Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Are we getting biased French news about the Ivory Coast? 

Scholar Jack, meanwhile, has sent to me a letter from a colleague of his from the Ivory Coast. The letter is quite long, so I've uploaded it for people to read. Jack reports:

He claims the French are supporting the rebels to keep their hands on oil deposits; the elected government is pretty popular but it trying to put the oil up for international bids. Hence all the stuff about Frenchmen (and one American) being killed, the French taking out the Ivory Coast air force, etc.

And the big problem here ist hat the American press are simply taking their feeds from the French media and presenting it uncritically.

I did some scouring of the news. An example of U.S. coverage would be this article in the Christian Science Monitor. It does seem as if the focus is on French troops killed and not the locals who may have been killed by French forces. The irony of this position is not lost on everyone.

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