Nice politicians, angry hosts

Two politicians in Iraq started hitting each other during a televised show which among other topics was discussing former dictator Saddam Hussein. Like any conflict, this one debuted with a harsh verbal exchange and then moved up to the next level when combatants started hitting each other after taking the appropriate fighting stance. After a brief moment of confusion, the moderator intervened and the producer decided to stop the live broadcast. Since all this happened about 2,000 kilometers away, in theory it shouldn"t affect us. The success of this incident was so obvious, that given the hunger for ratings, a similar scene could happen right here in our own backyard.

Busy singing, dancing and mocking each other live, Romanian politicians haven"t yet gotten to using their fists to drive their points home. It is hard to imagine Edmond Tălmăcean, the undisputed star of the TV shows in the beginning of 2011, trying to hit a member of the opposition, between two syncopated dance sequences borrowed from the clips of Michael Jackson and making three musical dedications to his direct superiors. Truth be told, Mr. Tălmăcean likes to brag about how his blog has reached the eighth position among the most visited blogs of Romanian politicians based on his artistic talents alone.

Fortunately for the last traces of decency, but unfortunately for TV ratings, Romanian politicians haven"t yet felt the need to demonstrate their manhood live on TV. It isn"t in their job description. The way things are going, the big step will be taken by one of the talkshow hosts employed by the news channels. If they"ve come so far as to suspect each other of faking a live swoon, you could be forgiven, as a mere spectator, for thinking that they could get as far as attacking a guest, for the sake of ratings. Besides there have been numerous journalists - some don"t like being called that - who expressed their intentions to resort to physically punishing their guests whose claims seemed to insult the logic and intelligence of their audience. Upset that all their work doesn"t seem to improve society in any way, increasingly losing control of their speech and gestures, sometimes directly expressing their support for using physical force to shift the balance in a conflict, some of the talkshow hosts seem capable of personal attacks in the strictest sense. The level of anger seems to be rising.

The referendum concerning the Law of Capital, with all the public debate that will accompany it, is one of the first opportunities for politicians from both sides to show their physical strength.