Reply To: So apparently…

[Samu]

Because he owns 3 (out of 5, the other 2 being mtv-italy and the small "la7") major private tv channels. Plus at least one (one and a half, I would say) out of 3 public channels (RAI) is very favourable to him.

He owns several national newspapers too.
But above all, he owns Publitalia, which reprents 90% of advertising on any mass media. This means that if his opponents want to get ads they've got to pay him first.

This Citizen Kane-like situation (and Italians' short memory) allows Berlusconi to lie on any topic and promise anything before the polls (this time he said there would be no more taxes on houses – it's a pity that is a LOCAL tax that can't be touched by the NATIONAL government), and then say his words were misinterpreted or even that he didn't say a word.

On his past and present connections with the Mafia, the illegal subversive masonic lodge "P2" and the complex system of bribes that got him to control (against the law) almost all italian television, can be found on the same wiki page posted by Adam, which is [link=hyperlink url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlusconi[/link]