Abstract
When in 2010 the web-based news outlet Mediapart revealed one of the biggest political scandals in France — the so-called Bettencourt affair — it turned traditional French political journalism upside down. The news outlet reported that millionaire and L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt had made illegal payments to members of the UMP, the French conservative party, including to former president Nicolas Sarkozy and the budget minister at the time, Eric Woerth. In addition, the case also showed that new web-based media outlets could serve as journalistic watchdogs and deserved at least as much public confidence as well-established media brands. The whistle-blower who initially revealed the case self-consciously decided to give the precious information to a relatively new journalistic start-up, rather than an established major newspaper — a first in French journalism.
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