Guest of Figaro at night, the singer Benabar He vehemently criticized a portion of the French cultural media landscape. The artist specifically targeted public radio. France Inter and the magazine Téléramawhich he associates with a form of in-group dynamic that influences cultural choices.
During the interview, Bénabar described what he considers to be a closed and prescriptive environment. "The milieu I hate, to put it very bluntly, but unfortunately it is, Télérama, France Inter, it's a milieu of a rather idiotic caste who think they know everything and who, without knowing it, because they are not cultured enough, are censors in a certain way.", did he declare.
The singer believes that certain media figures are positioning themselves as arbiters of cultural taste, a stance he likens to a form of indirect censorship. According to him, artists should distance themselves from these circles of influence. "So for me, it's an environment I gladly confront because I think that when you are, in quotation marks, an artist—with all the quotation marks you can put there—you have to avoid people who decide what is good and what is not good, because that's what censorship is."he said.
"There is a desire to tell people, this is what they need to listen to.«
Bénabar also questioned the way in which certain cultural recommendations are presented to the public. "There's a desire to tell people, 'This is what you should listen to. France Inter is very well known for this; this is what you should listen to, the rest is no good.' Editorial choices with one of the jewels of public service broadcasting aren't really editorial choices at all."he asserted. And it's hard to disagree with him…
