Alexis Patri
modified to
3:42 p.m., June 27, 2022
The magazine “Le Point” published, then withdrew, an article which claimed that the couple of deputies La France insoumise Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbière exploited a cleaning lady without papers. The editorial director, Etienne Gernelle, speaks for the first time in front of a microphone, in the Europe 1 program “Culture Médias”.
“Like when there is an industrial accident, there are several factors. We are trying to understand these factors.” After the my culpathe managing editor of Point Etienne Gernelle speaks in the Europe 1 program Culture Media on the false information published by the magazine on the couple of deputies La France Insoumise Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbière. This is the first time he has come back to the media on the article which wrongly claimed that the political couple exploited an undocumented cleaning lady.
“There is a double smoking,” says the editorial director of the Point at the microphone of Europe 1. “First there are people who tried to set up a business that did not exist. And then a journalist who lost his mind and smoked his hierarchy on at least three points: the interviews he had or did not have, the documents he got and how they got them. If our reporter had told us the truth about how he got these documents, never article would not have been published.”
An internal investigation and a layoff
The false article was removed last week from the site of the Point and Etienne Gernelle presented his apologies on his Twitter account. The editorial director explains on Europe 1 that a cell of nine people is now investigating internally to trace the thread of this false information. “We recognize our mistake and we do our job as journalists vis-à-vis ourselves, as have done in the past The Parisianthe New York Times and The chained Duck.
Journalist Aziz Zemouri, who signed the disputed article and allegedly lied to his superiors, was suspended by the newspaper and summoned for an interview prior to possible dismissal. “He recognized that it was a fumage”, specifies the editorial director of the Point at the microphone of Philippe Vandel, believing that the journalist has “melted a lead”. Adding that the latter now feels “very badly”, Etienne Gernelle did not wish to comment on the current procedure within the magazine’s human resources.