Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Media Bias in France

Ivan Rioufol is a journalist and essayist for Le Figaro. The following opinion piece about French media bias concerning Islam was featured in his video slot “Sans Detours” (roughly: “Plain Speaking”).

Many thanks to Bear for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:08 Islam in France is a problem. A recent survey allows us to see…
00:12 the profound rupture between the media’s thoughts and the opinion of the French.
00:16 The first assures that integration is working, but 67% of those surveyed…
00:20 thought the contrary. They even judge at…
00:24 68% that this failure is due to refusing to integrate…
00:28 52% explain this fact by cultural differences…
00:32 in contrast, the economic and social conditions generally advanced to justify
00:36 their isolation are invoked by only 25% of those surveyed.
00:40 The mistake would be to refuse to listen to this quiet France.
00:44 Its perception of Islam, which it judges as too visible, dictates a reality.
00:48 Even if it is partial there is no need to examine it…
00:52 although it is what these people do who denounce fantasies, paranoia, racism,
00:56 hatred, and I skipped some, this simplistic manner of reasoning
01:00 is one employed by the greater parts of the elites, but it cannot prevail
01:04 when they see Islam as a threat. We must ask ourselves why.
01:08 The reproaches of those surveyed are addressed less to Muslims and more towards
01:12 the Republic. The great majority of (immigrant descendants) affirm feeling
01:16 French. It is the politically responsible who do not dare impose
01:20 limits on Islam, when they demand always more visibility.
01:24 We must be naive, for example, to not see the symbol sought by the union…
01:28 of Islamic organizations close to the Muslim Brotherhood when it builds a
01:32 monumental mosque on the site of the battle of Poitiers that was
01:36 a defeat for the Islamic conquest. It is those accommodations,
01:40 this blindness, this backwardness that make the French anxious. We must hear them.

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