Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informative reading.

When one follows the Greek crisis and compares the references made to it on foreign and Greek television channels, one will find that the former focus on the causes, nature, extent and consequences of the crisis and on how it could be solved, while the latter devote whole hours to mainly procedural and pointless issues, or to exhausting quarrels.

So they argue in the little television windows about whether two or three representatives of Charilaou Trikoupi went to Syngrou, whether that was right, whether Samaras had been notified, whether Papoulias knew, whether they should first have gone to Papoulias, whether Papandreou should resign first and then the new government be formed or the reverse, and many other such impressive matters. It is as if a kiosk owner were fighting with his customer over whether he should first pay and then take the newspaper, or first take the newspaper and then pay. And the outbursts of the television regulars come thick and fast, until you feel nausea. We are not saying these matters should not be mentioned, but the whole news bulletin should not be occupied with “analyses” and disputes “over the shadow of a donkey.”

Conspicuously absent is any focus on Greece’s massive problem, which is the urgent need to reform the system so that growth is promoted, or at least so that the countless obstacles holding it back are pushed aside. They are anxious and troubled about many things, yet only one thing is needed.

But perhaps this is how the average television viewer wants the news bulletin. Because, as we know, what the channels will show and how they will show it is decided by the god of ratings. It seems, then, that the Greek viewer watches the news as he watches football, that is, as a spectacle. He is not interested in the substance, but in who will shout more, who will be insulted and who will be humiliated. The most popular news bulletin would undoubtedly be the one where one television regular stands up and slaps another; then you would see ratings, the computers would catch fire. Let us not forget that we are one of the few countries in the world, personally I know no other, where crowds flock to the courts to entertain themselves by watching trials.

The result is that we have news bulletins without international news, not even European news, of course with no comments, reports or interest in Hellenism outside Greece, not even in Cyprus, and only with gossip about what every politician did and said, with the familiar television regulars arguing about which reheated talking points are best. Malicious tongues say that the more they bark, the better they are paid, or the more often they are invited, if their contribution to this sacred purpose is for glory and not for money. We are no longer speaking of news, but of a show, and indeed a petty one.

And here I will agree with Papoulias, who said that the crisis is deeply political and even more deeply cultural.