"I'm not a slut, I'm a journalist" makes more and more noise.
Before, during and after its broadcast, this Sunday at 6 p.m. on Canal +.
This documentary by Marie Portolano, a long time sports journalist at Canal, and who has just joined M6, after showing his support for Sébastien Thoen, the comedian fired from Canal for having parodied "The hour of the pros", gives voice to women.
Exclusively women, from Estelle Denis and Nathalie Iannetta to the new generation, who all tell stories of ordinary sexism or more serious facts in the exercise of their profession.
But this Sunday, the LesJours.fr site revealed that important scenes had been cut during the editing at the request of the management of the chain's sports department.
Information that we are able to confirm.
LesJours.fr tells in particular that if Marie Portolano had the idea of this documentary, it is because she had herself been the victim of the sexism of Pierre Ménès, star columnist of the "Canal Football Club" ("CFC") .
He had accepted a discussion
During a program in 2016, off the air but in the presence of the audience in tiers, it would have lifted the journalist's dress and grabbed her buttocks.
He would also have, several years earlier, in the same show, forced Isabelle Moreau, then co-presenter, to a long kiss on the mouth during a birthday of the "CFC".
A joke, he said, at the time.
Not according to her.
One thing is certain: in the initial version of "I am not a slut, I am a journalist", Pierre Ménès had accepted a discussion with Marie Portolano in front of the cameras.
Many, internally, had access to this first cut, which also included an interview with Hervé Mathoux, historical presenter of the "Canal Football Club", where the latter, as an observer, recognized that things, today, do not. would spend more.
A third male journalist had been registered, and a fourth had given his consent.
Marie Portolano had conducted these interviews to give the floor to emblematic male speakers of sports journalism.
Sports journalist Pierre Ménès in March 2019. LP / Icon Sport / Anthony Dibon
This film, a lot of people saw it on Canal +, but no viewer.
Officially, the sports department, after viewing, would have decided that the documentary was stronger by giving full voice to women and nothing to women.
Editing work like this is practiced in all newsrooms, depending on the channel.
In reality, according to several internal sources, it is more a question of censorship and a desire to protect Pierre Ménès.
The other men interviewed would have been cut during the editing to give the impression of a real editorial choice.
The person did not ask for anything
However, according to our information, Pierre Ménès was in no way disturbed by his participation in the documentary.
He did not ask to be cut during the editing, especially since his exchange with Marie Portolano was, it seems, nothing aggressive.
Rather two positions, even two worlds which do not share the same point of view, far from it, on sexism and machismo, but discuss it.
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If he does not want to react, Pierre Ménès is someone who generally assumes his words.
He claims, of course, in this non-broadcast version, to have "forgotten" the scene of the dress.
However, according to several sources, Marie Portolano would have returned to him at the time a slap in the face, even a real "bread", as LesJours.fr says or a "fist in the mouth", according to a witness at the time.
Something that is generally remembered.
The main thing is the word of women which has been fully respected by @canalplus Please do not forget it.
Kisses to everyone and EVERYONE 😂❤️
- marie portolano (@marieportolano) March 21, 2021
Has Canal + refused any wave, in the midst of the #MeToo era which is sweeping through sport after having burst into cinema?
"We will not comment," responds the encrypted channel, referring to the tweet published by Marie Portolano this Sunday evening: "The main thing is the voice of women which has been fully respected by Canal +.
Please don't forget it.
Kisses to everyone ”, with two smileys, a heart and a“ laughing ”emoticon.
Words of appeasement and a laugh that show that the journalist is certainly not fooled by this bitter comedy.
Because at the sports service of Canal +, which produced this documentary, the atmosphere is still "nightmarish" since the dismissal of Sébastien Thoen then of the flagship commentator Stéphane Guy who had greeted his departure on the air.
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A blacklist of around thirty people who supported the comedian had been established, including Marie Portolano.
The latter preferred to go on M6.
She obviously does not want to add more.
After all, her film about sexism has been released.
He exudes relentless power.
Which could have been even more devastating in the version she had defended.
But at Canal +, we do not touch a hair of a star.
Whether she lifted a woman's skirt without her consent or not.