#1 Not new; the cable news channel I-télé and LCI (and thus its parent TF1) had already announced they would control information concerning this, so not to incitate the rioters; also, the popular tf1.fr forum has been silenced, because things were getting out of hand (but that doesn't prevent it from running a communique by the trotskyst "antiracist" org Sos-racisme).
From http://no-pasaran.blogspot.com/
French media : heads we win, tails you lose
posted by U*2 @ 11:31 AM
Portions of French media are being overrun by true public sentiment (just as the Establishment was overrun by popular ire during the referendum on the European Constitution). Talk radio and web forums are coming down squarely in favor of Interior Minister Sarkozy with calls for a heavy hand when dealing with rioters. The French preSS is having none of this. Libération PropagandaStaffel and Le Monde Al-Jazeera on the Seine are dripping with compassion for humiliated French youth. On the TF1 - LCI news site, flagrant censorship in the face of dissenting opinions is barely concealed behind a statement asking readers to be patient because the web forum is overloaded and cannot take anymore comments. Rather than accept any further comments in favor of law and order (running 10-1 against the rioters before the shutdown), they prefer to close the forum:
Chers lecteurs, depuis le début des violences en banlieue, vous êtes excessivement nombreux àréagir sur notre site infos. Nous vous en remercions. Mais compte tenu du nombre de réactions envoyées, il est devenu impossible de les publier avec toute la rigueur, l'objectivité et la réactivité qui caractérisent un forum de qualité. Nous sommes donc contraints de suspendre momentanément la publication des avis sur ce sujet hautement sensible. Nous vous remercions de votre compréhension et de votre fidélité.
More media censorship on the way
posted by U*2 @ 1:17 PM
French cable TV news channel i-tele is openly considering showing fewer images and less video footage of the riots claiming that such coverage might be fanning the flames. The fact is that they do not want to continue showing what the French citizenry is really like in these battling suburbs. The last two days have given free reign to images of violent vulgarity spouting youths, vowing vengeance on French society, along with a new media figure -- the djellaba garbed neighborhood mediators who claim they will not deal with Sarkozy.
Protection from bruised feelings reality sought
posted by Joe N. @ 1:46 PM
Another tale from the land of the cultural exception.
LCI: unknown meaningful people (the brave enarchy) are cheesed off that CNN and Russian TV networks are covering Francifada.
How DARE anyone else know about this!
French Journalists' "Concerns": A Desire to Put Events "Into Perspective", to Not Pour "Oil on the Fire", and to "Appease" posted by Erik @ 4:04 AM
Responsable de l'information sur France Inter, Geneviève Goetzinger insiste sur le "travail permanent de mise en perspective".
writes the AFP (merci àArcturus)
Putting events "into perspective".
The journalists' "concerns".
A desire to "appease".
Not pouring "oil on the fire".
At the France Inter radio station, it is pointed out that in recent days several programs … have presented the positive experiences taken on a social and a cultural level in the banlieue towns.
Let us be generous for a moment and not call this flagrant censorship (even when media bigwigs turn off their comments section, so as not to show dissenting opinions — running 10-1 against the rioters — to the overriding "correct" thought of hand-wringing compassion with humiliated French youth).
Still: all this would be a lot more palatable, of course, if members of the French media, the French élite, and France's society at large made an effort to be somewhat consistent with their outlook and not use double standards. Double standards that happen to be self-serving, needless to say, and favor themselves.
As it happens, whenever a drama befalls the United States, there are few voices asking to put the events in question into perspective.
As for "positive experiences", a Wall Street Journal column and a website have existed for the past couple of years giving the good news from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the least that can be said is that French leaders, citizens, and media outlets have not gone out of the way to broach that subject.
Au contraire, the desire to put things into perspective rarely touches Uncle Sam, as the following in-depth articles can ascertain.
The 60th Anniversary Celebration of Le Monde
The daily's Iraq coverage
The daily's TV guide
The daily's film reviews
The daily's VIP portraits
The daily's Le Monde 2 magazine
The daily's Letters to the Editor section
The daily's 60 years in 60 articles series
The daily's birth and origins |
Computer translation