How CNews’ Far-Right Editorial Shift Impacts Upcoming French Elections
CNews’ Influence on French Politics and Media Landscape
By Michel Rose and Gabriel Stargardter
The Dismissal of Philippe Bilger and Editorial Hardening
PARIS, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Conservative pundit Philippe Bilger was a mainstay of the French news channel CNews, known for its hard line on immigration and crime. But after he criticised Israel's conduct in Gaza and defended the judiciary for convicting ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, his services were no longer needed.
Bilger's removal in January underlines a sharp hardening of CNews' right-wing editorial line under reclusive billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré, attested to by two dozen current and former employees, regulators and rivals.
It is also increasingly significant for April's presidential election, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen is making the running.
"I agreed with 90% of what was said on CNews," said Bilger, an 82-year-old former investigative magistrate. "But I realised there was only one accepted line of thought."
CNews’ Audience Reach and Political Impact
With an average audience share of 3.4%, CNews may appear marginal. But last year, it was the most-watched rolling news channel among France's four major 24-hour outlets, and its influence reaches far beyond ratings.
Shaping the Political Agenda
CNEWS SHAPES AGENDA IN FAR-RIGHT'S IMAGE
Before President Emmanuel Macron announced his shock decision in 2024 to dissolve parliament, an adviser tipped off CNews presenter Pascal Praud, according to sources in Macron's entourage and at CNews. When Reuters recently visited a presidential adviser at the Élysée Palace, CNews, a Reuters client, was on the television: testament to its pull on the political conversation.
"CNews is an ideological weapon and plays much the same role in France that Fox News plays in the United States," said Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, political communications expert at Sciences Po university in Paris. "It's even more influential because France has a much smaller television market."
CNews' early, hard-hitting coverage of the 2023 killing of a white teenager in Crépol in southern France, which it framed as anti-white racism, was quickly followed by rivals.
"We could see our competitors switch within minutes to a story we broke," a former CNews presenter said, speaking anonymously because the Bolloré group has sued ex-employees who had signed non-disclosure agreements.
Alignment with Far-Right National Rally
CNews' agenda increasingly follows the lines taken by Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), from which the channel could benefit if, as polls suggest, Le Pen wins the election and fulfils her promise to privatise public broadcasting — long a target of CNews criticism.
"CNews clearly expects to cash in on the intellectual and media backing it has given (the RN)," Bilger said. "As long as it's acting in good faith, I don't have a problem with it."
Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, head of programming at public broadcaster France Télévisions, said Bolloré was using his media empire to denigrate public-service broadcasting in the hope of being rewarded with more licences under an RN government.
"It's a form of disguised hostile takeover," he said.
Bolloré for his part says he is not at war with public broadcasters, but has repeatedly questioned their €4-billion ($4.5 billion) annual cost to taxpayers.
CNews’ Russian Connections and Government Concerns
CNEWS' RUSSIAN LINK ALARMS FRENCH GOVERNMENT
The Recruitment of Xenia Fedorova
The convergence with the far right's worldview is perhaps clearest in CNews' recruitment in 2025 of Xenia Fedorova, ex-head of the now-banned French unit of the pro-Kremlin channel Russia Today.
A July 17 Foreign Ministry analysis obtained by Reuters found that Fedorova's television comments and newspaper columns, including on EU aid to Ukraine and Russia's forced transfers of Ukrainian children, mirrored Russian official statements.
The analysis highlighted an example involving Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
On May 13, 2026, according to the state news agency TASS, Dmitriev said EU officials were "completely ignoring" documented corruption in Western aid to Ukraine. The next day, Fedorova wrote a column saying corruption was a "taboo" subject for the French press and suggesting that a €90-million EU loan to Ukraine risked being diverted.
"Drawing on her experience within the Russian propaganda apparatus, Xenia Fedorova does not need to be given instructions before appearing on television panels or writing an op-ed," the analysis said. "She is fully capable of identifying and adapting arguments favourable to Russia for the French public debate."
Controversy and Expulsion
Retired general Bruno Clermont, a CNews defence consultant for four years, said Fedorova had got him fired in March.
"This has gone beyond freedom of speech. It's playing directly into the enemy's hands," he said in a LinkedIn post. "She couldn't bear this position not being held by a pro-Russian general."
Fedorova's lawyer, Emmanuel Piwnica, declined to comment. Neither CNews nor its holding company, Canal+, replied to a request for comment on Clermont's or Bilger's departures, or on the idea that they had been punished for deviating from editorial lines.
In March, the Interior Ministry, which had labelled Fedorova a Kremlin propagandist, expelled her for threatening both French interests and public order. Canal+ and Lagardère, the Bolloré-controlled groups that employed her, called her expulsion an attack on free speech.
CNews’ Appeal to Anti-Establishment Sentiment
CNEWS APPEALS TO FRENCH ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT INTERESTS
Growth and Market Share
CNews rose from 1% market share at its 2017 launch to profitability last year, when it became France's most-watched free-to-air news channel. Viewership has slipped this year as the Iran war has aided rivals, but its influence endures.
Supporters’ Perspective
Supporters including ex-employees say CNews meets a demand for viewpoints marginalised by mainstream media. In a July interview with Bolloré's JDD newspaper, CNews CEO Serge Nedjar accused competitors of mounting a "smear campaign" while quietly following the channel's lead.
"We've championed topics, some o
