Posted on 11/09/2005 7:00:32 AM PST by SJackson
Pictures of the worst urban violence in France since World War II are capturing the world's imagination. Only the French themselves aren't necessarily watching the same thing as the rest of the planet.
The country's largest private television network, TF1, refrains from airing footage of burning cars or buildings. "We know that it's the type of thing that provokes contagion," Robert Namias, the head of the station's news division, told the Journal yesterday. He added that the government hadn't tried to influence its editorial decisions.
The state-owned television channels, France 2 and France 3, have stopped reporting on the number of cars torched by rioting young immigrants every night. "Do we have to exercise self-censorship, to exercise censorship? Must we show everything, explain everything? Those are the [questions] that we've faced" throughout the rioting, said Paul Nahon, the deputy director general for news at France 3. (For the record, 1,173 went up in flames overnight Tuesday, compared with 1,408 the night before, with violence reported in 226 towns across France.)
Explaining their restraint, TV execs say that they want to avoid inciting further violence. We've quibbled with al Jazeera's news judgment in airing any al Qaeda video that comes its way. But the riots in France have become a "national emergency," as President Jacques Chirac declared yesterday, playing out in the streets of the country's cities. Pretending otherwise won't help France understand or come to grips with the problems in the burning banlieues that have caught most of France -- certainly, consumers of its television news -- by surprise. They shouldn't have been.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BREAKING NEWS
The European union is a utopia, any media that says different will face heavy fines or worse.
Now back to Happy time lollypop hour.
LOL! How can you satirize the completely ridiculous?
How is this any worse than our own media, that to this day "refrains" froms showing 9-11 footage, and has yet to show ALL the footage?
Our media is just as bad - if anything, the French media follows our lead.
We should all be ashamed we've allowed these cowards to continue.
So let me see if I have this straight- the French MSM is refraining from broadcasting images of Muslims rioting because they don't want people to get the impression that Muslims riot- is that it?
Or are they afraid that the French viewing public might demand a strong response from the government and thus, stop the rioting? Can't have that, either, can we?
The French MSM seems to be as bad for France as ours is for us.
Not a bad idea, one their cohorts in the good ol' USA might emulate. Remember the Rodney King beating by LA cops?
Sounds like our LSM. Don't show the towers burning.
I think some people react and don't consider why this is a good idea.
Protests thrive on media coverage - cut off the converage and guess what? - the rioters lose interest.
This is true for all protests - does anyone honestly think Cindy Sheehan would have gone on-and-on if our media had ignored her?
No!
So the French and their media may in fact be onto something hear - deny the rioters their food.
Turn off the cameras - and maybe - just maybe - the riots will begin to diminish.
Oh - guess what - the riots are begining to die down.
Minimal loss of life.......
It's also the type of thing that provokes citizens to demand their government solve the problem.
It should be noted that it was widely known that Mitterand was dying of cancer whilst President of France. The French press ruthlessly censored this news.
It's more difficult to do this in the age of the internet, but old habits die hard apparently.
Regards, Ivan
I'd love to dump on the French for self-sensorship, it's definately called for. The problem is, our press censors reports as well. Illegal immigrants commit all manner of serious crimes here on U.S. soil, but the press seldom makes it known that these are foreign nationals.
When you can't get the straight scoop from your press, you've lost a very key component in the decision making process.
The press today is run by socialist planners of civilization. They only want you to know so much. Don't upset their utopian apple-cart.
If the average Frenchman got full reports, he might get angry enough to do something about it - to twist Chirac and Villepin's arms out of their sockets and force them to be responsible. God knows, it's needed.
I wait in hope that one day I'll discover a site called "RepubliqueLibre.fr"
Regards, Ivan
"Explaining their restraint, TV execs say that they want to avoid inciting further violence."
They do have a point. Look ma, I'm on tv! On the other hand, maybe they're worried that wider coverage will incite the French people. Can't stir up anti-moooslim feelings, no sir.
( I wish to express my solidarity with the oppressed and downtrodden minorities of France in their quest for social justice - The man is the same everywhere - right on brothers - BBB ) - sorry 60's flashback
I agree, when I see pictures of Pakistanis burning an American flag, surrounded by photographers, I know that it's really street theatre.
"We should all be ashamed we've allowed these cowards to continue."
I don't think it's so much that we allowed it to continue, it's just taking the MSM an awfully long time to get the fact that we're on to them
Then maybe the news programs should show muslims working at a job and assimilating into French society if they feel that what's on the news can promote the same actions in real life.
This is actually a pretty good idea as far as helping to quell the rioting (not from a free speech standpoint). Troublemakers and would-be troublemakers probably become more incited by watching what others are doing. It becomes a self-feeding thing.
The Cincinnati race riots of a few years ago were largely suppressed by our mass media, as many others have been. During that riot local television took films of white women being dragged out of their cars and beaten, they refused to show the footage on the grounds that they were inflammatory. They were quite proud of that bit of truth suppression.
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