Chapter 68 Control public opinion and use it for me!

Robert continued: "Your Royal Highness, if the newspaper is forcibly closed down without the support of the court, public opinion will be very detrimental to the royal family...

"You know, a few years ago they had troubles over "freedom of the press". The royal police arrested some people, which resulted in a large number of articles criticizing the royal family. In the end, His Majesty let those people go."

France is in such a weird situation at this time.

Under the guidance of the aristocratic forces, novelists, tabloid reporters and the like fabricated "little stories" about the royal family whenever possible. As long as these people don't show up and get caught, nothing will happen. It has become a daily pastime for people to watch various scandals about the royal family.

On the contrary, if the royal family expresses dissatisfaction at all, they will be used to make a fuss, and then suffer all kinds of criticism.

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

When Robert saw Therese was silent, he said cautiously:

"Besides, Your Highness, sealing down several newspapers will not have any effect. If one is sealed, two more will pop up and continue to fabricate rumors. Even if all unofficial newspapers are sealed, just like His Majesty the old King once did , they will still continue with the pamphlet...

"Actually, what Her Majesty the Queen just meant is to try to control the situation first. Of course, if there is concrete evidence, the rumormongers must be severely punished.

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

Therese stared at him and said angrily: "The newspapers have no evidence of insulting the royal family, but those pamphlets always have, right?

"I heard from Dati that the entire article was full of insults to me and my mother, unabashedly! Why didn't you arrest them?"

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

Therese suddenly fell silent.

As long as she can remember, there have been various rumors slandering the king and queen. In fact, she also knew that if the secret police could catch those people, they would have taken action long ago.

Joseph frowned on the side. The purpose of his coming here was to use the secret police to punish the newspapers that attacked the tax bill.

But after Robert's reminder, he discovered that things were far from that simple.

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

The judiciary and public opinion support each other, and the great nobles hold this matter tightly. It's no wonder that when Louis XVI was slapped, he didn't even have a chance to defend himself.

Thérèse's eye circles suddenly turned red. She bowed 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."

With tears in her eyes, Thérèse picked up her chubby blue-gray Chartreuse 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.

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

As Robert said, after you clean up one newspaper office, there will be countless others behind it, and there will be pamphlets behind it.

Even in the Louis XV era, when public opinion was most strictly controlled, journalists who were imprisoned quietly set up "newspaper offices" within the high walls. It was at that time that liberal thinkers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu sprung up.

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

Thinking of this, Joseph was suddenly stunned.

No, it seems that I was led into a misunderstanding by anger.

Why use force to control public opinion?

Shouldn't what I want be to control public opinion and make it work for me? It is by no means the elimination of public opinion!

As the thought flashed through his mind, Joseph's eyes suddenly brightened, and his thoughts broadened.

Just then Thérèse's maid passed by him. He raised his hand to hold her and whispered: "Please tell my sister, I will make all rumors disappear and make the person who spread the rumors apologize to her."

A look of surprise flashed in Dadi's eyes. Although she felt that the Crown Prince should just comfort the Princess, she still nodded gratefully: "Thank you, Your Highness, I will definitely tell the Princess!"

Joseph said goodbye to Robert and walked to his palace, thinking about ways to control public opinion.

As a modern person who has witnessed the fight between 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 people and others can only affect 10%, then what you say is the truth!

The media in 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 where Master Jin used "Swordsman" to drive the fledgling "Ming Pao" into a best-selling newspaper in a short period of time.

People in the 18th century had few entertainment options, but they had a lot of "weapons" in their hands that were as powerful as "Swordsman".

When it comes to content, even if newspapers and publishing houses across Europe are tied together, they are still no match for him.

Therefore, you must first have your own media, and then use quality to crush all rivals' content and quickly spread it among readers.

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

"Yes, Your Highness."

Eman turned around and left, while Joseph continued to think: After having the content, the next thing is the price and sales channels...

Various plans gradually formed in Joseph's mind, and his brows gradually relaxed. Isn't it just a battle of public opinion? Come on then. The royal family has lost its position in public opinion for so many years, and it's time to get it back!

Before three o'clock in the afternoon, Emman hurried back in the dust and handed a large pile of documents to Joseph.

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

Joseph carefully looked through the information of all 57 newspapers and several printing workshops in Paris, and finally set his sights on "Paris Business".

This is a small newspaper with a circulation of less than 2,000 copies, but it meets his requirements very well.