Sarkozy Corruption Scandal Rocks France

Is something rotten in the state of France? French website Mediapart has accused Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy of accepting illegal campaign donations from L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt in 2007. Sarkozy's PR team has denied the accusations, pointing out that the story's source, Bettencourt's former accountant, has partly retracted his testimony, and his aides have lambasted the site. Mediapart continues to stand by its story. Mediapart editor François Bonnet said: "It’s a story that has really galvanized the public...It has everything in it: a great personality and a famous family, and now it has become a state affair.” The scandal is also unique in that the story was not broken by a major French newspaper or traditional media outlet, but by an independent investigative news site, and one that charges subscription fees at that. “Two years ago, everyone looked at us as if we were crazy, saying news on the Web is free,” Bonnet explained. “The written press in France is in a terrible crisis... It doesn’t take risks anymore in terms of journalism.”