Waiting for the Punchline

Although I don't find the Article great, it does mention the important points IMHO.

http://www.heise.de/tp/english/kolumnen/hud/15148/1.html
--snip
Waiting for the Punchline

David Hudson 07.07.2003
The joke was bad, the refusal to apologize worse. But Berlusconi's gaffe may be a symptom of a European disease that's hardly funny at all

Nearly every day, an hour or two before Channel 4's television news broadcast in the UK, anchorman Jon Snow or someone else in the newsroom sends out a brief and breezy edition of Snowmail,"giving you the inside track on what's buzzing in the newsroom." It's a great read. Three or four stories, tops, so when it plops into the inbox, you know that, after a good 15-second skim, you'll have been sufficiently briefed for the hour. Catching up comes later; Snowmail is simply about the bare bones essentials. So when Snow reported on the latest developments in the Berlusconi brouhaha late last week, he was almost apologetic. The story, he wrote, was "irresistible, but stupid."

No question that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's remarks in front of the European Parliament last Wednesday were sensational. What newsie wouldn't be tempted to run with it. Once again, briefly: As things stand, and until a new constitution is finalized and ratified, the presidency of the EU rotates among member countries for six months at a time. Italy took over on July 1 to preside until the end of the year. This alone sparked a bout of justified hand-wringing across the continent so wide-ranging geographically and politically that the Italian daily Corriere della Sera devoted practically a secial edition to what The Economist, a long-time Berlusconi foe, called "international lambasting."

--snap