The core of Sunday's "Itogi" ("Results")
programme of the TVS channel was a 20-minutes interview with Grigory
Yavlinsky.
"Itogi" is repeated on Monday morning. I wanted to
see if the interview had been shortened [in the Monday broadcast],
as Yavlinsky spoke very sharply about the leaders of the Union
of Right-Wing Forces (SPS), on criminal privatisation and electricity
sector reform. Most importantly Kiselyov (anchor and author of
"Itogi") conducted the poll among viewers in a live
broadcast and obtained a result , which surprised him, was bad
for the SPS and disastrous for Nemtsov.
As one of the co-chairmen of the SPS is at the same time co-owner
of the TVS channel (Ed. the channel that the former NTV team joined
after the scandal following the change of owners of the NTV channel,
to preserve the team of journalists famous for unrestrained freedom
of speech) these developments were in breach of his interests.
It would only be natural if he decided to cut the material.
But I was wrong. There were no cuts all. The whole of
the interview with Yavlinsky was removed from the morning version
of "Itogi", together with the results of the poll of the viewers.
We finally saw an obvious case of censorship.
And the censor was neither the Kremlin nor the Duma... The censor
turned out to be an economic, or rather bossy character.
A journalist will never throw away interesting fragments. If
the material is too big in time (for TV) or in size (for a paper),
the dullest pieces are thrown away. "Itogi" has always had a surfeit
of such material.
But they threw away the most interesting pieces. In other words
this was the will of the master. Now we shall see whether the
team of journalists of the TVS channel recognizes their master's
censorship or will lie and disengage themselves, once again with
the loss of freedom of speech (they have had such an experience
already).
So what exactly did the censor object to?
Kiselyov asked: will YABLOKO make a coalition
with the SPS?
Yavlinsky answered that he would fight for
voters, but would not enter into a coalition with a party, whose
leadership is responsible for the creation of a criminal economy
[in Russia].
Then the anchor of "Itogi" proposed asking TV viewers: whether
they would welcome a union between the democrats (meaning YABLOKO
+ SPS)?
The result:
1.887 - for the union
2.660 - against.
This is a very important result. This means that if they engaged
in a coalition to win votes, they would lose more than they would
gain. Moreover they would lose dedicated allies and gain unstable
new voters, who would then drop them with the same ease.
Prior to the interview with Yavlinsky, "Itogi" broadcast the
congress of the Union of Right-Wing Forces, where Nemtsov said
the following,
"The chances of a coalition with YABLOKO are extremely
low. But we would like to go along this way to
the end, so that we could later say to our supporters, "Friends,
we have done all we could to create a coalition. But unfortunately
our partners are extremely ambitious and think only about themselves."
Was Nemtsov sincere in his desire to create a "coalition"? No,
he is pretending here. He is cynical and imitates intention for
the sake of votes. He uses the topic of an alliance to portray
himself as the good guy and Yavlinsky as the bad guy. He reiterates
his "partner's" ambitions and egotism. But if you honestly wanted
such a union, you would not publicly defame your desired ally
everywhere, unless insults and mockery represent the "whole way
by the end"?
For Nemtsov the coalition would be fatal. If the SPS and YABLOKO
entered into an alliance, it would become necessary to identify
a single leader at the forthcoming elections. Here the same "Itogi"
programme buried a union that had already been a sandcastle.
Either out of a desire to smooth unpleasant result of the poll
for the, or wishing to put in his place his "extremely ambitious"
guest, Kiselyov asked viewers the following question: "If the
alliance were to happen, who should be the single candidate: Nemtsov?
Yavlinsky? Someone else?"
The result:
Nemtsov - 420
Yavlinsky - 3.372
Someone else - 582
And that's it. This topic does not require any further discussion.
Nemtsov has tried everything [to raise his rating]: pulled himself
up the horizontal bar, got arrested in Belarus, almost reached
the theatre taken by terrorists and almost switched bureaucrats
to "Volgas" (Ed. Russian automobiles) [from foreign cars] - it
is difficult to recollect all these occasions.
But all this has not helped. He has even had to cut a news-and-analytical
programme. And so radically!
Saying good-bye to Kiselyov in the live broadcast, Yavlinsky
predicted,
- You will be reprimanded for such questions.
- By whom? - the anchor feigned innocence.
...Yavlinsky will not be invited on live broadcasts any more.
This means that the TVS channel will, as always, pamper us with
Zhirinovsky, Shandybin, Mitrofanov, fools and hooligans - they
are good both for ratings and do not encroach on the right-wing
electorate.
See also:
YABLOKO and
SPS
Elections to the
State Duma, 2003
Presidential Elections
2004 |
