Guest in Do not touch My TV on C8, Wednesday January 5, Olivier Beaumont, a journalist from Parisian, lifted the veil behind the scenes of the shocking interview with Emmanuel Macron. Location of the interview, choice of readers, sorting of questions … here is how this exchange took place.
Emmanuel Macron’s remarks on the unvaccinated jumped the opposition as well as Internet users. In an interview with readers of the Parisian, Tuesday January 4, 2022, the President of the Republic expressed himself thus, while the draft law on the vaccine pass is debated in the National Assembly: “Me, I’m not for pissing off the French. I plague the administration all day long when it blocks them. Well, there, the unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. And so, we will continue to do so, until the end. “
Olivier Beaumont, one of the journalists from the political service of Parisian who organized the interview, was received on the set of Do not touch My TV, on C8, Wednesday January 5. On this occasion, he lifted the veil behind the scenes of this interview with Emmanuel Macron. The Élysée was contacted in October 2021, to request an interview with the Head of State “early January”. Several discussions and meetings with advisers. Then, quickly, it is the format of the “in front of the readers” that was chosen. “We had the agreement of the Élysée on December 18th.”
“There was no retouching”
To select the panelists, the editorial staff used “a file of readers who can register spontaneously”. The exchange between the readers and Emmanuel Macron took place at the Élysée Palace, Tuesday, January 4 from 11 a.m., for about two hours. After this exchange, the readers made some selfies with Brigitte Macron’s husband. “He seduced them”, considers Olivier Beaumont.
Emmanuel Macron discovered the questions at the time of the interview. “Two hours before, we invite the panelists around a large table. We had their questions the day before or 48 hours before. For two hours, the panelists get to know each other and we, the journalists, we are there to put their questions in order. There are questions that we are not going to remember because they are irrelevant or out of context “, explained Olivier Beaumont, facing Cyril Hanouna. Then, the final version of the article was sent to the Élysée Palace to be proofread before publication. “There is a usual exercise, which is courtesy proofreading. […] They published the version that was sent to them. There was no retouching. “