The Ranucci Brigades: how many journalists have left "Report"

‘Report’ is split like Transnistria: half goes to RAI with Daniele Piervincenzi and the other half to the editorial team with Claudia De Pasquale. The dispute concluded with the swap, but is it truly over? Those who could have presented the programme refused, and those who had been chosen backed out. Were they afraid of presenting Report, or were they afraid of the Ranucci Brigades – the militia that opens ‘channels of communication’ with Rai and which now ‘accepts’ the deal, with the programme being entrusted to De Pasquale and Piervicenzi? Riccardo Iacona, Peter Gomez and Milena Gabanelli all turned down the offer, whilst Giulia Presutti stepped aside because she was unwelcome, to avoid the strike – a symbolic gesture. Is it Report or Giangiacomo Feltrinelli’s pylon in Segrate?

Why can’t a publisher choose who to put on TV or radio, as in the case of Geppi Cucciari, who is leaving Un giorno da Pecora after failing to reach an agreement with Rai? Since when does a community of journalists select its own editor-in-chief? Is Report perhaps a co-operative? Salvo Sottile, another Rai journalist critical of Report, was attacked by the ‘Ranucci Brigades’ before the launch of his new programme, being called a ‘piece of shit’ and a ‘sell-out’. Report’s correspondents, Iovene and Bertazzoni, were waiting for him in the square on Via Teulada, with a camera in place of a balaclava. Would Mediaset and La7 have allowed the Piazza Pulita correspondents to call Floris a "piece of shit"? Paolo Corsini, the director of Rai’s in-depth programmes, almost had to apologise and explain that Presutti, the young Report correspondent accused of conspiracy by Ranucci and the Brigade, was "my choice". According to sources, the Meloni government refers to the Report editorial team as “Askatasuna”, and if it were up to the right, the area would already have been ‘cleared out’ in a rather rough manner.

The decision to remove Ranucci was taken by Rai’s chief executive, Giampaolo Rossi, and he did so with corporate decorum; indeed, it was Rossi himself who, in the past, had demanded an account of the programme’s expenses – the only one to ask: is it possible that there is a programme at Rai without oversight, without a director to supervise it? When Rossi was attacked by Report, the ‘Ranucci Brigades’ and the opposition for using the phrase about ‘theorem journalism’ – which he described as a cancer – the newspapers aligned with those groups let him be torn to pieces. These are the very same newspapers that are hounding Ranucci and Lavitola all the way to the equator, amidst elephant carcasses and ivory. Only now that Ranucci has fallen do the ‘Ranucci Brigades’ seem a little less frightening. Why did newspaper editors and Rai professionals refuse to present Report? Isn’t it Ranucci himself who says there’s nothing better than Report?

Before the Piervincenzi–De Pasquale swap took place, Iacona – a highly capable professional – turned down the offer. It is said that Iacona, a RAI journalist who has demonstrated how rigorous investigative reporting can be carried out without ‘eating mussels’, remarked: ‘I don’t want to feast on Sigfrido’s remains’. They approached Gomez, the editor of Fattoquotidiano.it, and he too replied that he “didn’t feel up to it”. Both Iacona and Gomez could have guaranteed independence, as could Sabrina Giannini, another correspondent for Report who was unwelcome. Why? The reason is the “climate”. Subsequently, other candidates were forced to withdraw because, as Eugenio Montale said during those ‘misty years, dust and straight stars’, ‘you cannot ask anyone to be a hero’. Again, the climate. What does this latest post by Ranucci mean, regarding Sottile, the very latest one: ‘My team is always my team’? What does he mean by that? That he will control it from a distance? And again, what does it mean: ‘Shoulders of steel and a straight back’, that team which ‘does not bow even in the face of the arrogance and wretchedness of those who feel protected by power. And to protect itself better, it has even blocked the comments under its posts’? It is, in effect, an order to smear and hound people on social media. What began as an internal dispute over a programme has escalated into a battle between the state and Report’s ‘anti-state’. Right-wing journalists see their mission as that of General Dalla Chiesa – to root out the den – while on the other side there is ‘my team’, Ranucci’s call to a desperate struggle. Further statements from Ranucci are expected, and it is likely that former members of the Report team will emerge from the so-called Ranucci Brigades, describing these years as a mistake. If Zavoli were here, it would be La notte di Report. On La7.