This Wednesday, November 6, Thomas Isle was as always on the air on Europe 1 to present Culture Media. This time he painted the portrait of Gérard Holtz, a 77-year-old former sports commentator who is now promoting his new book Vendée Globepublished by First editions. And listeners were able to immerse themselves in his journey, marked by news journalism on TV.
Indeed, Gérard Holtz started as a presenter and, during his forty-four years spent within the France Télévisions group which he left in 2016, he notably presented the 1 p.m. news of France 2. It was 2000 and the father-in-law of a columnist Telematin only lasted one season.
“Perhaps your name was too marked at that time by sport for the graft to really take hold at 1 p.m. What happened?“, Thomas Isle asked him, looking back on this episode in his life. And for Gérard Holtz to restore “the real truth” : “I resigned from 1 p.m., I went to see Michel Cottin who had chosen me and he had chosen me because they had done a survey where each time, attached to my name, there was 'simplicity, popularity, humor' and so they decided. said that to relaunch the 1 p.m., it would be good for Gérard to present“.
I wasn't doing my journal
But very quickly, Gérard Holtz realized that this role would not suit him. “I accepted and made the mistake of coming alone. That's a big lesson, because when you take a position of responsibility, you have to come with friends around to protect yourself, you need close guard. All big bosses know this. I arrived alone and I thought I was stronger than others by saying 'I'm going to convince everyone to make a television news for my mother, so that the 1 p.m. news is understandable for my mother'. And then I realized, with the different services, that we had not not at all the same vision of the newspaper and I wasn't writing my diary“.
The disappointed journalist tried to let go of the reins of the news for the first time after three months before changing his mind and ending the year. But he did have confirmation that it was time for him to stop on a very special day. “It was the day the free flu vaccine was introduced for seniors. I tell everyone at the conference in the morning: 'We open with this'. Well no, we opened up on Afghanistan. I said: 'At 1 p.m., guys no, I'll stop'. So, I decided to stop the 1 p.m. news“.
