Sex, politics and video: An actual media war is raging in France between the right-wing broadcaster CNews and the public broadcaster.
02/11/2026, 05:4802/11/2026, 05:48
Stefan Brändle, Paris / ch media
They are called BFM, CNews, LCI or France-Info: half a dozen live channels are now the most important source of information for many French people. The most successful of these channels, which run around the clock in many households, has recently become CNews. It attracts nine million viewers every day and polarizes the far right. Media experts call it the “low-cost version of the American channel Fox News”.
Must go to CNews: Jean-Marc MorandiniImage: imago
CNews is owned by the Breton businessman and media fraudster Vincent Bolloré (73). He describes himself as a “Catholic-conservative” and has nothing against the label “reactionary”. CNews consists primarily of cheaply produced talk shows. With the special feature that it is not the invited guests who set the tone, but spokesmen from the editorial team. The discussions usually revolve around topics such as abortion, crime or “Arab-Muslim” immigration. Even harmless discussions about bed bugs, for example, usually drift away when star presenter Pascal Praud asks whether the discussion is based on a hygiene problem among immigrants.
The French media regulator Arcom has already fined CNews several times for various misconduct. Last September, the Bolloré broadcaster was able to temporarily turn the tide when a video was leaked to it. It shows two well-known public radio journalists, Thomas Legrand and Patrick Cohen, having an intimate conversation with two socialist party cadres. The quartet discusses how the public radio station France-Inter should report on the upcoming municipal elections. Legrand promises the Socialists that he will “take care” of the conservative candidate Rachida Dati.
CNews exploited the video for days. Under pressure from the right, the National Assembly ordered a commission of inquiry. The hearing of the star presenter of France-2, Léa Salamé, ended badly for her: the very professional journalist had to announce that she would resign if her long-time partner Raphaël Glucksmann ran as the presidential candidate of the left-wing party Place Publique in a year.
Job profile with nude photos
But CNews didn’t rejoice for long. In mid-January, its most sharp-tongued presenter, Jean-Marc Morandini, was given a suspended prison sentence. According to the verdict, he had “corrupted” young women and a man by harassing them with sexual messages or promising them a television job in exchange for nude photos.
Morandini is a figurehead for CNews; He did not shy away from polemics and drove up ratings with his excited reports of rapes and assassinations by North Africans. After his conviction, several CNews stars such as Pascal Praud and Laurence Ferrari distanced themselves from him. Bolloré received the legally convicted man and gave him his blessing.
At the weekend, another, more moderate star journalist from CNews, Sonia Mabrouk, resigned expressly because of Morandini. Even politically friendly MPs from Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN) refused to appear at Morandini’s event.
Presenter Sonia Mabrouk.Image: imago
On Monday, Bolloré finally dropped him. The 60-year-old polemicist had to declare his withdrawal from the screen via a communiqué. CNews has lost two of its most important voices in one fell swoop. And Bolloré claims to want to teach lessons to the supposedly left-wing radio. (aargauerzeitung.ch)