Io accuso

Just a quick note; I’ve dumped on the _Economist_ a couple of times in the last few weeks, so I should say that it has an excellent “open letter”:http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1939979 to Silvio Berlusconi on its website today, with a detailed dossier on the various legal controversies that Mr. Berlusconi has become embroiled in. I especially recommend the discussion of Berlusconi’s “attempts to smear Romano Prodi”:http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1936286 to Glenn Reynolds, who may wish to revisit this snarky and unpleasant little “post”:http://www.instapundit.com/archives/009356.php#009356 from a couple of months back.

This is something I hope to blog about at greater length sometime in the next few days, as the story develops. Megan McArdle “speculates”:http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/004306.html that the _Economist’s_ dossier will cause “a lot of consternation in Italy.” Sadly, I suspect that it won’t have much political effect. Berlusconi’s disinformation machine which has already described the _Economist_ as a Communist publication (sic) after it published a previous article on his shady dealings, and gotten away with it, seems to be gearing itself up again. His company’s lawyers are “describing”:http://www.repubblica.it/2003/h/sezioni/politica/economist/azionilegali/azionilegali.html the _Economist_ article as “more of an affront to the true facts and journalistic decency than to the honorable Mr. Berlusconi.” Since Berlusconi has a lock on both public and private tv, his people will be able to spin the dossier as an attack on Italy’s national pride rather than the damning litany of facts that it is. More on this as it develops.