Random journalism
Column: The media are taking the easy way out by misinterpreting the burning suburbs of France based on remote analysis, rather than investigating the situation on the ground, writes Oliver Fahrni.
Column The media make it easy for themselves,
to misinterpret the burning suburbs of France by remote diagnosis,
Instead of clarifying the situation on the spot, private TV is able to lay hands on the
Telephone, is journalism's remote diagnosis. The banlieue is on fire?
Clear case: It was the Islamists (Die Welt ...). No, the
Banlieue machos (Alice
Schwarzer, everywhere). Or the organized crime of
Drug gangs ("Tagesschau" SF 1)? In any case, it's all down to the bankruptcy of the
French integration model (all media).
And a misguided immigration policy! (ZDF ...) Oh no, it's raging
the war of cultures (Spiegel). No, no, the banlieue kids are
disadvantaged (Tages-Anzeiger). And so on.
So it is not so much a war of civilizations that is raging as journalism after
Random method. Diversity in simplicity. At best. Reality,
you have to admit, is annoying. What are facts such as the fact that
those suburbs where the Islamists are strong have remained calm (which
not in favor of the Islamists), or that the rebels are Frenchmen in
second and third generation or that hardly any of the over
500 people arrested were conspicuous to the police, what are such lowly
facts against the sublime beauty of thought, the
disadvantaged kids from the residential silos are disadvantaged? What should
the work of five thousand banlieue researchers against
the bright realization that integration has failed?
That it was actually quite successful, as the researchers tell us
is really annoying. Even the fathers of the rebels live and
think very French. The older brothers have university degrees
or at least a good technical education. Many were from the suburbs
out and are now thrown back in again because the
The cohesion of French society is crumbling. Where the kids follow the
Islam, it is a French, fictitious Islam, which is the
Islamic tradition of the grandfathers. It is not an integration crisis that is inciting the revolt, but a
Disintegration crisis. The whole of French society is collapsing under
the hammer blows of neoliberal policies; and what we have today, thanks to
burning cars, is only the most visible symptom
of a neo-capitalism that devastates the social sphere. Not only in the
Banlieue. In the petty-bourgeois neighborhoods where the natural descendants of the
Gauls live, it's not so much the cars that burn as the souls, as they extinguish
fathers are running amok or taking turns
suicided. France is not fraying at the edges, France
disintegrates in its midst. To whom this circumstance seems meaningless, who thinks: Crisis of the
Integration, disintegration crisis, whatever, what's the difference
is the Muggli he thinks his readers are.
But at least he has taken the annoying question off the table, which the more precise
view would entail: can, will such a thing also happen in Germany,
Italy or join us?
The correspondent could be able to talk about this, provided the medium still has a
has easily put into the picture. Fifty thousand street workers and
Social engineers know every corner, every motive, every emotional state. They
would like to tell you about it. We're not talking about Ouagadougou anyway.
From the left bank of the Seine to Bobigny is a maximum of 40 kilometers by metro.
minutes and from there to the settlements only a few taximeter cycles.
Vaulx-en-Velin, which already burned in 1990 and 1995, is divided into two
hours (TGV). Or you could take line 7 of the metro
from the Asian and white ghettos in the south of Paris, right across
the social geography, into the bustling center and from there on into the
African and Maghrebi ghettos in the north. The
Remote diagnosis. What is fascinating, of course, is how
this profession clings with grandeur to the claim that it creates
public about conditions, when all he is doing is arousing public
annoyance.
to misinterpret the burning suburbs of France by remote diagnosis,
Instead of clarifying the situation on the spot, private TV is able to lay hands on the
Telephone, is journalism's remote diagnosis. The banlieue is on fire?
Clear case: It was the Islamists (Die Welt ...). No, the
Banlieue machos (Alice
Schwarzer, everywhere). Or the organized crime of
Drug gangs ("Tagesschau" SF 1)? In any case, it's all down to the bankruptcy of the
French integration model (all media).
And a misguided immigration policy! (ZDF ...) Oh no, it's raging
the war of cultures (Spiegel). No, no, the banlieue kids are
disadvantaged (Tages-Anzeiger). And so on.
So it is not so much a war of civilizations that is raging as journalism after
Random method. Diversity in simplicity. At best. Reality,
you have to admit, is annoying. What are facts such as the fact that
those suburbs where the Islamists are strong have remained calm (which
not in favor of the Islamists), or that the rebels are Frenchmen in
second and third generation or that hardly any of the over
500 people arrested were conspicuous to the police, what are such lowly
facts against the sublime beauty of thought, the
disadvantaged kids from the residential silos are disadvantaged? What should
the work of five thousand banlieue researchers against
the bright realization that integration has failed?
That it was actually quite successful, as the researchers tell us
is really annoying. Even the fathers of the rebels live and
think very French. The older brothers have university degrees
or at least a good technical education. Many were from the suburbs
out and are now thrown back in again because the
The cohesion of French society is crumbling. Where the kids follow the
Islam, it is a French, fictitious Islam, which is the
Islamic tradition of the grandfathers. It is not an integration crisis that is inciting the revolt, but a
Disintegration crisis. The whole of French society is collapsing under
the hammer blows of neoliberal policies; and what we have today, thanks to
burning cars, is only the most visible symptom
of a neo-capitalism that devastates the social sphere. Not only in the
Banlieue. In the petty-bourgeois neighborhoods where the natural descendants of the
Gauls live, it's not so much the cars that burn as the souls, as they extinguish
fathers are running amok or taking turns
suicided. France is not fraying at the edges, France
disintegrates in its midst. To whom this circumstance seems meaningless, who thinks: Crisis of the
Integration, disintegration crisis, whatever, what's the difference
is the Muggli he thinks his readers are.
But at least he has taken the annoying question off the table, which the more precise
view would entail: can, will such a thing also happen in Germany,
Italy or join us?
The correspondent could be able to talk about this, provided the medium still has a
has easily put into the picture. Fifty thousand street workers and
Social engineers know every corner, every motive, every emotional state. They
would like to tell you about it. We're not talking about Ouagadougou anyway.
From the left bank of the Seine to Bobigny is a maximum of 40 kilometers by metro.
minutes and from there to the settlements only a few taximeter cycles.
Vaulx-en-Velin, which already burned in 1990 and 1995, is divided into two
hours (TGV). Or you could take line 7 of the metro
from the Asian and white ghettos in the south of Paris, right across
the social geography, into the bustling center and from there on into the
African and Maghrebi ghettos in the north. The
Remote diagnosis. What is fascinating, of course, is how
this profession clings with grandeur to the claim that it creates
public about conditions, when all he is doing is arousing public
annoyance.
Oliver Fahrni is a freelance publicist. Until 2001 he was
he was deputy editor-in-chief of Weltwoche and most recently head of foreign
of the Hamburger Woche.
