OPINION: The networks show France on fire but highlight “peaceful” demonstrators through broadcasting
This is an excerpt from an opinion piece by Newsbusters editor Tim Graham.
For decades, American news networks have touted the benefits of socialism in France, from government-funded day care to health care to mandatory five weeks of vacation.
NBC host Katie Couric summed it up in 2001: “The French, they’re right, aren’t they?”
Socialism is always a warm, comforting blanket. It can never fail. So when violent riots recently broke out in Paris and other cities, the preferred term on television was the failure of “public services.”
On October 19, ABC foreign correspondent Tom Soufi Burridge said: “Saturday’s protests, involving hundreds of thousands of people, were supposed to be about the cost of living and the state of public services in France, but the situation quickly spiraled out of control in several French cities. »
“CBS Mornings” star Gayle King echoed this, saying, “The protests began to protest the rising cost of living and declining public services.”
CBS reporter Aidan Stretch also talked about a “growing government deficit,” which is code for overspending. Socialists blamed undertaxation.
Most of the network’s reporting did not avoid reporting violent riots, looting and destruction of property. But they claimed the protests had been “hijacked” by bad people.
The CBS show Stretch pushed the split, saying: “The most extreme unrest took place in cities across France, where protests over poor school conditions and workers’ wages were hijacked by masked rioters who torched cars, torched government buildings and looted stores, stealing most of this boxing store’s inventory.” »
On the “PBS News Hour”, Ross Cullen pointed out the “underinvestment” of socialists.
“More than 600,000 people took part in peaceful rallies across the country, a convergence of different protest movements against high gas prices, rising inflation and underinvestment in public services,” Cullen said.
“But the unrest that erupted after the protests was unprecedented.”
There were still ridiculous expressions “essentially peaceful”. Many mocked the BBC after its Paris-based reporter, James Waterhouse, said: “They were mostly peaceful, but as we saw in the capital, behind the scenes were those who wanted to profit from the disorder.”
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