Mentana-Gruber clash, company intervenes: 'Mutual respect is needed'. He: "I subscribe".

Already the arrival of Amadeus on Channel Nine has ended up stirring up thoughts and diatribes. Especially since Enrico Mentana's contract with La7 expires in December. Not that the journalist and Urbano Cairo's broadcaster are not working on renewal, quite the contrary. But the juxtaposition with the embattled Warner Bros Discovery was immediately suggestive. All that was missing at this point was the casus belli of the clash with Lilli Gruber, who accused the director of the La7 news of 'incontinence' for having passed her the line a quarter of an hour late. Mentana did not keep it. He even made a threatening remark (hard not to label it as such) during the evening edition of the news, clarifying his expectation to see a signal from the company: 'Tomorrow we'll see if there was anything, if not, I'll draw conclusions'.

Enrico Mentana says this urbi et orbi, in front of the cameras. "Those who followed us, Lilli Gruber, because I don't like to pretend I don't know names and surnames, had very unpleasant and insulting words towards me. I have been sitting here for 14 years doing this news, I have never deliberately offended anyone, least of all my colleagues who work on this network. I would appreciate reciprocity in this regard and I would appreciate from the company I work for that there would not be the muteness that has accompanied this affair for 24 hours. Tomorrow evening we will see if there was anything, otherwise I will draw conclusions and direct consequences'.

Lilli Gruber did not reply during her episode of Otto e Mezzo. But it is evident how the temperature inside Cairo Communications' TV has risen well above the guard level. This was already evident yesterday when Mentana delivered his blow to the journalist on Facebook, displaying a graph with an (upward) curve of his news programme's ratings. 'From one to nine per cent in half an hour,' he had written, 'This is the ratings curve, completely similar to those of the previous days, of last night's La7 news, marked by important facts that are constantly being updated. That news, however, was unpredictably followed by a crudely contemptuous judgement of me by the presenter of the next programme, who is also the direct beneficiary of that upward curve every evening'. Then the reference to the network's executives: 'A judgement from which so far no one at La7's top management has felt the need to distance themselves,' he continued. 'A small episode, but very indicative. At this point I am distancing myself, as is my duty, from the rude and the unsuspecting'.

Then hours later Mentana reloads the dose, live: 'Last night we went a bit long with the news, it was a crucial, very important day: the prospect of peace in the Middle East, the tragedy of Casteldaccia, near Palermo. Plus, as every Monday, there were our polls and the appointment with Milena Gabanelli's Data Room. Like every Monday, we went a little long, I apologise to the viewers. A little long, as was prearranged and agreed with those who run this network'.

Urbano Cairo will he and his group's managers be able to make the emergency go away? The atmosphere is one of confrontation, which Mentana does not shy away from, like someone who has nothing to lose. Which does not automatically mean going elsewhere. But Warner Bros Discovery has Cnn in its belly. Indiscretions in previous weeks have indicated the group's desire to strengthen the information side in Italy, led by Alessandro Araimo. Mentana and Giovanni Floris are the two names circulating. The director of La7 news, however, denied any interlocution with the US media bigwig. Now all eyes are on the casus belli. And on how it will evolve.