A report aired on the Monday 8 May episode of L’aria che tira, the program hosted by Myrta Merlino on La7, infuriates Michele Santoro, who is calling live from Lampedusa and announcing possible lawsuits. The outraged reaction of the former Rai face is provoked by a video alternating images and interviews from the Santoro-organized “Peace Squadron” in Ukraine and a “pro-Putin” rally in Rome. An approach that enraged the journalist, who a few minutes later called Myrta Merlino into the studio.
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“I think what I saw is wrong from a journalistic point of view. Putting two things together that have nothing to do with each other on forums,” Santoro asserts gruffly, who admits he hasn’t seen the service but has received numerous reports. For his part, Merlin tries to add water to the fire: “Michele can you explain how things are ?”. But he doesn’t want to hear a reason, he calls out brusquely “no thanks, I’m not able to take explanations” and ends the call.
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After a few moments, the moderator Santoro responds “in absentia” and explains that the service clearly indicated that there was no connection or similarity between the two demonstrations: “First point, the service showed images of two places, that of the pro- Putin and that of the peace relay. On the one hand we said that there is the square of war, on the other side there is that of peace. The two things were very different and had nothing to do with each other, our chronicler simply narrated the two of yesterday’s demonstrations in Rome”. And again: “Second point, when I published the report, even before Moni Ovadia, who is in contact with us today and who took part in the Relay for Peace, I indicated that the two demonstrations had no connection, but that apparently wasn’t the case enough. Maybe it would have been nice to hear my words.” Ovadia herself, among other things, had nothing to say about the service that was broadcast.