ah, le France!

Alfredo's website has a link to an article (the same one I've linked to here) about France's move to create a nationally based news channel for the international market. It's a pet project of Chirac's and he hopes that it will be a rival to CNN and the BBC, broadcasting news from the French perspective and disseminating the French world view and values. The article is well written (but for one typo), though I'm not happy with where it ends up. The author, KA Dilday, acknowledges that it would be naive to think that any institution, public or private, could report the news without bias. However, D then assumes too much bias on the part of the French. D expects that the new station will be a quaint throwback to an antiquated idea of a national news source which broadcasts the government's view. But really, how antiquated is it when our own government has been broadcasting the Pentagon Channel throughtout the states since earlier this year? D links to the announcement posted on the London Times online as the primary source of information on the subject, which may be part of the problem. After all, the French never come off all that well in English media. In contrast, the story on Radio France's website quotes the minister of culture, Donnedieu de Vabres, as saying that the new station will in no way be the mouthpiece of the government. The French have voiced the awareness that bias cannot be avoided, hence their desire to put their own viewpoint out there, yet they are going to do what they can to minimize said bias. This is an important point which D misses. Also, D's assertion that the French can't criticize the US for Iraq when they have issues with the Muslims in their own country bugs. If such were the case then nobody anywhere would have the right to put forth a vision of a better world since we all have problems within our borders. Personally, I like the fact that the French want to put forth their own ideas about how the world should be. I think that diversity and discourse can only help in forming the future. (Cue swell of inspiring music)