Excerpt from an article in Le Monde:
All
together now
Robert Solé [Newspaper Ombudsman]
Translated by Douglas
French original: "Tous en chœur"
(Robert Solé, Le Monde, 2003/02/22)Since 12 February, every day on the last page, Le Monde has put two questions to various personalities: “Is another war on Iraq justified? Do you approve of France’s position?” We’ve read answers from filmmakers, writers, lawyers, scientists, an architect, a former astronaut, a navigator...
This exercise has not necessarily made every reader happy. From London, Jean-Luc Alexandre cries enough! “For pity’s sake, spare us the commentaries from all manner of artists and athletes, who transform themselves into geopolitical analysts just for the occasion and all sing a one note melody in praise of the enlightened French position. Is it really worth knowing that Guy Roux sees no link between 11 September and Iraq? This charming unanimity among media stars seems dubious and worrisome to me. Le Monde is in large measure contributing to spreading the idea that on the subject of Iraq there are two opposite sides: that of reason, incarnated by Guy Roux, Juliette Gréco, David Douillet and, who knows, maybe to-morrow the heroes of “Star Academy,” and that of the Doctor Strangeloves who are, besides, obsessed (with God, hatred, revenge, etc.).”
A one-sided debate, at any rate: of the 27 voices heard, 26 came out more or less for the French position. It should be said that the editors had trouble finding hawks. Some of those asked to contribute refused to reply; others wanted to tell us all the bad things they think of Saddam Hussein, all the horror that terrorism held for them, but not much more. For lack of combatants, the column was canceled on 21 February.
Readers who aren’t listed in Who’s Who are apparently ready to be interviewed. They are demanding to speak by the same right as that of the celebrities. “I am in favor of war because it could be a just war, as in Serbia or Afghanistan, and because I remember 11 September 2001 and so many other great murders that demand condemnation, reparation, memory,” writes Gérard Barbieri (Paris, 13th arrondissement). Same reaction from a Web surfer from Rueil-Mailmaison (Hauts-de-Seine), B. de Saint Ours: “How fortunate for Europe that it should have a few statesmen such as Blair, Aznar and Berlusconi who, sometimes rowing against the current, will be able to lead us down the path to honor. What luck for Europe that the countries that have just joined her are reminding our old France that it is high time she awoke from her wintertime torpor.”
It remains that the French in general and the readers of Le Monde in particular are overwhelmingly opposed to the preventive war sought by George Bush. Iraq in the service of national unity? Such a consensus hasn’t been reached since... the World Cup.
[...]
[Posted 2003/02/23]
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