The blatant partiality of the Berlusconi networks has to be seen to be believed. Emilio Fede, the news anchorman of Rete 4, boasts on and off the air of his loyalty to his paymaster. Fede wept with joy after Berlusconi's 1994 election victory and insisted he would leave the country if the "communists" won the election of 1996. In one of his 1996 election broadcasts, he led the nightly news with eight and a half minutes of a Berlusconi campaign rally; it may as well have been an infomercial. This was then followed by a minute and a half segment on Massimo D'Alema, the secretary of the Left Democrats, who was shown at a Bari fish market discussing various kinds of fish.

When Berlusconi became prime minister in the spring of 1994, the conflicts of interest multiplied. Almost immediately, the only two issues to which he paid any real attention were those that most deeply affected his personal interests: television and criminal justice. In the latter realm, he appointed his personal lawyer, Cesare Previti, as Defense Minister. Then he removed the board of directors of RAI, the state television corporation, and replaced the news directors of all three state networks with pro-Berlusconi people, in some cases former Berlusconi employees.

In the seven months of Berlusconi's prime ministership in 1994, his problems with the criminal justice system virtually paralyzed the country. In July of 1994, during the Operation Clean Hands campaign, when numerous investigations were launched against corruption in business and political circles, prosecutors in Milan moved to arrest Paolo Berlusconi, who had admitted paying out numerous bribes. Brother Silvio suddenly introduced a government decree that would have made it nearly impossible to arrest anyone for white-collar crimes, and, almost overnight, many of the politicians arrested in Operation Clean Hands were released from jail. Known as the Decreto Salva-Ladri, the "Save the Thieves Decree," the move caused a popular revolt, and Berlusconi was forced to withdraw it. His shaky government coalition collapsed after he himself was indicted for bribery in November 1994.

The tragicomic seven-month experiment of Berlusconi government might have shown the impossibility of having a media giant/criminal defendant in politics, but it did not end Berlusconi's career. Every time his vital interests are at stake, he has shown just how powerful videocracy can be. "The conflict of interest means that the government is under continual blackmail," says Mauro Paissan, a Green Party member of Parliament. "His being in politics is a kind of life insurance: Any move to regulate or investigate his companies is seen as a political attack."

In 1995 Berlusconi faced his most significant challenge to date: a national referendum that would have limited him to owning one national network. His Fininvest networks pulled out all the stops to attack the referendum. Weepy game-show hosts waved goodbye to their viewers suggesting that they might soon be off the air. Before broadcasting films, the Fininvest networks warned viewers that they would no longer be able to see movies on TV if the referendum succeeded. The referendum went down to defeat, although the company was cited for producing ads that were inaccurate and misleading.

Though Berlusconi lost the 1996 elections--by a narrow margin--he has been able to use the political process to gain parliamentary immunity for those business associates who are most vulnerable to arrest for corruption and in the best position to implicate him. One of the most glaring examples was the election of a company lawyer named Massimo Berruti, who is believed to have participated in the cover-up of bribes paid to tax inspectors who were supposed to audit Berlusconi's companies.

In another case, Parliament turned down a request from prosecutors in Palermo to arrest Berlusconi's campaign manager and Forza Italia MP Marcello Dell'Utri. Numerous Mafia witnesses have testified that Dell'Utri was the conduit for Mafia investments in several of Berlusconi's early real estate projects. While the Mafia charges have not yet been proven, Dell'Utri has been convicted in another case of falsifying company records to hide political slush-funds. In case the Italian Parliament changes its mind, Dell'Utri has now gained double immunity by getting himself elected to the European Parliament as well.

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