Monday, December 29, 2003
IHT: Author sees anti-U.S. reporting
French journalist, Alain Hertoghe, wrote a book. The book criticized the French press's coverage of the Iraq war. He said the press was too negative. He said they were slanted against Blair and Bush. He said they were monolithic and not informing the debate. He said they were reporting the war they wanted, rather than the war that was.
He was fired.
"What bothered me more," he continued, "was that reporting, when it was uncertain what was going on, fell into predictions of disaster because there were so many who wanted for everything to go wrong. As soon as there were problems on the ground for the United States, it was Vietnam."
Hertoghe said newspapers ignored reports from journalists traveling with U.S. forces, including those from Agence France-Presse, when they did not indicate insurmountable difficulties.
"The papers wanted disaster, and when the reporting didn't reflect it, they predicted it," he said.
"Le Monde went the furthest," he added. "I wrote that Le Monde became 'Saddam's Gazette.' It gave a picture from Baghdad of Saddam's units perfectly controlling the situation. The difference between Le Monde and Le Figaro was that Le Figaro insisted that American tanks would operate easily on Baghdad's wide streets."
"Then when the Americans made their move, we read how they were massacring the Iraqis. The explanation for the collapse was that Saddam's fedayeen had so much compassion for the population that they stopped fighting."
Despite the book's appearance under the imprimatur of a leading publisher, Hertoghe said he was invited to discuss it on only one radio and one television broadcast.
The only extensive review in print of the book, he said, appeared in a free newspaper available to commuters in Paris.
"I tried to be totally fair in writing this," Hertoghe said. "I thought that a journalist's conscience was more important to his newspaper than any other consideration it might have. I admit to having read my contract before the book appeared. But I never thought I would be fired."
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Crushing dissent in France.
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i dislike pedants but if you're going to deconstruct the media you should know how to spell "dissent"...
Whoops. Thanks. BTW, as long as you're correcting my spelling, maybe you should capitalize the first letter in your sentence? ;)
i like to think of myself of the ee cummings of the blogosphere. it's very disappointing that a newspaper would fire a member of staff for having an opinion - fear of the truth is not healthy.
LOL. ee jr. eh? Interesting site, BTW. Where do you live in Japan?
On the issue, frankly, I can understand a newspaper (emphasis on the news part - as opposed to an opinion paper like a magazine, for instance) having an interest in its reporters getting known a little too well for their personal opinions as it could come back to reflect on the paper and the respect people have for the value of their reportage. This doesn't really sound like it comes to that level, though.
it sounds like monsieur hertoghe was fired for not toeing the party line rather than irresponsible journalism or being too well known. it's a pity. thanks for your comments on my page. i live in tokyo now. thanks for taking the time to put you point of view up on the web - i've found some of the links and ideas on your page quite interesting.