Silvio Berlusconi’s career is one of the most bizarre and controversial in modern history, a perfect fusion of media, business, and political power. This episode chronicles the audacious rise of the Italian magnate, who began his career as a real estate developer before building a media empire, Mediaset, that would break the state’s broadcasting monopoly. His television channels, filled with game shows and scantily clad women, were a cultural phenomenon that reshaped Italian society and made him a household name.
Having conquered the media, Berlusconi set his sights on the ultimate prize: political power. In the 1990s, he founded his own political party, Forza Italia, and used his television channels as a personal propaganda machine to become Prime Minister of Italy, a position he would hold three times. We investigate the unprecedented conflict of interest, where the country's richest man and largest media owner was also its political leader, a position he used to pass laws that directly benefited his business interests and protected him from numerous corruption charges. His reign was marked by populist rhetoric, international gaffes, and scandalous "bunga bunga" parties.
Silvio Berlusconi was a trailblazer, the original media-mogul-turned-populist-leader, providing a blueprint that others would later follow. His story is a chilling look at what happens when the lines between media, money, and the state are completely erased. He didn't just report on the news in Italy; he was the news.
