Silence of the Lambs: In France, the truth can get you fired.

National Review ^ | January 9, 2004 | Denis Boyles

[quidnunc]

Springtime in Paris, 2003. Pretend you're a French journalist during the opening weeks of the war in Iraq. Every day, your paper, like all the papers in France, blossoms with the grim news of American and British defeats, sorry stories of a quagmire the size of Vietnam, rising hatred of Americans by the Iraqis, the heroic struggle of the Arab leader — who, after all, is an old friend and business partner of France. But then, suddenly, Baghdad falls, no armies are lost in the sand, the war has been fought, leaving only the peace to be won. Could it be a miracle?

Well, France is a secular state, so no. But it's not a scoop, either, since most people — other than the French, the Germans, and those who relied on the BBC — understood with clarity exactly what was happening in Iraq. If you're Alain Hertoghe, a French-educated Belgian and a 17-year veteran of La Croix, France's prestigious Catholic daily, and you spend your days reading the AP and AFP wires and comparing the news there with the news you see in print, you realize the story isn't the victory of the Coalition in Iraq, but the defeat of the press in Paris. The war the French press had been fighting was lost, ambushed by reality.

Hertoghe suddenly realized a serious wrong was being done by his paper and others. …

-snip-

French newspapers, Blunden says, are the captives of one of the strongest unions in France, the Communist CGT, which, like an old-fashioned Italian fascist union, simply strongarms the papers for cash — a deal going back to the days following the liberation. "As a result, the press in this country has never had the money, never had the finances to become truly independent, because eating away at the bottom line was the need to write the unions this huge check." In addition, France is one of the few nations in the world where newsstand distribution is controlled by a monopoly, the NMPP. In other words, if French papers made money, Rupert Murdoch would own a few.

-snip-

[mad puppy]

Good article. That whole freedom of the press thing...maybe we should keep an eye on that is this country.

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[Paradox]

The reaction to the belated attention this story is receiving is interesting. There may be silence on the part of the French press, but Hertoghe is big news in his native Belgium ("ironic," he told me, "since their press did the same as the French") and in America, where he turned down a request to appear on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program ("I thought it would just be to bash France," explained Hertoghe).

Someone email O'Reilly and get him to promist Hertoghe that he wont bash France so that this guy will appear on his show. Have him go after the euromedia and even the American media, in general. I would certainly like to see this fellow get more exposure here in the USA. That would go along way in explaining to most Americans why the Europeans disagree with us on so many things. Part of the problem is the Europress, which while it may be free, it is awfully biased.

[shteebo]

"Look, France is a country of compromise," one media executive told me. "It's the basis of this culture. Saying one thing, while doing another is a way of life here. Cynical behavior is seen as chic. To be called a cynic is to be given a compliment."

Saying one thing and doing another is "compromise", huh? Sounds like hypocrisy to me. What a pathetic country.

[samtheman]

This is the last line of the article:

Hertzberg: "This story is shameful, in terms of freedom of the press. If this goes down, then everybody will have learned the lesson: Shut up."

The whole thing is definitely worth reading.

[gcruse]

As a result, the press in this country has never had the
 money, never had the finances to become truly independent

The Vatican has the money.  The Vatican has the finances.
Only an idiot would expect an independent editorial policy
from a church newspaper.  The amazing thing is that they
fired an employee for correctly reporting on the editorial
policy that is designed to undermine the US in the interest
of the Pope's idea of world peace, and that no one notices.

[Verginius Rufus]

Hertoghe is a Belgian. Why should he care if O'Reilly bashes France? Just have O'Reilly promise not to bash Belgium the day Hertoghe is on.

[MegaSilver]

Fascism is alive and well in France. I hope its citizens wake up and see it before it's too late...

[Chris Talk]

Oh good, it now joins the USA where many hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs for the same reason.