Michele Santoro, more than a journalist or presenter, was a great leader of the small screen. Crazy talent, biased and passionate, clever and unscrupulous. Very popular, very loved, very hated: his broadcasts – for years – garnered enormous ratings and sparked heated controversies, because either you were with Michele or against Michele, but then everyone still had to see Michele, and hear, even if at a certain point the programs became rallies full of populism, the first real populism of our TV. Which, however, became legendary because it had a meaning, a final purpose. Right or wrong, it was clear he had it. For this reason, Michele’s comments and his appearances in the talks now trigger a certain amount of bitterness. Partly because of the time that passes, with wrinkles and hair no longer that beautiful mahogany red. But much more because Michele seems like a parody of himself.
A Buffalo Bill performing for nostalgic or just curious spectators, who stop to look at someone who shouts, purple: «Journalism has been reduced to describing Putin as a monster and a liar! Instead he is not a monster and doesn’t always tell lies!
Michael, really? Michele, but why? Because he started making political propaganda, imbued with demagogic pacifism, to his list for the European elections (candidates Vauro and Odifreddi, plus the support of Jo Squillo), a list called “Pace Terra Dignità”, which means everything and means nothing, or perhaps it just means that Michele doesn’t give up, doesn’t give up resigned to the fact that they no longer give him a program, because there is a time for everything, because that’s life, and even Totti, who was Totti, by hook or by crook, in the end realized that he couldn’t play anymore football. Michele instead stubbornly tries to get back on his horse and tries to set off again in a tragic gallop. Even Buffalo Bill, after a season as a formidable explorer and buffalo hunter, ended up performing in circus arenas, with shows in which he pretended to still be on the American prairies. He even brought his show – Wild West Show – to Rome. Where, on 8 March 1890, he lost the famous challenge in the taming of colts against the butteri who arrived from Cisterna di Latina, led by a certain Augusto Imperiali. Dear Michele, think about it.
