Back in the 1980s I remember are colleague who visited France being surprised to see newspaper headlines about shady dealings between the US and Iran. At the time, there was nothing in the US newspapers, but people in France said that the story had been in the press for weeks. The story eventually broke in the US press as the Iran-Contra affair.
I figured that in the modern days of internet access, the ability of a few networks or newspaper editors to keep the lid on news was long gone, but I was surprised hear of a somewhat similar situation from a colleague in France. I mentioned that Macron admitted that French voter would probably vote to leave the European Union if given a chance. He said that he was familiar with the story only because he reads the British press; the story never made the news in France.
Here is the story with a video clip of Macronâs interview in English:
You would think that the French president admitting that France would vote to leave the EU would be a big story, but when I do search in French the news sources that come up are RT and Sputnik, which are supported by the Russian government. Likewise, Breitbart was one of the few American news sites that covered the story; I searched CNN and found no mention of the interview. Most of the sources were from the UK.
Is this a case of actual censorship?
Or is just that most news editors in the US and France donât want to admit that the EU is so unpopular?
I am afraid that most journalists believe that the Brexit vote and Trumpâs election mean that people will vote the âwrongâ way if given a chance. News needs to be filtered to make sure they never reach the âwrongâ conclusions again.
The people of France voted against the treaty that established the EU in 2005; their government pretty much ignored the result and approved a revised treaty without a referendum.
Macron is probably right that people would vote to leave if given a chance, but the French government will make sure that a Frexit vote never occurs. Likewise, the French and American media will make sure that any news that is unfavorable to keeping the European Union gets buried.
And here is the quote in context from the Guardian.
"In the full interview, Macron questioned the way the UK had chosen Brexit. Asked if the French would vote to leave the EU in the same way, he said: âYes. Probably, in a similar context. But our context was very different, so I donât want to take any bets. I would have definitely fought to win.
âBut I think it is a mistake to just ask yes or no when you donât ask people how to improve the situation and to explain how to improve it.â
He added: âYou always take a risk when you ask in a referendum yes or no on a very complicated subject.â
How does the OP know it was not covered in France? I never get any results from Google for French news, from the French press, in French.
I have noticed this odd picking political sides of Brexit in the states. For whatever reason the right is aligning with Brexit as the left is aligning with remain, which all of this predates Trump by a bit, strange.
In truth the EU has been on the decline since the Greece bailout. Itâs been stagnant growth, rising debt, and negative interest rates. Now add in a dash of millions of third world migration and right wing populism the process has just been accelerated is all.
Yes he said he knew the French were disenchanted with globalization, and if given a simple âYes/Noâ âLeave/Remainâ question, they probably would have voted to leave the EU as well.
The implication is such momentous decisions should not be based on simple âyes/noâ questionsâŚand heâs right.
Thereâs lots wrong with globalizationâŚthat doesnât mean the answer is to blow it all up.
You donât need to be in there to read about what is happening as well as watching populism engulf Europe. The far right just won the EU France elections a few months ago.
