Coverage of unrest touchy for French TV

The Hollywood Reporter.com ^ | November 9, 2005 | Shiraz Sidhva

[John Robertson]

PARIS -- Images of the wave of violence that has swept France for 12 consecutive nights have been splashed around the world by the press, television and the Internet. But French viewers hoping to update themselves on the country's worst civil unrest in decades are being offered little or no coverage by the nation's top broadcasters outside of regular afternoon and evening newscasts.

On Tuesday, the violence prompted the government to invoke an extraordinary state-of-emergency law passed during France's war with Algeria 50 years ago. Still, coverage of the unrest was confined to the two French 24-hour news channels, LCI and i-Tele, owned by private broadcasters TF1 and Canal Plus, respectively.

For most other channels, it was business as usual, except for a slight tweaking of its postprimetime Thursday schedule by pubcaster France 2 to accommodate a debate on the crisis.

[John Robertson]

Gee, I never thought a country's mainstream media could in effect conspire to keep the truth of what's happening from the citizenry. If they finally find out what's going on in France...oh, never mind, they're French.

[Kenton]

Amazing reaction on the part of the French. Pretend it isn't happening and hope it eventually goes away.

Reminds me of a little kid who gets beat up all the time but doesn't ever hit back because he's afraid he'll upset the bully.

[MadIvan]

It's worse than you know. I was in France for a trip in 1998, during Impeachment. Out of curiosity, I watched the French news programmes. They were interviewing French-speaking Clintonites, and the entire tone of the news was one of support for Clinton and basically the Republicans were painted in the darkest colours possible.

My response to the television was something like, "You utter bastards, you utterly filthy, lying bastards."

Regards, Ivan

[edcoil]

As I noted in another thread, "Didn't we (USA) do the same for blacks in the 60's and 70's after they rioted? This is how the welfare state started here. I see no difference between France now and the US then."

[Jake The Goose]

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 here - 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.......

[Migraine]

We have daily meetings to evaluate the situation and decide how much to show and what is best to hold back."

Man, if that ain't the nub of the problem, I don't know what is. Same in France, same in the US of A, the Fourth Estate (or is it Fifth Column?) plays god with the truth, dispensing it out along with the filings from the axes they are grinding. Fools.
Just tell it like it is and let the facts speak for themselves. Multiculturalism; bah!

[MadIvan]

Oh joy, so the best possible outcome of this would be for a whole "poverty pimp" industry to flourish even more in France?

Oh bloody hell it is time to shut down the tunnel.

Regards, Ivan

[Lucretia Borgia]

Head in the sand syndrome. If it's not acknowledged, it will eventually go away.

[Aquinasfan]

Gee, I never thought a country's mainstream media could in effect conspire to keep the truth of what's happening from the citizenry.

I'm shocked. SHOCKED!

[kidd]

I believe that this is a possibility.

Terrorists use the media to spread terror. If the terrorists are unsuccessful at creating terror, they are simply engaging in meaningless violence and destruction.

Unfortunately, the French do not live in a vaccuum, and widespread foreign news coverage makes the French news coverage look like censorship.

[fso301]

I see no difference between France now and the US then."

There is a significant difference. American blacks wanted to be allowed to better integrate into American society. These French youth are protesting for a separate status.

[razorback-bert]

an extraordinary state-of-emergency law passed during France's war with Algeria

How fitting...deju vu all over again.

[Dallas59]

Is Dan Blather still available???

[karnage]

Now, if the coverage remains minimal when the crackdown comes, then I'll applaud. I expect neither crackdown nor clapping.

[John Robertson]

Jake, you're cracked.
They've burnt thousands of cars.
Hundreds of buildings.
Hundreds of injuries, maybe thousands, some serious.
At least one death.
Policement fired upon.
Violence literally in hundreds of French towns.

This is not a Jerry Springer world where people do things to they can watch themselves on TV. This is quite a different world altogether.

If the "freedom fighters" have truly slowed their activities, it's for two reasons:
1, they've been doing it for two weeks straight, and they're exhausted and bored.
2, they've slowed down to look up and try to figure out, Why hasn't the government done anything about this? In other words, they're in disbelief that they're getting away with this.

[Jake The Goose]

Thousands of cars - YES
Hundreds of buildings - CHECK AGAIN - how about 21

YES it is Jerry Springer - that's exactly what it is. These people are predominently young - and not centrally organized.

I speak every day with business associates and friends in France - this is not as big as some would have you believe.

Don't get ahead of reality.

If this is still happening in 1 week - I will agree to eat my words - you have my promise on that.

[oldbrowser]

As I noted in another thread, "Didn't we (USA) do the same for blacks in the 60's and 70's after they rioted? This is how the welfare state started here. I see no difference between France now and the US then."

As I recall the Welfare state was started before the riots.

[hosepipe]

[ If this is still happening in 1 week - I will agree to eat my words - you have my promise on that. ]

Riots stop... pointed assinations begin..
The muzzies have the French exactly where they want them..
Being an elected french anything.. has just become very dangerous..
AND they know it.. A white flag will not be good enough.. bowing and cow towing will be for starters..

Muslims have been doing this for 1426 years.. They know how..

[LikeLight]

Hundreds of buildings - CHECK AGAIN - how about 21

Don't think so. Way more than that. The following pictures and snippets were quickly gleaned just from my own FR posts over the last few days...

That's at least 25 buildings just from these pics and snippets that I happened to post on FR, from dozens and dozens more available on various press websites...

The one below is inside a Kindergarten...

The one below is one from inside a police station after arson in Evreux...

And this last one is a school at Bruay sur Escaut, near Valenciennes...

Some other press reports...

Saint-Etienne: Arsonists destroy two schools and a bus on 6-7 November

Aulnay-sous-Bois: Shops set ablaze

Bordeaux: Employment agency office hit by a petrol bomb on 7-8 November

This night the Protestant church of Meulan (78) underwent a terrorist attack. The roof is completely devastated. I do not know if the interior is completely destroyed or not.

a gymnasium was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Noisy Le Grand, early November 6, 2005

Firefighters extinguished a fire at a kindergarden Sunday night in Lille. Youths fired at police and hurled flaming Molotov cocktails at churches, schools, cars and a daycare center in an 11th night of mayhem in France

A school was torched in Savigny-sur-Orge.

The Public Treasury in Trappes was targeted by an arson.

A police station was smashed by a vehicle in a suburb of Rouen.

A pre-school was torched in Saint-Etienne

In Grasse, the offices of the Nice-Matin newspaper suffered important damage after being targeted by arsonists.

In Arras, 2 large stores were looted and burned (But and St Maclou). Over 10,000 square meters were lost to the flames.