theSun | WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14 2009
news without borders
Sarkozy Jr embroiled
in nepotism row
PARIS: The imminent promotion of President
Nicolas Sarkozy’s son to manage France’s
wealthiest business district drew howls of
protest and derision on Monday over the 23-
year-old’s meteoric political rise. Opposition
politicians accused the president of nepo-
tism and charged the “Sarkozy clan” was
tightening its grip on the “treasure chest”
of La Defense, a district west of Paris where
top French firms are headquartered.
Dubbed “Prince Jean” by the press,
undergraduate Jean Sarkozy is in line to
replace the minister for economic recovery,
Patrick Devedjian, as chairman of Epad, the
agency overseeing office development in
La Defense.
The appointment, which is all but certain
to be approved by the agency’s board of
directors in December, would be the latest
boost to Sarkozy Jr’s skyrocketing career.
The younger Sarkozy, who seems to have
inherited his father’s confidence and bold-
ness, dismissed the criticism, saying he was
“very determined, very motivated.”
“Whatever I say, whatever I do, I will be
criticised,” he told Le Parisien newspaper’s
website. “I will always go through this le-
gitimacy trial.”
The blond-haired law student is an elect-
ed councillor in Neuilly, the rich Paris suburb
that catapulted his father to prominence 30
years ago and leads the right-wing majority
in the Hauts-de-Seine regional council.
“We know very well that the Sarkozy
clan wants to get the upper hand on the
Sarkozy Jr
department and the treasure chest that
comes with managing the richest depart-
ment in our country,” said Socialist MP
Manuel Valls.
Home to 2,500 head offices for such
giants as Total and Societe Generale bank,
La Defense employs more than 150,000
people in the complex of skyscrapers on
the western edge of Paris.
An online petition launched by a local
opposition leader calling on Sarkozy Jr to
withdraw his candidacy has gathered more
than 8,200 signatures.
A Twitter feed on the internet drew hun-
dreds of sarcastic comments suggesting,
for instance, that Sarkozy Jr was now ripe
to succeed Ban Ki-moon as UN secretary-
general. Hackers posted a fake job offer on
Epad’s website stating that no experience
was needed to be chairman but that “basic
notions of law” were an asset. – AFP
White House targets Fox
as it goes after press critics
WASHINGTON: The White
House has gone on the offensive
against its critics in the press,
singling out Fox News and go-
ing so far as to accuse the News
Corp-owned network of waging
a “war against Barack Obama.”
White House Communica-
tions Director Anita Dunn has
led the charge, appearing on
CNN television and conducting
interviews with Time magazine
and The New York Times in re-
cent days to make her case.
The unusual White House
campaign comes as President
Obama faces mounting opposi-
tion to his healthcare reforms,
growing concern over the
situation in Afghanistan and a
continuing general economic
malaise.
The president also suffered
a setback recently when his
personal effort to win approval
for Chicago to host the 2016
Olympics was rejected and his
Nobel Peace Prize has met with
more barbs than bouquets.
Speaking of media magnate
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, Dunn
told the Times in an interview
published on Monday: “We’re
going to treat them the way
we would treat an opponent.
As they are undertaking a war
against Barack Obama and the
White House, we don’t need to
pretend that this is the way that
legitimate news organisations
behave,” she said.
In comments just days ear-
lier to Time magazine, Dunn,
a veteran Democratic Party
communications strategist who
joined the White House in May,
denounced Fox as “opinion
journalism masquerading as
news.”
“They are boosting their audi-
ence. But that doesn’t mean we
are going to sit back,” she said.
Appearing on CNN on Sun-
day, Dunn said “the reality of it
is that Fox News often operates
almost as either the research
arm or the communications arm
of the Republican Party.”
9
Dunn said the White House
would not be a “passive by-
stander” as opponents try to
“tear down the president and his
presidency.”
“We will push back,” she
said.
The push back has included
a blog post on WhiteHouse.
gov in which the White House
denounced what it called “Fox
lies” and “an attempt to smear
the administration’s efforts to
win the Olympics for the United
States.”
The White House blog singled
out Glenn Beck, a conserva-
tive talk show host on Fox, for
criticism, saying his programme
“has shown that nothing is wor-
thy of respect if it can be used as
part of a partisan attack to boost
ratings.”
Beck has been a relentless
critic of the Obama administra-
tion and labelled the president
a “racist” in a July appearance
on another Fox programme.
– AFP