France/USA and their press (#6)

France in the US press The US in the French press Facts & figures about the media in France The French "Godwin Point"

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France in the U.S. press		The media in France : misc. facts & figures
France and the French, as seen by the U.S. press : zero, except for clichés (fashion, food, strikes) or sensational happenings. Conversely, whether you read about the USA as a superpower, an economic giant, or a place where everyone's running amok with guns, you READ about the U.S.A. every single day ! Criticizing France and the French in the press is NOT, of course, French-bashing, but when the same themes come back on and on, it becomes common wisdom for French-bashers. Read more about French-bashing and the US press. Read the results of a survey (published by the L.A. Times in 2005) about the adjectives associated with the French : wow ! The New York Times (NYT) gives an excellent example of a systematically anti-French editorial policy, but it is not the only one : The International Herald Tribune (IHT) can be very patronizing as well, and The Wall Street Journal pretty manipulative (see below). Among the mosting shocking recent examples : Misleading/prejudiced headlines : "France and the United States are at War" (read a quote from it), "The French, Now Sniffing at Themselves" (NYT Nov.28, 1998 on hygiene), "Easygoing, Not French and Formal (NYT Feb.3, 1999 on American restaurants), "Anxious French Mutter as Envoy Tries to Sell Globalism" (NYT Dec.2,1999), etc... (NYT Sept.19, 2003). The headline of the cover story in Time Magazine (Time, Nov.21, 2007) was "The Death of French Culture" when the article itself illustrated, on the contrary, what was new about it, especially coming from young artists from minorities.Read more about it. See another example about France being anti-Semitic. Wrong facts : in March 2003, the NYT (and the IHT) published two editorials by William Safire, "The French Connection", in which it was said that France, China and Syria have one common reason not to want the US and British troops in Iraq : they would make clear to the world that these three nations have supplied Saddam Hussein with illicit products for his missiles, etc... ; Barry Lando, a former CBS journalist, checked the facts and established there were wrong ; the NYT refused to publish his article, arguing that they never publish articles which criticize their editorials and that editorials contain opinions and not facts ; therefore, you will not read anything about all that in the US press and to learn more, you have to read "Le Monde" (March 26, 2003) ; read a quote from the National Journal In July 2010,, the NYT (and IHT) wrote that "French preparatory classes are expensive" : in fact they are free ! More to come Patronizing : "Having persuaded themselves that cinema should be about art, not money, France's educated elites have never disguised their disdain for much of what reaches French movie and television screens from the United States...." (I.H.T., Sept.13, 2002) About the French economic stimulation program : "America is 6 months behind ; it has wasted a lot of time", said Mr.Devidjian, the minister in charge of the French "relance"... "by the time Washington gets around to doling out most of its money, the crisis could be over". Gallic arrogance aside, Mr.Devidjian has a point." (IHT, July 4, 2009). My comments : who is arrogant ? The French minister, who only reports a facts, or the journalist for whom it is inconceivable that the French could do something faster than the Americans ? What would you say if he had written "Jewish arrogance aside" ? See what American journalists mean by "Gallic". Manipulative ("were you victimized by the French") : a reporter (Paul G.) asked me (WSJ, Feb.20, 2003) "...anecdotes about incivility toward Americans in Paris...." ; for anybody who ever set his/her foot in France, the question does not make any sense ; I am sure it will make a "balanced" article with 50% of the article about Americans ill-treated in Paris, and 50% of other stories. What was the Editor looking for ?		The French read more magazines than comparable countries ; the most circulated are L'Express or Le Point (like Time or Newsweek), Le Nouvel Observateur (more Left-wing),VSD and many others ; contrary to the USA, they are sold much more by copy than by subscription. Read Paris Diary about kiosques. Every Wednesday, the whole political class reads, anxiously, Le Canard Enchainé (the Chained Duck), a very well-informed political newspaper.. The French read less newspapers than comparable countries : Ouest-France (regional, 800,000), L'Equipe (daily, sports only, 500,000), Le Figaro (center-Right, 400,000), Le Monde (center-Left, 300,000), younger and more left-wing people read Libération, business people read Les Echos or La Tribune ; many commuters read one of the free newspapers (Metro or 20 Minutes). As in the USA there are hundreds of TV channels through cable or satellite, but the most watched (free) channels are TF1 (private, around 30% of the audience), Antenne 2 (state-owned, similar audience), France 3 (regional, state-owned, number 1 outside Paris), M6 (private), etc ; there is also Canal + (private, by subscription, sports and movies) ; in France, the national news on TV is at 8pm. See facts & figures about French TV channels. See French radio stations and French Internet (to be completed).  About the freedom of the press, contrary to what many Americans think, France is not very different from the USA and France ranks #31 in the RSF ranking (USA #48) More to come.... Certain subjects are recurrent in the French press and represent some problems of the French society which are not being addressed adequately and/or on which the country is deeply divided; they include : Corsica : discussions with leaders who are pro or against more autonomy, bombings by autonomists, etc The privatization of major state-owned utilities : EDF (Electricité de France), France Telecom, GDF (Gaz de France), La Poste, etc Immigration : how to limit it ? Often linked with serious problems in the poorest suburbs : crime, unemployment, problems in schools, controversy about the islamic veil, etc Social Security : its increasing cost and how to control fraud and waste How can France join Europe and still keep its traditions, its social system and remain different ? More about the most frequently covered events in the French press More to come Some specific aspects of the French press (compared to the US press) The reader or the TV-viewer is not shocked when the journalist expresses his/her own view (that is democracy...) instead of presenting only facts (thats is considered boring...). Nobody seems to be impressed by the classical concepts of distinguishing reporting and commenting : they are often considered sheer hypocrisy.... Most French journalists lean to the Left Wing ! It is not prejudiced to observe that a large majority of French journalists and the editors of French TV (whether public or private) and of most newspapers lean very distinctly to the Left. Of course this is not the reason which explains why the general French mood is so negative and depressed but it could contribute to it. According to a poll published by the weekly magazine Marianne, only 6% of French journalists declare they feel closer to the Right Wing (this figure must be considered with caution : it is an old poll -2001- and its methodology is not clear). Just an example to illustrate it. On Sept.6, 2010, the day before huge demonstrations against a governmental project of reforming the retirement system, I watched the News on two state-owned channels. On France3 (regional), 10 man-in-the-street interviews : ALL of them against the reform, that's all. On France2 (national) : 4 man-in-the-street interviews : 3 against the reform, the fourth one who is very moderate ("maybe there is no other solution…") is (of course) a banker with suit and tie, then comes an interview of the leader of the major union and finally a report on how difficult the life of a worker impacted by the reform will be. If you come from Mars, you conclude that everybody in France, except maybe the President, is against this reform (but according to several polls, a majority of the French approve the reform, but it seems this is not an interesting fact for TV reporters....). If you want to form our own opinion, just watch TV or read the headlines.
Editorial policy : just remember the campaign of all US media in 2003-2004 about France denying the existence of Weapons of Massive Destruction in Iraq..... No apologies were ever publisehd ! the campaign about "anti-semitism in France" in Spring 2002 did not correspond to real facts in France at this time but it caused a lot of damage in the US public opinion. Read a letter to the International Herald Tribune, by an American living in France. "His (Sarkozy's) party leader in Parliament wants to pass a law that bans women wearing burqas and niqabs from the street. The Talibans would be pleased. The rest of the world should declare its revulsion". (NYT Jan 26, 2010). Read my colum "Talibans in New York". Choice of words : "The French surrender again" (about cigarette ban in restaurants) (Herald, Everett, WA Jan.2008) When the police forces dispersed troublemakers with water canons after a huge student demonstration (March 28, 2006) with nobody seriously injured, CNN said it was "like Tienanmen" (with hundreds injured or killed by tanks). During the riots in November 2005, many US medias (and CNN systematically) headlined "Muslim Riots in Paris" which was totally and doubly wrong : there was nothing religious in these riots. Any other term would have been acceptable for these riots : urban, youth, jobless, black and arab, desperate, violent, etc.. but "muslim" was a deliberate bias to the truth ("Muslim Riots" is as ridiculous as "Masculine Riots" although they're all males...). In addition to that, the riots took place in distant suburbs and not in Paris, which is a second bias. "Where a friend would be described as "steadfast", for example, France is "adamant". Her spokesmen "snipe" at our position, where a friend would merely "criticize", writes John L.Hess, former correspondent of The New York Times in Paris, in his book, written in 1968 and which could have been written in 2003 ! Read more about it. "Germany and France, whose economies are moribund and where unemployment is high..." (International Herald Tribune, Sept.10, 2004, First page article). According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, "moribund" means "at the point of death". A little exagerated, isn't it ? Biased presentation ("avoid anything positive about France") : Can you write a 5-page article on fast trains worldwide (Japan, Germany, Spain and of course USA, where they do not exist...) without mentioning France and its TGV network operating since 1981 with more than 100 million passengers/year ? It looks difficult, but Scientific American can do it, in its May 2010 issue. Not a word. Of course whenever we do something stupid, which happens quite often, the US press reports at length about it, but when we do something better than Americans, it is considered less interesting.... when the World Health Organization ranked France's health system 1rst and the USA's 39th out of 191 countries (see : Sick in France), the NYT headline (June 21, 2000) was "Europeans Perform Highest in Ranking of World Health", it mentioned France as ranking "in the top five" and indicated the American ranking only in the tenth paragraph... (this is quoted by Edward C.Knox, in a well documented article : The New York Times Looks at France, The French Review, N°6, Vol.75, May 2002). Abstaining from mentioning an information if favourable to the French is widely used about anti-semitism : read about a recent example of lying by omission and see my editorial about it.		Visit miquelon.org, the authoritative site on French-bashing, with appalling quotes and links to racist and hate sites. See a few examples and more about French-bashing. Hate the French ? See a list of a few anti-French books...         The French "Godwin Point" You know the Godwin Point : when, in a discussion, someone raises the image of "nazi" or "holocaust" to counter your argument, this is the end of any reasonable discussion. In the American political debate, France is often a sort of "Godwin Point". When a politician says "It's like France", it means "socialism", "addiction to the State", "despoilment of those who work to the benefit of the lazy", etc… and this is the end of the discussion.... See a few quotes to illustrate it : to attack Obama To be developed    America in the French press To be developed
To related pages : intercultural (#1), more intercultural (#2), intercultural management (#3) and the image of the USA (#4), irksome France (#5), typical French values (#7) and favorite US artists (#8), American writers in Paris, etc...

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