Bonum Certa Men Certa

EPO President Benoît Battistelli Compared to Famous Criminals on European Television

"Battistelli, what the helli?"

20M

Summary: The Belgian TV network featured a show which was making fun of Battistelli earlier this month (see the above)

THE gradual spread of the EPO scandals coverage to media outlets all across Europe made this inevitable. We saw this in newspapers, radio, and now it's on television too. We also saw it in various parliamentary systems, both EU institutions and institutions of member states. It spreads like fire.

The above 10-minute video can be summarised using the following frames:

Sla_de_sloeber_1752_906

Sla_de_sloeber_0456_583

Sla_de_sloeber_1758_508

Sla_de_sloeber_0422_595

Sla_de_sloeber_0436_291

Sla_de_sloeber_1359_474

Sla_de_sloeber_1433_740

Sla_de_sloeber_1443_066

Sla_de_sloeber_1513_069

Someone on IPKat has taken the above screenshots from the video and provided explanations/interpretations in simple English. Going by the pseudonym "Roufousse T. Fairfly" the commenter said:

It required some effort before you can finally look at it, but it was worth it.

It is a sequence from a program on Flemish private TV. The invited star on that particular episode was a singer.

The middle of the show is segment titled "sla de sloeber", which loosely translates to "hit the rascal".

I wasn't familiar with the term "sloeber", which has many possible, and mostly unflattering, synonyms:

1) Arme kerel
2) Arme
3) Belgisch bier
4) Bier van hoge gisting
5) Een goede vent
6) Hals
7) Iemand die veel tekort komt
8) Pauper
9) Persoonsbenaming
10) Slokop
11) Smeerlap
12) Stakker
13) Sufferd
14) Sukkel
15) Smeerdoos
16) Schooier
17) Schoelje
18) Schlemiel
19) Schurk
20) Stumper
21) Vlegel
22) Zeer arm mens
23) Zielenpoot

The guest is invited to select between one of three rogues:

1) One Michel D., who trafficked blood diamonds into Belgium;
2) Benoît Battistelli, who needs no presentation;
3) Mexican gangster El Chapo Guzmán, who recently escaped a maximum security penitentiary through a two kilometer-long tunnel.

Specimen #2 is chosen, and the singer reminisces about his experiences working for a French company, if I understood correctly.

After an interminable number of commercials equal or greater than 14 (I believe I lost count), the show returns with the effigy of the chosen one affixed to a punchball machine.

Once the scoundrel has been properly sent flying by the avenger's fist, the calculated result is entered into the high score table.

Pretty silly, but it shows that BB and the EPO are becoming household names, and not thanks to the pointless and expensive non-events called the "inventor of the year awards".

I close my eyes and picture a scene in a Munich penthouse, with a group of scared stiff assistants drawing straws to designate a "volunteer" for showing and translating the video to Le Président...

Cut to London near the Shard, in a discrete office... A phone rings impatiently... Hullo... Yes? A contract? In Ghent? ... OK, sure, we promise we won't send those bozos who totally bungled that job back In Bruges...


Another pseudonym, "Old man of EPO", said in response to the above on Monday: "Have to say I'm surprised that Vier had heard of BB. Their intro to him is a bit OTT but, hey, there's no such thing as bad publicity apparently so I guess it's not that bad (?) to be matched with a murderous Mexican gang leader. Or maybe not..."

Whether it is negative or positive publicity, well... we shall let readers/viewers decide. Being compared to criminals can hardly be framed as positive because of the legal nature of the comparisons, insinuating perhaps that all of the above three characters belong in a prison cell (if not worse) for very heinous and expensive crimes.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
 
Nonfree Software in My Bank, by Richard Stallman
Updated 8 hours ago
Links 28/07/2025: Science, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Healthy Self-Image With Autism and a "New Life"
Links for the day
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol