Manipulating the media – a Christmas fairy tale

Yet again the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has proved himself a supremo at hogging the news agenda here in France and deflecting the headlines away from what maybe really should matter.

This time it’s his affairs of the heart that are once more all over the front pages of the national press.

But the lady at the centre of today’s media maelstrom is not the much-touted French television journalist, Laurence Ferrari, with whom Sarkozy had been spotted enjoying cosy tête-à-tête dinners in recent months, but former top model turned chanteuse, Carla Bruni.

The two were photographed over the weekend enjoying the attractions of a visit to Euro Disney – much in keeping with Sarkozy’s penchant for mainstream culture.

Odd though, that in a country which usually shies away from reporting the private lives of public figures – especially political ones – that the Sarkozy-Bruni story should make such a splash.

Could there be just a smidgeon of media manipulation going on?

After all, Sarkozy has regularly insisted – most notably when it has suited him – that his private life should be of no interest to anyone else other than himself.

As if to underline that point just a few months ago when the persistent rumours of a possible split with his former wife Cecilia were rife, he even stormed out of an interview with an American television programme, when the subject was broached.

Sarkophrenic behaviour - as one journalist has termed his sometimes seemingly contradictory reaction – as a few days later he confirmed that indeed he and the enigmatic Cecilia were divorcing.

Interestingly, although not surprisingly perhaps, that announcement came on the very day that the transport workers launched their first national day of (in)action. No prizes for guessing what made the biggest impact on the front pages and prime time news.

So let’s turn back to Sarkozy-Bruni’s day out. How much of a scoop is the story?

Well it was no long-lens stuff. The “official” paparazzi had clearly been forewarned and although there were no shots of the pair smooching, the happy couple didn’t exactly try to scarper from the cameras.

In fact it was almost as though they had themselves chosen a very public place in which to be photographed.

Of course there’s been no official comment from the president’s spokesman – which is enough to set the rumour mill into overdrive at the best of times.

But this time around, unlike the recent speculation that Sarkozy was dating Ferrari, all the national dailies have full colours photographs plastered over their front pages. And radio and television bulletins are all leading on only one issue.

So it must be true and even the warbling 39-year-old Bruni – no stranger to the front pages of the glossies herself – has reportedly confirmed the rumours to the editor of one of the leading weekly news magazines.

Whether it’s the simple truth or mere speculation really doesn’t matter. In spite of their normal reticence to report private affairs, the French media has shown itself more than willing to jump at the chance of a truly grand story.

And what better way for Sarkozy to ward off criticism after the five-day visit of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, or the lack of promised funding to provide emergency housing for the homeless, or the faltering progress of the French economy, or……or…..or.

Far better to provide the country with a feel-good photo-op in the run-up to Christmas.

We await the first official fairytale kiss with baited breath.