Still, in the weeks since Macron called the snap election, the Bolloré-linked media have gone into overdrive, increasing content sharing across platforms. A cover story in the influential weekly Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, or JDD — that the group acquired last year — featured a sympathetic interview with the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, with the headline “My ambition for France”. Quotes from the interview were amplified by CNews and radio station Europe 1.

The star anchor of a talk show on Vivendi’s C8 channel, Cyril Hanouna, was given a special daily two-hour political show on the group’s Europe 1 radio. On CNews, a presenter praised the National Rally’s platform that grants the presumption of self-defence to police officers.

Bolloré-linked media are among factors contributing to the rising popularity of Le Pen’s party, said Julien Labarre, author of a study on CNews published in January as part of his doctoral thesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The study found that CNews attracts viewers — even if they only tune in once a week — who are much more likely to be National Rally voters. It concluded that as the most right wing of all French media and the one most supportive of far-right candidates, CNews is directly comparable to Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp’s Fox News in the US. The channel “has the most ideologically radical news audience within the French media ecosystem, and that the pattern is more pronounced with higher frequency of use“, it said.

“[They] have an ideological purpose and a financial purpose,” Labarre said. “What better way to make money than to capture a segment of the population along ideological lines?”

Daily shows on CNews routinely feature political pundits promoting ultra-conservative talking points, with an emphasis on crime and insecurity, especially targeting immigrants, and attacks on Islam. The time spent on such themes gets the channel and other Vivendi media outlets frequent raps on the knuckles from the country’s media regulator.

In the most recent complaint, the watchdog on Friday sent out a formal notice, saying Europe 1 radio treated the left-wing alliance in a critical and pejorative manner, and that the platform lacked “honesty”. In February, France’s highest court asked CNews to respect plurality on the channel, including its commentators. Vivendi’s latest annual report describes incidents of sanctions, proceedings or fines against CNews from the regulator, including for comments “considered to encourage discrimination on religious grounds.”

For Labarre, French media laws — dating back to the 1980s and meant to promote political pluralism — are both obsolete and toothless.

“The fines are laughable,” he said.

For instance, Vivendi’s annual report says CNews was fined €200,000 ($320,000) in 2021 for comments about unaccompanied migrant minors. It lost an appeal in France and is now going to the European Court of Human Rights. In January this year, the regulator fined the channel €50,000 for breach of honesty and accuracy about urban safety.

Vivendi declined to comment for this story.

Bolloré started building his French media empire in 2016, a year before Le Pen lost to Macron in the presidential election. He acquired what would become CNews that year, adding Europe 1 and JDD last year.

The rightward slant of these platforms appears to have boosted their audiences. CNews, which lost money for years, has started to turn a profit and by one measure beat its main competitor BFMTV in May for the first time, with a 2.8 per cent market share, up from 0.7 per cent in 2017. Europe 1, which got declining ratings for years, is seeing its audience growing with the addition of new shows hosted by CNews stars.

The news outlets make up only a small fraction of Vivendi’s globe-spanning media and publishing business, which served to diversify the Bolloré group away from logistics and shipping. The tycoon has a net worth of $US8.4 billion ($12.5 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — with the family holding company owning about 30 per cent of Vivendi.

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Bolloré entered the same segments that at one point gave News Corp its media breadth. He dived into everything from film production and distribution, TV and broadcasting, advertising, newspapers and magazines to books and music. With his outlets’ tendency to support right-wing ideologies and promote conservative ideas, there has been an active tilt toward “God and country”.

His son Yannick says the direction taken by the group’s media units have been good for business. For instance, the younger Bolloré praised the strategy of CNews, whose editorial line he refused to qualify.

“It’s become the No. 1 news channel in France and is now profitable; as a shareholder it is the only metric that you look at,” he said.

Bloomberg

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