Scholars and journalists have analysed at great length the way in which Berlusconi has been a pioneer in understanding the power of the media and in using it to convey his political message. A related question is whether there has been someone who had somewhat paved his way on this particular aspect of political life.

An obvious answer to this quest for Berlusconi's ancestors has been Bettino Craxi, the Socialist leader who served as Italian Prime Minister in the 1980s and famously fled the country to avoid being arrested over bribery charges. In his book Vent'Anni con Berlusconi, the historian Nicola Tranfaglia hints at how Craxi helped Berlusconi's career as a media entrepreneur as he had understood that Berlusconi's TV were transmitting programs which conveyed his own new values of individualism, consumerism and anti-communism.

Conversely, Massimo Giannini, deputy editor and columnist for La Repubblica, has drawn a comparison between Berlusconi and Mussolini. In his book Lo Statista, Giannini suggests that both Berlusconi and Mussolini spent a great deal of attention in controlling the press and in creating myths, such as the one of the indefatigable leader or the one of the man-who-does-things.

In a thought-provoking dialogue with Giuseppe d'Avanzo, the La Repubblica columnist who invented the now famous ten questions to Berlusconi, Paolo Sorrentino, the director of the movie il Divo on the life of Giulio Andreotti, suggests that the real ancestor of Berlusconi's understanding of the importance of media in politics is precisely the seven-times Prime Minister depicted in his movie. According to Sorrentino, Andreotti was "a pioneer”. “In the Italian establishment – Sorrentino continues - he was the first one to understand how politics is first of all media politics. Andreotti tried to appear to the people as a man of the people. He did not talk the exoteric language of politics, but the daily language of the people whose vote he asked for". Sorrentino recalls how Andreotti once made the unusual choice of presenting his latest book in the then most famous club in Rome, the Piper. "From this point of view - Sorrentino concludes - Andreotti can be seen as a precursor of Silvio Berlusconi's". 

That the tacit, reserved Andreotti and the flamboyant, gaffe-prone Berlusconi can be seen as two sides of the same coin is certainly a controversial thought. However, after reading the interview, one finds it very difficult to find this comparison out of place.