January 3, 2004

French journalists view of Iraq war gets him fired

From Yahoo/AP bq. Reporter Alain Hertoghe's book accused the French press of not being objective in its coverage of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. His newspaper fired him. bq. The book, "La Guerre a Outrances" (The War of Outrages), criticizes the French reporting for continually predicting the war would end badly for the U.S.-led coalition. bq. "Readers can't understand why the Americans won the war," Hertoghe said in a telephone interview. "The French press wasn't neutral." bq. The book, published Oct. 15, charges French reporters were more patriotic than journalistic and what was written amounted to disinformation. bq. It examines daily coverage by five major French dailies, including Hertoghe's own La Croix, in the three weeks from the first strikes on Baghdad on March 20 to April 9 when Saddam Hussein's regime fell. bq. "As soon as there were a couple of wounded, of dead, they were talking about Vietnam, Stalingrad," Hertoghe said. bq. In contrast, work by journalists traveling with U.S. troops indicated that "the war was advancing well," he said. Not just one instance, not just one news source - five daily newspapers. The article goes on to say that none of the newspapers have replied to questions regarding this book and only one newspaper -- a freebie handed out in the subway system -- has reviewed it. Seeing what they want to see, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain... Posted by DaveH at January 3, 2004 8:17 PM