For the Greater Good
Should it come as any surprise that in a Socialist leaning Government, the Greater Good can be interpreted as accepting that the safety of the common citizen is expendable, to prevent an advantage to political opponents?

From !No Pasaran!

Now that's what I call Faux News

posted by U*2 @ 4:54 AM

The Managing Director of LCI French cable TV news (owned by TF1) admits to
censuring coverage of the riots in French to avoid helping the extreme right. The extreme right, mythical (and largely inexistant) bogeyman bandied about by the French preSS, whenever they see fit to tighten the screws on this country of sheep.


French TV boss admits censoring riot coverage



Claire Cozens in Amsterdam
Thursday November 10, 2005

One of France's leading TV news executives has admitted censoring his coverage of the riots in the country for fear of encouraging support for far-right politicians.

Jean-Claude Dassier, the director general of the rolling news service LCI, said the prominence given to the rioters on international news networks had been "excessive" and could even be fanning the flames of the violence.

Mr Dassier said his own channel, which is owned by the private broadcaster TF1, recently decided not to show footage of burning cars.

"Politics in France is heading to the right and I don't want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television," Mr Dassier told an audience of broadcasters at the News Xchange conference in Amsterdam today.

"Having satellites trained on towns across France 24 hours a day showing the violence would have been wrong and totally disproportionate ... Journalism is not simply a matter of switching on the cameras and letting them roll. You have to think about what you're broadcasting," he said.

Mr Dassier denied he was guilty of "complicity" with the French authorities, which this week invoked an extraordinary state-of-emergency law passed during the country's war with Algeria 50 years ago.

But he admitted his decision was partly motivated by a desire to avoid encouraging the resurgence of extreme rightwing views in France.

French broadcasters have faced criticism for their lack of coverage of the country's worst civil unrest in decades. Public television station France 3 has stopped broadcasting the numbers of torched cars while other TV stations are considering following suit.

"Do we send teams of journalists because cars are burning, or are the cars burning because we sent teams of journalists?" asked Patrick Lecocq, editor-in-chief of France 2.

Rival news organisations today questioned the French broadcasters' decision to temper coverage of the riots.

John Ryley, the executive editor of Sky News, said his channel would have handled a similar story in Britain very differently.

"We would have been all over it like a cheap suit. We would have monstered the story, and I didn't get the impression that happened in France," he said.




Captain Ed expresses appreciation of the clarification by TF1 and LCI on the necessity of reporting lies.

It's good of Dassier to admit the obvious. The American media should take their cue from Dassier, as they have clearly done with his idea of news coverage, and also admit that they want to avoid reporting the story properly in order to keep their consumers from understanding the truth of what's happening in France.

The violence is receding or being hidden behind a cloak of silence?

Will some day in the not too distant future a Politician proclaim in a paraphrase of Winston Churchill's immortal speech in 1946

A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lit by the light of Liberty, Equality and Freedom. A Quran Curtain has fallen across the Continent

Linked to Weekend Trackback Party at Stop the ACLU

OTA and Friends at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

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