Hungarian Political Media Part Two: Boobs journalism

When millions can't buy you an audience, breasts still can

Imagine you have unlimited resources to develop the ultimate propaganda media. You can run small startup projects. You can buy parts of the market. You can buy the two most popular media portals and experiment with them. You can buy the leading broadsheet newspaper just to close it down. You can pay the license fee for any internationally developed show regardless of the returns. Nothing matters, your budget is unlimited.All kinds of supervisory boards and media authorities are yours. You can say, play or broadcast anything you want, you play in god mode. 

Sounds like fun? This is exactly what Orbán’s media looks like. Others can bore you to death with the specifics. I'll try to show some things that help you to understand it.

Part 2: Boob media

Before 1989, during the Kádár-regime the Party spared neither time nor energy to show what a developed and cultured country Hungary is. Part of this was showing off to the Decaying West. Part of that was the subtly cultivated nationalism. “Cultural superiority” was a product of an even earlier regime and served as an ideological basis for the struggle to revise the Trianon treaty (the peace treaty after WW1) that gave ⅔ of Hungary to other countries. 

Local broadsheets

Parts of this effort were the county newspapers. Every county had their own newspaper. These were “local broadsheet” quality. More than just your Local Herald. The journalists were college educated and well paid professionals. I can vividly remember how everyone in my hometown Nyíregyháza (don’t even try…) knew my name because my dad was a journalist and editor at Kelet-Magyarország (Eastern Hungary), our county newspaper. 

Kelet-Magyarország (Eastern Hungary) from the dying days of the communist regime. Two years before this the revolution of 1956 was called “counter-revolution”. A year before this “the sad events of 1956”. This one calls it “1956'“. The word “revolution” will appear in 1990. Top left corner: the Danish foreign minister visits Hungary. Bottom left: a virus killed annihilated the tobacco fields. Bottom right (not the black one): retrial in a 1950’s era communist show trial.

The front four pages of these papers were about domestic and international politics and culture. There was a sports page with the feats of the local teams, a lot of culture and local news. On every Saturday there was a weekend edition with even more culture and literature. My dad wrote short stories, other colleagues were decent amateur poets. 

New era: less serious but still independent

These papers survived the Kádár regime but they were mostly acquired by foreign publishers. The journalists became less well-paid and the standards sunk somewhat lower. Back then many people thought this was a tragedy. But quite frankly, few people wanted to pay for literature and culture. The county papers became more like local papers with some local news. Local beauties in bikinis on the last page were also added. 

15 years later. Pensions reform, war in Israel. A new play in the local theatre. 1956 memorial and agricultural news. A local beauty (we went to the same high school she was the girlfriend of a classmate back then) on the back page.

They were also independent. Local politics is rarely as polarized as the nationwide one. These papers quietly went about their business.

KESMA: Orbán’s giant media holding takes over

But Orbán wanted total media control so they formed KESMA (Central European Press and Media Fund) to buy all of them. 

A new business model was started. Ditch the local news, let’s use these papers to spread central propaganda! Obviously this strategy failed spectacularly. These papers are for local people who want local news. Every morning my Mom, still in her dressing gown, walks out for the local paper, turns it to the last inside page…to see the funeral announcements. Other people check the price wholesalers will pay for their crops, others want to read about this new striker the local soccer team signed. 

The uniform front pages of the county news. Viktor Orbán is there 2-3 times every week

Instead of that, you get this. This is the online version of the local paper in any given morning. The paper front pages usually have the same photo. ⅔ of the content is written in Budapest. Of course the sales and the online audience numbers plummeted. 

But, just like with Megafon, the real purpose was to emit white noise. These papers are now less than mediocre means to spread propaganda but they are still big enough that no competition can take hold. 

Still, their numbers are awful. So to boost them, they do an ages-old trick: boobs. They use Instagram photos of celebrities with some creative language. A famous one this summer went like this: “You want to get cooked tender in those cleavage-cauldrons!” (there was a rather endowed lady wearing a pink bra in the picture). Everyone clicked it, so they could report success.This obviously did not save the print editions but they are financed from the bottomless pockets of KESMA. The same thing happened to Origo, the second largest nationwide portal they also bought.)

The infamous "cleavage cauldrons" photo from Baraba Opitz's insta story. The other picture is from a different article. Rough translation: That beautiful bosom lawn! These boob hills will graze you! (the third one is a stock photo I wanted to use for the front page. Independent boobs journalism for you)

Yes, your conclusion is absolutely correct. This huge Media Machine spends gzillions of taxpayer money, without any control or limit… spreading free boob pics to report success for the Centre. True Soviet vibes. But the Soviets were prude. At least now we have boobs. Instead of quality journalism. Instead of a free press.