From the Press to the Polls and the Parliament

After yesterday’s Greek government reshuffle, no less than six ex journalists will occupy ministerial roles in the new bi-partisan cabinet under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. It would have been seven if one of them hadn’t turn down the opportunity offered to her.

And I can recall at least three more MP’s in the current Greek Parliament who used to be professional journalists before they decide to drop the art of headline writing in the name of headline making…So, at least 10 out of 300 MP’s have worked as journalists in the past and 70% of those have been assigned senior Ministerial positions.

As an ex journalist myself, I should be delighted about this tremendous ability of Greek journalists and their appeal amongst the electorate, for, who knows, one day I may also become an elected official for my country.  Do not despair people, I have a day job!

But on a more serious note now, this observation says much about a Greek society which for decades has been brainwashed by the media into believing that our elected officials mirror the people of the country. In other words, we can only get what we deserve in terms of the quality of our leaders.

So, by the media’s own admission, journalists are nothing but an average-intelligence, corruption-prone, self-centered and egocentric bunch, whose only interest is anything else other than serving the people who vote for them.

I have tried to google ‘journalists turned politicians’ to be able to compare Greece with other countries but got little to no results, which makes me think that this is a phenomenon and a privilege mainly reserved for the demagogic demographic of Greek journalists.

If anything, this propensity to politics, demonstrates one more, well known fact, which mostly goes unnoticed; the bias and lack of impartiality in how political news are portrayed by the various journalists who have clear political aspirations and party allegiances.

One Greek National TV reporter who covers the Socialist Party reportage comes to mind as he was a candidate during the June 2012 elections – he failed to be elected – and he continues to cover the beat of the same party from the now illegal channel.

Shame, because had his campaign been successful, I would have had a really catchy headline for this post: “The ELLEVENTH PLAGUE”