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ER Editor: Are the French belatedly getting their BBC Moment, i.e. learning about massive corruption in public broadcasting?
We don’t know if talented and popular entertainer Patrick Sebastien is still around and speaking for himself, or if, guilty of something under EO 13818, he would be arrested or worse. There are so many doppelgangers out there. Either way, the French are getting a very long teachable moment over their media culture. And Sebastien is stepping into the spotlight to help create it.
From a few days ago —
Patrick Sébastien will finally be heard by the public broadcasting inquiry committee
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A public inquiry into the financing and workings of French public broadcasting was launched last November, 2025. Via European Conservative —
A parliamentary inquiry is now targeting France Télévisions and Radio France, the French public broadcasting and radio services. The aim is to determine whether there have been any breaches in financial management or in the ideological orientation of their programmes. The initial findings of the inquiry are damning for the executive teams—but the mainstream media, seemingly uninterested in doing their job, are currently maintaining a cautious silence in the face of these conclusions.
A commission has been officially appointed to investigate “the neutrality, functioning, and financing of public broadcasting.” It was created on October 28th at the request of deputies from the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), allies of the Rassemblement National (RN). Composed of 30 deputies from across the political spectrum, it began its work in November and has six months to submit its conclusions.
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Briefcases full of cash, settling scores: Patrick Sébastien and Christine Bravo denounce the public broadcasting mafia
LE MEDIA EN 4-4-2
While a parliamentary commission is scrutinizing France Télévisions’ finances, not without controversy, two dissenting voices are breaking the silence (too late?) in the industry.
Patrick Sébastien and Christine Bravo (former journalist and TV presenter), two long-standing figures on the small screen, are publicly venting their anger. Their damning testimonies paint a picture of a public system riddled with waste and settling of scores.
A financial structure on the brink of collapse
The Court of Auditors’ diagnosis is clear: France Télévisions’ situation is “critical.” Despite receiving €3 billion in public funds annually, the holding company has a staggering deficit of €81 million. Its equity is dwindling, with a further €40 million shortfall expected in 2025. This is due to wasteful management.
Of the €343 million paid to the private sector in 2024, Mediawan (owned by Matthieu Pigasse, Xavier Niel, and Pierre-Antoine Capton) billed €111 million.
The 2013 collective agreement alone costs €62 million too much per year, guaranteeing automatic increases over forty years. Departures are excessively generous: $27.5 million for pensions and $133 million for severance pay. Wastefulness is rampant at all levels: an excessive fleet of cars for executives, skyrocketing taxi bills, and misused fuel cards
Privileges and conflicts of interest: the realm of opacity
Privileges extend beyond the professional sphere. The Social and Economic Committee (CSE), funded to the tune of 2.2% of the total payroll—a record—owns and maintains the Château de Lalinde, a 115-hectare estate. Meanwhile, the “Christmas truce” decreed for the commission of inquiry seems to protect the most questionable practices. Deputy Charles Alloncle, rapporteur, condemns an “opaque system” that transforms public money into “private fortunes,” directly targeting the financial empire of TV host and producer Nagui. The latter, accused of massive overbilling, denies the allegations and threatens legal action. Chairwoman Delphine Ernotte, with her annual salary of €400,000, embodies this disconnect for many.
Patrick Sébastien: revenge of the rejected*
*Patrick Sebastien was a popular entertainer in France, who seemed to get sidelined by the Macron regime when ‘ordinary white French’ were being met with globalist, multicultural disdain during a few years in the 2010’s. And he wasn’t the only one. Regular French had no say in the matter, of course. Below, he says that he’s going to reveal what he knows to the public on Cyril Hanouna’s (v2.0) upcoming TV program this Monday evening since the commission has so far not been interested in his testimony.
Translation: A message regarding the commission of inquiry into public audiovisual media
Un message concernant la commission d’enquête sur l’audiovisuel public pic.twitter.com/9nF5iSZ6Js
— Patrick Sébastien (@PatSebastien) January 29, 2026
Dismissed with disdain by the chairman of the commission of inquiry – “It wasn’t the greatest cabaret in the world” – Patrick Sébastien has opted for forced media coverage. Refusing to wait for a hypothetical hearing in March, the former pillar of France 2 is going on the offensive. He promises to reveal “everything the commission didn’t want to hear” about “your money.” This move, presented as civic-minded, could be interpreted as a personal vendetta, as the host himself prospered through his company Magic TV before leaving public service.
Christine Bravo: the price of honesty in a “mafia-like system”
Even more scathing, Christine Bravo described a toxic and corrupt environment on the TPMP set. She bluntly refers to “briefcases full of cash” circulating before her eyes, depicting a network of influence “like the Freemasons” bound together by signs of recognition. Her crime? Refusing to bow to these codes and speaking “without a filter.” The result, according to her: the deliberate destruction of her career, despite the success of shows such as Union Libre. “They mistrusted me like the plague,” she asserts, refusing to testify before parliamentarians whom she considers to have arrived too late.
Reform more urgent than ever
Translation: Oups @ChristineBravo7 on @TBT9_W9 just dropped a bomb on FranceTV: “They would make arrangements and the briefcases of cash they exchanged that I saw passing by. It was terrible, the public service. It was a sort of, not mafia but a bit like the Freemasons, they would shake hands with the little finger like this to say I’m one of yours. Me, I wasn’t controllable, they were wary of me like the plague, and then I said everything without filter. They deliberately destroyed my career.”
💥Oups @ChristineBravo7 dans @TBT9_W9 vient de lâcher une bombe sur FranceTV:
“Ils s’arrangeaient et les mallettes de fric qu’ils s’échangeaient que j’ai vu passer. C’était terrible le service public. C’était une sorte, pas de mafia mais un peu comme les francs mac, ils se… pic.twitter.com/wjM3WfATQi— 🇫🇷 fred le gaulois 🇫🇷 Uniondesdroites 🐱🐱 (@FredGaulois) January 29, 2026
These revelations, seen by some as a courageous shake-up and by others as a selfish move, highlight the crisis of confidence undermining public broadcasting. They fuel calls for radical reform: absolute transparency, caps on salaries and external services, and an end to undue benefits. Will the Patrier-Leitus commission, which resumed its work in January amid a toxic atmosphere, be able to rise above the controversy and impose a cure of austerity and ethics? Or will these revelations only serve to fuel the never-ending soap opera of scandals in the French audiovisual sector?
Source
Featured image source: https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/france-reform-of-public-broadcasting-is-essential/
Featured image source: https://entrevue.fr/en/television/patrick-sebastien-sera-finalement-entendu-par-la-commission-denquete-sur-laudiovisuel-public/
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