Thursday, March 30, 2006

Who's to Blame for France's Bad Image Regarding the Riots? The International Media, of Course

You realize, of course, that when America has a problem regarding its bad image — whether in regards to foreign policy (say, Iraq) or its capitalist society (the poor, crime, violence, the lack of solidarity, etc), it is the Americans' own fault for the bad image in question. In no way would it be, could it be the fault of the biased media (domestic or foreign), you realize.

How this changes when it comes to Europe! As Jacques Chirac prepares a speech on the riots (and as it turns out that Italy may have a similar problem), the French have found their bogeyman for their, uh, not-so-good image: the international media and their portrayal of the riots (especially the Anglo-Saxon media!). In other words… the Americans are always to blame! No matter what!

Note, however, that Doreen Carvajal reports that the attitude of appallment is slightly self-serving. Indeed,
as foreign journalists point out, if cars were burning in their own capital cities, it would be front-page news.…

"The French have got a bit used to this phenomenon," said Erwan Lecoeur, research director at the Observatory for Public Debate, which analyzes the impact of media coverage on society.

"Our Anglo-Saxon friends love showing that things are going badly here and the reaction on CNN is emblematic of that," he said. But he added that it was "hypocritical" of the French to complain about coverage when French TV was also airing plenty of violent images.

Also, I wrote a comment discussing the double standards of this self-serving attitude of appallment:
Une seule exagération sur la France -- qui ne va pas manquer d'être corrigée par les propres confrères (américains !) de CNN ainsi que par les blogs -- et les Français crient au scandale !

Est-ce qu'il faut vous rappeler ce que disent les Français à longueur d'année sur l'Amérique et les Américains? (Et là, sans correcteurs domestiques pour faire le Hola !)

Pour mémoire récente : la Nouvelle Orléans et l'ouragan Katrina, avec ses milliers de morts, le racisme outrancier de Washington, et la preuve de la dégénérescence indiscutable de la société américaine (il a, là aussi, fallu Fox News pour faire la simple tâche d'aller ...lire la Constitution américaine et découvrir que celle-ci interdisait au gouvernement fédéral (c-à-d Bush) d'intervenir dans un État si le gouverneur de ce dernier ne l'y avait pas formellement invité -- ce qu'en l'occurrence, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco n'avait pas fait)...

Je n'évoque même pas le capitalisme "sauvage", le "chaos" en Irak, et Bush=Hitler...

Deux poids deux mesures, Messieurs Dames, voilà ce que ça s'appelle...
Update: Better than expected…

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