I would disagree on the "most mainstream media". Clearly, all the right-wing papers that have traditionnaly supported him (Le Figaro, Match) and all the hard-r

I would disagree on the "most mainstream media". Clearly, all the right-wing papers that have traditionnaly supported him (Le Figaro, Match) and all the hard-right-wing papers (owned by Bolloré, Arnault, etc..) that have _personnal_ ties to him are playing their "opinion" part. I don't think public media is defending him at all. Left or Center-left papers are not (obviously.) The tie breaker would be: "what is TF1 20h saying" (this is, no matter what new media says, still the one thing that most people watch and treat as "the news") - and I don't think they have been "blatantly" defending him.