Le Monde, the "organ of official opinion and of the ruling class"

In The Iraq War, John Keegan calls Le Monde, France's newspaper of reference, the

organ of official opinion and of the ruling class

The author variously described as "our greatest modern military historian" and "the most readable and most original of living military historians" goes on to say that

despite the cinematic sensation of the event [the fall of the Saddam statue on 9 April, 2003], many in the media resisted the impulse to exult. As representatives of the bien pensants in Europe and even parts of North America, many television and print journalists declined to celebrate the fall of the dictator the toppling of his statue symbolized. Monster though he clearly was, his humiliation at the hands of the capitalist system — the United States, the world's largest economy, Britain, the fourth — rankled. In Saddam's own world, many followed the media lead. Iraqis who had suffered under his selfish autocracy rejoiced. The beneficiaries were downcast, as was 'the Arab street' in general.

More on John Keegan and on his The Iraq War…