Chapter 68 Control Public Opinion and Use It for My Own Benefit!

Robert continued, "Your Highness, if you forcibly close down the newspaper without the support of the court, public opinion will be very unfavorable to the royal family...

"You know, they made trouble for something called 'freedom of publication' a few years ago. The royal police arrested some people, which resulted in a large number of articles criticizing the royal family. In the end, His Majesty released those people."

This was a strange situation in France at that time.

Under the guidance of the aristocratic forces, novelists, tabloid reporters and the like would make up "little stories" about the royal family. As long as these people don't show up and get caught, there will be no trouble. It has become a daily pastime for the people to read all kinds of gossip about the royal family.

On the contrary, if the royal family expresses dissatisfaction, they will be caught by others and make a fuss, and then suffer all kinds of criticism.

In the final analysis, it is the result of the royal family completely losing the right to speak in public opinion.

Seeing Therese silent, Robert said carefully:

"Besides, Your Highness, closing down a few newspapers will not have any effect. If one is closed down, two more will pop up and continue to fabricate rumors. Even if all unofficial newspapers are closed down, just like the old king did, they will continue with pamphlets...

"In fact, what Her Majesty the Queen just said is to try to control the situation first. Of course, if there is solid evidence, the rumormonger must be severely punished.

"You see, just like the editor of the "Happy Man" newspaper, I found a rumor manuscript with Her Majesty the Queen's name in his office and arrested him immediately. But other newspapers have no evidence yet."

Thérèse stared at him and said angrily: "The newspaper has no evidence of insulting the royal family, but those pamphlets must have it, right?

"I heard from Datti that the whole article was insulting me and my mother, the kind that is not concealed! Why don't you arrest them?"

Robert said with a bitter face: "Your Highness, those pamphlets are compiled by one or two people in a dark basement and then secretly printed. It is difficult to find them..."

Thérèse was silent immediately.

Ever since she could remember, she had heard all kinds of rumors that defamed the king and queen, and they had almost never stopped. In fact, she also knew that if the secret police could catch those people, they would have taken action long ago.

Joseph was also frowning on the side. His purpose of coming here was to use the secret police to deal with those newspapers that attacked the tax bill.

But with Robert's reminder, he found that things were far from that simple.

At present, the aristocratic forces are probably waiting for the royal family to use violent means. They will immediately use this to incite public opinion and lead to the tax bill, linking the bill with "the royal family's abuse of power". The tax bill will be more passive.

The judiciary and public opinion support each other, and the great nobles hold this piece tightly. No wonder when Louis XVI was clicked, he didn't even have the opportunity to defend himself.

Therese's eyes suddenly turned red, and she knelt slightly to Robert and said, "Count Robert, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have lost my temper with you, it's not your fault."

Robert hurriedly said, "I can understand your anger, Your Highness, you don't have to apologize."

Therese held back tears of grievance, picked up her chubby blue-gray Chartres cat from the maid's hands, turned around and walked out of the house.

Joseph wanted to go up and comfort her, but he didn't know what to say for a while.

He really wanted to take people to plunder those unscrupulous newspapers at all costs, but reason told him that he would fall into the trap of the aristocratic group.

As Robert said, after cleaning up one newspaper, there are countless others, and there are pamphlets behind them.

Even in the era of Louis XV, when public opinion control was the most strict, reporters who were arrested and imprisoned secretly set up "newspapers" within the high walls. And it was at that time that liberal thinkers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu emerged like mushrooms after rain.

At this time, France had been baptized by the Enlightenment, and freedom of public opinion was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It was impossible to control it with force as before...

Thinking of this, Joseph was suddenly stunned.

No, he seemed to be led into a misconception by anger.

Why should we use force to control public opinion?

Shouldn't I want to control public opinion and make it work for me? It's definitely not to eliminate public opinion!

The thought flashed through his mind, and Joseph's eyes suddenly brightened, and his mind became broader.

It happened that Therese's maid passed by him. He raised his hand and pulled her, whispering: "Please tell my sister that I will make all the rumors disappear, and let the person who made the rumors apologize to her."

Dati's eyes flashed with surprise. Although she felt that the prince should just want to comfort Her Royal Highness, she still nodded gratefully: "Thank you, Your Highness, I will definitely tell Her Royal Highness!"

Joseph said goodbye to Robert and walked towards his own bedroom, thinking about the means of controlling public opinion in his mind.

As a modern person who has seen the fights of various gods on the Internet platform, he knows very well that the right to speak is ultimately the base of the audience.

If your voice can be heard by 90% of the people, and others can only influence 10%, then what you say is the truth!

The media means of this era are basically newspapers, books, pamphlets, etc., so how to use these things to quickly increase the audience?

He immediately thought of the case of Master Jin using "Swordsman" to drive the newly established "Ming Pao" to become a hot-selling newspaper in a short period of time.

People in the 18th century had few ways to entertain themselves, but they had a lot of "weapons" in their hands that were no less powerful than "Swordsman".

When it comes to content, even if all the newspapers and publishing houses in Europe are tied together, they are far from being his opponents.

Therefore, first of all, he must have his own publication, and then use the quality to crush all the competitors' content and quickly spread it among readers.

Thinking of this, he immediately said to Emman: "Please help me organize the information of all newspapers and printing workshops in Paris, the sooner the better."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Eman turned and left, and Joseph continued to ponder: After having the content, it is the price and sales channels...

Various plans gradually formed in Joseph's mind, and his brows gradually relaxed. Isn't it just a war of public opinion? Then come on.

The royal family has lost the public opinion position for so many years, and it's time to take it back!

Before three o'clock in the afternoon, Emman rushed back and respectfully placed a pile of documents in front of Joseph.

This is the detailed information of all newspapers in Paris. Newspapers need to be registered with the court, and there is nothing to keep confidential about the registration information, so it is easy to get.

Joseph carefully looked through the information of all 57 newspapers and several printing workshops in Paris, and finally his eyes fell on the Paris Business Daily.

This is not a large newspaper, with a circulation of less than 800 copies, but it meets his requirements very well.

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