Heard on NPR This Morning
11 April 2008
| Peter Klein |
An item on the upcoming Italian elections featured a clip from comedian-activist Beppe Grillo denouncing both leading candidates, former PM Sylvio Berlusconi and former Rome mayor Walter Veltroni. Grillo, according to NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli, “has become the most powerful voice of protest in Italy. His blog is ranked among the 10 most-visited in the world, according to blog search engine Technorati.” I’m quite sure that’s the first time I’ve heard a national news program cite someone’s Technorati ranking as his main qualification!
Also curious: Later in the story Poggioli quotes Franco Ferrarotti, described as “one of Italy’s best-known sociologists.” How often have you heard an academic sociologist quoted in a general-interest news story?
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1.
Caminadella | 11 April 2008 at 10:32 am
Sociologists and comedians are highly respected in Italy.
I am not saying there is a connection between the two things.
2.
Andrea Mangani | 11 April 2008 at 10:35 am
Well , this time the Italians cannot be blamed. From the same website: “The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College in 1968 with a bachelor’s degree in romance languages and literature.” Probably she uses information gathered on the Web…