The journalist Francesca Mannocchi, who has covered the war in Ukraine for various newspapers, is the protagonist of a cartoon in Fatto Quotidiano that describes the “side effects of phosphorus and uranium on war correspondents”. Mannocchi is referred to as “the impoverished skull”. The cartoon feeds the debate on Twitter with an avalanche of condemning messages. “Thank you all for the public and private messages. Just one thing: don’t insult the newspaper, the newspapers are their readers. Let’s practice criticism point by point, without deductions, but with precise, punctual and informed words. We have, let’s use them well and take care of them,” writes Mannocchi.
The subject is raised on TV by Enrico Mentana, guest of Massimo Giletti on Non è l’arena on La7. “We have to understand each other. When you say ‘poor skull’ about a journalist, that’s not satire: it’s an insult. We’re not talking about a strong subject, say it about Mentana or Giletti… She’s a journalist who, unlike most of her critics, old and new, she was there. Can you tell her an impoverished skull? Satire can do everything? Very good, but can we say it sucks?” Says the director of Tg La7.