Just back from a quickie trip to Italy and Germany, to give a few talks, and try to rustle up more support for MediaChannel. You may not know this but, of our nearly two million hits a month, half now come from outside the United States. So to borrow a slogan from the ABC TV newsmagazine 20/20 I used to work for, ‘We’re in touch cause you are in touch’ or something like that.

In Italy, I shared the overall despair of friends in the aftermath of mogul Silvio Berlusconi’s electoral triumph, an example, if ever one isneeded of how media ownership translates into political power. Already the newspapers in Europe are reporting his intention to cleanse the public broadcaster RAI of anyone to the left of what would be aRepublican in this country. It seems that the new il duche hated that public service broadcaster’s satirical shows — so off with their heads! I am happy to report that voters in Tuscany, the one region that every visitor loves to love, slayed that dragon at the polls but was still fighting while I was there to hold on to center-left coalitions in lovely towns like Lucca. (JUST HEARD THAT THE BERLUSCONI FORCES WERE DEFEATED IN LUCCA!) I spent an afternoon in the medieval town of Siena, known for its university and distinctive scenery. Siena hosts the annual Palio, a bareback horse race like no other in the world, a one of a kind ritual rivalry fought out in the Town Square or Campo between the competing neighborhoods known as cantatas. I learned from the town’s former Mayor, Signore Piccini, that this temple to tradition is also wired with its own progressive community television and web portal and prizes modern technology.