November 28, 2007
Press coverage of the Muslim riots in Paris
The British press is actually being more coy than the American press in covering the riots in the Paris suburbs, being vague about who is rampaging. Bookworm analyzes the phenomenon. She cites this particularly comic contortion on the part of the BBC:
"At least 10 cars have been burned and a fire broke out at a library in Toulouse, southern France, following consecutive nights of rioting in Paris."There was also more violence in the capital as youths set cars on fire in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel, the Associated Press news agency reports.***"Relatives of the two dead teenagers, who were both from ethnic minorities, have insisted that police rammed their motorcycle before leaving them to die. (Emphasis mine.)"
And that's it. That's all the information the BBC is going to give you about those rioters. But in this internet day and age, "ve haf vays" of finding out more information. [....]...both at home and abroad, the MSM narrative is as follows: Young people are rioting in Paris and, in true "if it bleeds it leads" tradition, the news reports will happily tell you that they're organized, they're armed, and they're incredibly aggressive, so much so that scores of police have been injured, and we're not even talking property damage. If you insist on knowing more about who these people are, we'll hint that they're friends of youths of ethnic descent, and that they live in neighborhoods that have primarily Arab and African immigrants and their children.If you suspect that part of the problem might be that these Arab and African immigrants are Muslim, please be assured that you are wrong. In the ponderous language of social scientists, the reporters will assure you that the riots/unrest/guerrilla warfare problem is entirely due to (1) the government's treating these youths badly and (2) the fact that it emerged after last year's riots that the police might have lied about their run-in with two of these same types of youths.
I think this sort of nonsense only diminishes further the press' standing in the eyes of their consumers. It is self-destructive behavior that can only be a product of a compulsive disorder.
I like Bookworm's conclusion:
"either report the news or stop pretending that you do."