Addario stated that the other girls took 500 euros a head to attend the evening. But that not seem a sufficient payment for having to bear the filming and the choir.
The rest of the story is well known, the girl said she danced with the premier, but did not stop for the night, unlike the next time, where after the usual films, choir and various gifts she stayed for the night, and also recorded a conversation in which the premier says she must wait for him in bed. The next morning they made breakfast together, and Berlusconi promised to aid her to get permits to build an apartment hotel on a land of her family. But the promise wasn't kept and so the D'Addario, feeling betrayed, decided to reveal everything. Apart from the fact that a little she should had it coming, because Berlusconi is not used to keep promises made to Italian citizens, and even to those abroad, it seems a bit pointless to tell this story as it appeared on many sites and many newspapers yet and then all Italy should know it.
But if you have recently seen only Mediaset, Rai Uno and Rai Due probably you dont' know anything.
And in fact on this particular story what will makes you cry it's the director of Tg1, Italy most important state television news, which appears in the first evening newscast to explain why the main public network has not told this story to the people who pay the television tax. The director explained that investigative assumptions, public trials and media rumors are not the kind of public information that he has promised to viewers.
It makes one wonder what his concept of journalism is. Obviously a different concept than the one of free press around the world. A concept very different from those who think that the facts should be reported, maybe without expressing opinions on the matter. And the investigation of Bari on prostitution and drugs is an investigation by the judiciary on concrete cases of crime, is not an assumption as if someone had woken up one morning to write a fantastic story. And the statements of Patrizia D'Addario and other girls have been made to prosecutors and the press, they aren't just gossip in the market.
But even if they would be gossip in the countries where there is really a free press journalists always relate stories that may have public interest, exercising rather the necessary caution in the absence of verified information. But what they certainly don't do is ignore them and hide them. Because what a politician does is always in the public interest, especially if he always used the image of his happy family and his fidelity to Catholic morality as a means of electoral propaganda. Besides here in Italy, where the facts are always presented as opinions, we must be careful: the premier, his lawyer and his spokesmen did not exactly deny that such meetings with girls took place. And why not? because one cannot deny what is certified with images and recordings. So if you cannot deny on the unified television networks, you need to hide the facts in the television networks. And that's left to the employees of the premier in private and public TV. Because in the end it is pointless to hide behind a finger. The director of Tg1 was appointed by the government to do exactly what he is doing. Something that you can call in many ways, but certainly not journalism, and even less public service information.