Dogs bite. Episode 1: The Editor of La Libre

Accustomed to licking the boots of the men of power, the journalists at the orders⁽¹⁾, lackeys of the finance and the employers, hate when one breaks the false consensus which founds their appearance of legitimacy, and that one reveals those which do not serve for anything other than to ensure the continuity of the established order. 

Thus Dorian de Meeûs, editor-in-chief ofLa Libre Belgique, who feels attacked and defends the indefensible, and thus to bring out the usual clichés:

•  » Journalism is about asking the right questions. However, my dear Dorian, we don’t often hear the right questions, and it’s not La Libre that sends its journalists to ask them at press conferences. Finally, we won’t talk to you here about your bosses, the Le Hodey family, which owns the IPM Group that publishes La Libre, nor about their fortune, it would be perhaps like… :
• …  » to be militant, accusing ministerial collaborators for their professional past, it is shameful « … Besides the fact that for some it is also their « present », your way of thinking says a lot about the way you consider the common good, and therefore also information: a product, like La Libre, which for you and your bosses is a  » brand « ⁽²⁾. You are even incapable of thinking the notion of conflict of interest, so much those of the private and the public are for you not at all opposed, imbricated the ones in the others you do not perceive at all the incestuous logic which lives this mixture. « The bourgeois are like pigs… », said Brel, except that putassery does not always wait for the number of years.
• It is always good to (re-)define words. Shameful. def. Who feels ashamed « . Shame; def. The feeling of guilt or humiliation experienced as a result of a reprehensible or dishonest action or attitude, etc. « It seems indeed, dear Dorian de Meeûs, that you practice a projection on another, me in this case, of what constitutes a shame proper to your behaviors: you are « ashamed », that is to say bearer of a reprehensible and dishonest attitude aiming constantly and with rigor to make believe to the citizens that you inform them in a disinterested way. We’ll let them judge that for themselves.
• … yet, do you tell them that IPM, a group that publishes La Libre, also has interests in : Traxxeo, the specialist of the Internet of Things in the construction sector, manages resources through new technologies that collect data and remotely control the activity of workers, machines, vehicles, equipment? Eiffage, a company working in construction, infrastructure, energy and concessions, which is notably involved in the Brittany-Pays de la Loire high-speed rail line, the extension of line 14 of the Paris metro, the Luma foundation in Arles?

Obviously, the thurifers of the temporal partitioning between the slices of life (private-public), will always tell us that those who have worked to, for example, deploy 5G and internet objects, can later be good ministers to the service of the common good… and not 5G (even if they won’t say never, accustomed to circumlocutions, that they are « against »). They could move from KPN to Philippe de Backer’s firm, Minister of the « digital agenda » (sic), without to remember their first love. Radical cut, hermeticism to any test. 

• So, IPM still has a stake in Curador (25%): Belgian online pharmacy. Here, the pharmacy… conflict of interest when it comes to informing Belgians about Covid-19, vaccines, « deconfinement »… No, that would be conspiracy, wouldn’t it?

• In addition to Traxxeo and Eiffage, IPM is also Veolia, Engie-Electrabel, Besix. What is Besix?  » BESIX Contracting is specialized in the realization of construction, infrastructure and maritime works which are often distinguished by their complexity . We is there?…
• … not yet: there is also BAM, market of the Belgian construction industry, bringing together numerous Belgian companies and Luxembourg; CFE, listed on Euronext Brussels, is a Belgian industrial group, active in the sectors of dredging, marine construction and environment, Contracting and Real Estate Development. The group is present worldwide; …

• .… and La Libre! Between the internet of things, construction, dredging, it’s not bad to own a media (well several, because there is still DH/Les Sports, DH Radio, Paris MatchBelgium, 13% stake in the Belgaagency…). Well, it doesn’t pay like the rest, but it allows to control the minds, and that’s important when you want to avoid the revolt and continue to make money. Quantième fortune your bosses Dorian? 410th Belgian fortune (35.841.000€), according to my last research. You speak of « shame » Mr. de Meeûs? Others will judge which side she is on.
• … let’s remember that the greatest shame is certainly the one we avoid. You know it well, no, with the « Financité affair », media censorship which was the subject of a press release, the most read in the editorial offices of the whole history of the periodical that you have been inserting in La Libre for 12 years… and the least shared. So the most you. What is the Financité scandal?

The « Financité » scandal, or the censorship that must not be known

La Libre, which is not very intrusive on the written productions of Financité, a quarterly that has been part of the daily newspaper for 12 years, will do an about-face as soon as the magazine starts to get to the root of the problems, to talk about inequality, and to talk not about the poor (which the rich love), but about the rich themselves (which the rich hate). 

« We cannot accept, especially in the readers’ mail where we talk about inequalities, someone who says he is disgusted to see the gap between the incomes of the bosses and those of the workers »

Message from the editorial staff of La Libre to the editorial staff of Financité

And you, Dorian de Meeûs, you will speak to me of conflicts interests that would be some kind of whim of a journalist  » unworthy of having a press card « ? Dare to denounce a character whose institution participates in the funding of nuclear weapons, but « unfortunately », is also a member of the Board of Directors of the newspaper, all this is indeed beyond the understanding of shareholders. The rest is up to the rider. 

So,  » All suspects? All corrupt « ? Suspect, Def. Who arouses suspicion « . Corrupt, Def. Low, bad, vile, dirty, venal, sold… ». Reading the definitions of the terms you use, I would point out that unfortunately not all of them are suspect, on the contrary, most of them still enjoy the image of servants of the public good, but all, or almost all, are corrupt. But is all this surprising, when we know that Pierre Rion, who joined the board of IMP Group in 2015, Walloon « Serial entrepreneur », said:  » A good citizen must be a money pump that makes the economy go round « ⁽³⁾.

And finally, stop talking about « the Belgians ». Talk about a type of Belgians, these guys who could do anything as well as being French, Swiss, or German… these stateless people, Homeless by profession⁽⁴⁾, without financial difficulties and without the wealth of which is directly responsible for the misery, fond of shareholder dividends and shares charities, dipping one hand into the media to distribute a few crumbs of a booty they stole from the people. 

So, certainly, Mr. de Meeûs, at least one thing is true in your babble:  » we do not do the same job « . And I would add: we don’t live in the same world.