Principled French Reporters Sniff Their Noses at Pentagon's "Macabre" and "Shocking" Presentations

You can count on Le Monde to present a negative version of Zarqawi's death, using it to castigate the American military.

Regarding the photos of the dead Al-Qaeda leader, Patrice Claude speaks of the "strange, even shocking" scene and the "degrading and macabre exercise". He proceeds to evoke the "fable" of the weapons of mass destruction, "invented by Washington in 2002 and 2003 to justify the invasion of the former Mesopotamia"; the "filmed parade of Saddam Hussein as a hobo" ("it was clearly to humiliate him", rails Claude); the Pentagon's being found out "with a smoking gun" (when it paid Iraqi journalists to write un-MSM, i.e., more realistic, articles); and oh-so-principled journalists remembering "with disgust" the spectacle of the dictator's dead sons.

Needless to say, Claude presents as undisputed fact that a squad of Marines "assassinated 24 civilians, women and children included". Le Monde colleague Eric Fottorino goes on to rail against America because of three Guantanamo prisoners who committed suicide. Just about the only thing missing now is an article relativizing 9-11, and Fabienne Darge is nice enough to provide that to Le Monde's readers.