After successfully defending a defamation case brought by one of France's premier television networks, Philippe Karsenty is going on the offensive.

Karsenty, who runs an online media watchdog organization, has launched two suits against some of France's most prominent news outlets, alleging they have libelled him by comparing him to a "nut case."

The first suit names Canal+, a pay TV company owned by Vivendi SA, and alleges the network aired a documentary "depicting me as a manipulative liar. They said I was the same as those who say 9/11 was an inside job."

The second suit charges L'Express, a weekly magazine, with running an article that described him as a"obsessive nut case and manipulative," Karsenty said.

"We defended against the al-Dura lie. Now it's time to go on the offensive and get the French media to pay the price for supporting an anti-Semitic lie," Karsenty said in a telephone interview from Paris.

Karsenty, a financial consultant who operates Media Ratings (www.m-r.fr), won a historic legal victory in May when a French court dismissed a charge of defamation against him. Karsenty had repeatedly asserted that France2, which has been dubbed "a flagship and establishment channel," aired a news report in September 2000 that was a hoax and an anti-Semitic lie...