Transcribe Cyril Hanouna's "Touche pas à mon poste" program every day for four months?
This is what CNRS researcher Claire Sécail did.
Since September, this media historian has been studying how C8's entertainment program deals with the presidential election.
"The research question was a bit obvious for the case of CNews, and it seemed interesting to me to know what was happening on another channel of the Bolloré group, a channel that does not specifically deal with politics, like C8", explains the researcher. In her notebook, she notes the topics of the day, the speakers, the columnists. And very quickly notices an overmediatization of the far right: between September and December 2021, 52.9% of political airtime was devoted to far-right candidates, compared to only 22.9% for representatives of the presidential majority.
Within the far right itself, this interest mainly benefits the candidate Zemmour: while the latter only formalized his candidacy on November 30, 2021, he alone occupies 44.7% of the political airtime of “ Do not touch my post, ”notes Claire Sécail in her study made public on January 26.
His work does not only concern the time devoted to Éric Zemmour, but also the way in which we talk about him.
A “very favorable” treatment, according to his research: “It is a program that greatly values the figure of the victim, and that is logical with the way Eric Zemmour has of permanently victimizing himself”.
She also notes a form of "depoliticization" of the far right in the show, through the angles chosen.
“TPMP is very interested in media performance.
It is a form of depoliticization to approach political questions always from the angle: “Did his meeting succeed?
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This overrepresentation of the extreme right had already been noted by Anasse Kazib, candidate of the “Permanent Revolution” party in the presidential election.
In a video posted on his Twitter account, he deplored "Zemmour propaganda" within a program originally devoted to entertainment.
Invited on the Cyril Hanouna set to discuss it, the host defended himself: “We talk about the news.
It happens that Éric Zemmour, every evening, he has a news.
If the columnists of the show regularly repeat their deep disagreement with the candidate "Reconquest", Claire Sécail recalls that "the fact that we centralize Éric Zemmour, even if we criticize him, will benefit him".
The C8 channel did not wish to answer our questions, but Cyril Hanouna justified himself on the air, recalling the huge audiences of the programs devoted to the far-right candidate.
Claire Sécail's first conclusions relate to the pre-campaign period.
Since January, the researcher notes that the show has welcomed more personalities from different political currents, as the CSA requires during election campaigns.
