A flabby line

A straight line is drawn in Russia since the beginning of a new era. The unique media format, invented by Ernst and Dobrodeev and unknown to any developed country in the world, has become a national tradition over 17 years-something like a spring folly rite. As the emperor of the Manchu dynasty in China, the king-priest at the ancient Romans or Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya symbolically spent the first furrow in the spring-this is how the President of Russia holds in the spring a direct line that marks its sacred alliance with the country and the beginning of a new agricultural cycle.

This is the only moment when the president in front of everyone does not come into contact with the press secretary, not with a close environment, not with red folders, but directly with the people. Last year, the public session of manual control of the power seemed a completely spectacular sight - and in this everyone spoke about the death of the format.

What's happened? Let's look at it as a reality show-which is a straight line, in fact, is

If the annual ritual of the sacred battle-a large press conference-suggests that the president alone fights with the horde of bizarre dressed orcs-journalists, deftly repulsing the “acute issues”, then the direct line is the rite of unity of the ruler with the people. There is no place for confrontations. But, as in any show, there should be their own drama and conflict.

The straight line seemed to have lost the nerve.

Violation of proportions

Formally direct line - an exchange of questions and answers, a dialogue in an almost pristine, antique form: an actor playing a deity exchanged replicas with a choir. By asking questions, the people seem to feel the ruler in all important areas of life - the protection of borders, crops, roads, healthcare, housing and communal services.

During the show, Putin usually talks about global politics, economics, business, new technologies, simultaneously showing subjects developed rhetorical skills and good memory for numbers. Large topics alternate with the problems of small people - here the president is an example of effective management, threatening negligent officials in the field, and with the other, doing their work: it brings gas, organizes repairs, gives a simulator.

But this year, almost all issues of politics and macroeconomics were removed from the agenda - there was an endless cry of beggarly salaries, ruined dwellings, and unstable benefits. The thematic balance was disturbed, the flow of folk troubles came to the fore, increasing the automatic to cosmic proportions.

In addition, in response to the next complaint, the president preferred to perplex again and again - "it should not be strange, but the federation allocated money to you, I don’t know exactly that you have it there." He should not know all this for sure, and should not, but a few such answers are enough for the viewer to have a persistent impression - the president does not own the materiel. Even Putin’s fans gathered in the studio “Time will tell” after a straight line in order to sing traditional praise to the president, they said that he was deceived without reporting on the true state of affairs.

No miracles

This time also did not ask for effective management. Last year, a criminal case was opened on one city head right during a straight line, and one child prodigy, who asked for a vacation at Artek, was sent on an excursion to Skolkovo. This year, Putin did not endow anyone with a puppy or Russian citizenship - nothing but promises to “consider the issue”, he did not give out, providing small officials to deal with problems . With his refusal from the role of the wizard, Putin deprived the audience of the main element of the show - the opportunity to observe in real time how retaliation is being ruled, justice is restored and miracles are being done.

No surprises

It has long been known that issues for a straight line are multi -stage selection. A year ago, the media told in detail how the show participants are instructed . The fact that people selected for contact with Putin are isolated from the world a couple of days before the beginning of the ceremony and teach to formulate properly , no longer surprises anyone. Spectators - that brought up by the TV, which grew up on the video blogs - know: surprises break the rhythm, and improvisations are good when they are rehearsed.

The main source of surprises of a straight line was always the president himself. He introduced an element of unpredictability into the show - interrupted the presenters, embarked on extensive explanations, suddenly paid attention to the question of SMS or gave the floor to the guest of the studio. This kept the participants in good shape and revived the atmosphere. But this time, Putin did not make an initiative and break the script.

This year he was even too predictable. To the question about the successor, he repeated what he said more than once (the people will choose it). Information about personal life verbatim coincided with what has already been said for export - in an interview with Oliver Stone (there are grandchildren, daughters do not climb into politics and business, are engaged in science and education). And in the case of the notorious Lermontov poem, Putin simply repeated his last year's analysis .

Alien hands should not touch the sacred scepter of power - the holder of the microphone brings him to the guests.

Too contrasting picture

Live broadcast, telephone, telegrams, SMS, MMS, Internet forums, social networks, Skype, and this year-a special mobile application. Each year, a new means of communication is added on a straight line, this, among other things, is a parade of media technologies. The show studio in the Gostiny Dvor should not only harmonize with a tie and blue eyes of the guarantor, but also serve as a window of advanced television production. Design, light, a variety of shooting points, coordinated work of cranes and cameras, the rhythm of inclusions from different points - all this in 17 years is shaken and polished to brilliance.

But when emergency lups, ruins of hospitals, broken roads and a cyclopic dump of a20 kilometer of the Kremlin arise against this background, the effect is somewhat double. Organizers-the first and VGTRK-tried, as they could, dilute the sad sight. But staging stories, where questions were asked against the background of the new airport, under construction of the stadium or the world's largest icebreaker, only aggravated the contrast. On the one hand, they looked too fake, and on the other, the reporting picture still loses to an elegant studio.

Technical overlays

In moderate quantities, they adorn live broadcast, giving it authenticity. But this time the linings were a lot. Lost in touch with the nagan. Lost contact with Odnoklassniki. They announced, but could not take a plot from Volgograd on time. And the most egregious was the story with the impudent SMS, which surfaced on the screen, emphasizing the honesty of the organizers of the straight line and the complete lack of censorship. A whole series of such SMS - including questions about whether Putin was tired when the first lady appears in the country and whether it is possible to believe all these dummmer issues - accidentally scrolled on the air twice.

Microphone and folder

As you know, the microphone in the direct line studio is inviolable. Alien hands should not touch the sacred scepter of power - the holder of the microphone brings him to the guests. This institution is also constantly improving: at first, microphones in the studio wore unknown faces without speeches, then young TV presenters, and now the microphone trusts exclusively stately and pretty daughters of the people. They not only bring him to the lips of the guests, but also encourage him, direct and remind of decency. “Remember, brevity is a sister of talent,” one of these Vestals advised the guest last year. This year, a microphone priestess appeared in the arsenal of the microphone. In one movement of such a folder, Olga Pautova deftly sent to the place of the President of the National Union of Fruits and Vegetables who was trying to rise.

And it was, it seems, the only live moment in the Studio of the Direct Line. The hall this time looked sleepy and boring. Laughter - uncertain and not too friendly - came only in four hours of ether. No one asked for the word, as it happened before, he was not eager to give, clarify or add. And no one applauded - even where it was assumed, for example, when Putin stated that “everything will be fine,” and clearly waited for approval.

The show studio in the Gostiny Dvor should be in harmony with a guarantor tie and blue eyes and serve as a showcase of advanced television production.

Reducing the pace

The direct line fundamentally does not have a regulation - it lasts as long as Putin wishes. The duration of the president’s contact with the people in different years ranged from two and a half to four and a half hours. In recent years, this has been monitored with special addiction - the presenters now and then exclaimed jubilantly: “We are on the air for two hours! Two and a half! Three! A million questions came! One and a half! Two!"

This year there was no need to talk about records - and for revitalization they announced the number of comments on social networks. The straight line seemed to have lost the nerve. The presenters, correspondents and moderators never had to rush anyone. People asking questions were not taken away from the air for a long time. Moreover, for the first time in history, many of them were offered to ask another question. Someone clearly puzzled someone-a mini-football coach from Kaliningrad, having received a second attempt, asked what would happen next with the new stadium, and graduates of the ninth grade from the village of Redfill asked the president to give them parting words. Last year, a straight line lasted 3 hours 40 minutes - Putin then managed to answer 80 questions. In this, he considered 73 issues in 4 hours.

Why is it so cold?

The straight line this year was pushed away from spring to summer - and on June 15 it turned out to be the coldest over the past 138 years of observation. The coolness was felt on the air: the president was stingy not only for gifts, but also for emotions, he did not start, was not annoyed and never laughed. And the only joke in his corporate identity (about the blue, which Ukraine should be afraid in Europe) was bogged down in verbose explanations.

The characters who usually warm up the atmosphere are children with requests for a bicycle and old women who wish the president of good luck - this time was not there either. The old line ignored the old line, and Putin officially officially ignored the boy, who complained about harmful emissions in the port of the find in the port of the find. Even the sketch, played in the Ufa maternity hospital, did not correct the affairs: the father of the newborn baby, as if accidentally appeared in front of the reporter’s camera, was too calm, and the baby never opened his eyes.

A decrease in a degree is also felt among the audience. No one asked the president of the ritual question about health, diet and sports. The traditional praises of his excellent reaction and excellent physical form is not heard - it seems that it is obvious to everyone that Putin is tired.

No wonder he did not want to admit for so long that he became a grandfather.