Irish people may have felt uncomfortable when the salaries of RTE’s highest-paid presenters were released recently.
But their feelings are shared in France, where a similar announcement was made in April 2012 during the presidential election campaign.
Invited on a popular talk show, candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan accused the assembled journalists and opinion columnists of living in a different world from ordinary citizens.
“All these editorialists live together, they always write the same articles and are completely disconnected from reality. They make loads of money and they think they know the French people but they no longer know anything about them,” he said, before urging the show’s presenter to reveal his salary.
None of the journalists present on stage were willing to say how much they earn. As a result, many websites published the estimated salaries of France’s top-paid presenters.
The highest earners working for the public service broadcaster France Télé-vision are said to receive between €12,000 and €50,000 per month – between eight and 35 times the French minimum wage.
For example, Michel Drucker – who has been an important figure of French media for over 50 years – hosts a weekly talk show for over €40,000. He is second only to popular game show and radio presenter Nagui, whose salary is estimated to be €50,000 per week for hosting two TV shows every weekday.
Laurent Ruquier presents several weekly talk shows and is said to earn €40,000 per month, while Julien Lepers gets €30,000 for presenting Questions pour un champion, the French version of British quiz show Going for Gold and which has been extremely popular in France since it first aired in 1988.
Newscasters such as David Pujadas, Béatrice Schoenberg and Elise Lucet are said to earn between €12,000 and €18,000 per month, roughly the same as RTÉ’s Bryan Dobson who earned €16,500 per month in 2011.
According to a growing number of French people, these apparently very comfortable salaries are being seen as an influence on the news-making process, such that the press and TV news no longer understand the concerns and demands of ‘average citizens’.
