Marchionne on La Stampa:” I would prefer to be a journalist. To ask questions, without having the responsibility of giving answers. To have a go at other people is my dream!”. This would be from 2018 when (he says now) he will leave FiatChrysler. It might have been a joke reply to answer an uncomfortable question but thinking about it, which newspaper wouldn’t employ someone like Marchionne in a moment of sales slump?
Marchionne would really be, as they used to say, an old school journalist. Well-read, he writes his own speeches, a degree in philosophy, he could write about everything and not just finance and economy as his present job might suggest.
Outspoken with no reverential awe as, unfortunately, many journalists no longer are today. He would excel in what he seems sometimes to hate in the media today: “Annoy other people”.
Although I hope that Marchionne’s “annoying other people” is just an expression. Because the job of a real journalist is based or should be based on a different method: don’t believe anything as being absolute truth. But one should understand, verify, ask, doubt and not make mistakes. And if it’s necessary be discomforting and unpopular to anyone whatsoever.
Who wouldn’t employ Marchionne as a journalist (or blogger)? The Economist? He speaks good English although it might seem nepotism due to his connections with the Agnelli-Elkanns.
Let’s hope that in 2018, the date about which catastrophic scenarios on the fate of the Italian editorial groups are secretly circulating, someone will be able to give him a pc and connection in the event that he decides to take the jump. And as a good reporter let’s hope he won’t ever be put on the black list of some company because he’s unwelcome.