June 23, 2002
Dimanche en Le Monde
Dimanche en Le Monde
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| Le Monde. 23 Juin. |
Already this tells you a lot. It's easily one of the world's great newspapers, probably has the highest circulation in Paris (if not France), and certainly a leading voice in French politics. But they don't hurry it out by morning.
The American attitude on newspapers is that they should be one step short of peer-reviewed scientific journals of political and economic report.
The French papers are explicitly political. They call Chirac "Superliar". They call for rallies, and make themselves into protest placards (as was Liberation's cover against Le Pen, with an enormous "NON"). The lead story on Le Monde's cover is most often illustrated with a political cartoon, not a photo. At least a third of the cover inches are given to commentary, some directly from politicians advocating particular views.
As if American papers were not political. The oldest dailies surely are, think NY Daily News vs. NY Post. But the explicit project of the NYT, WSJ, WP etc is to isolate the editorial page into a hermetic box. The paper itself feigns to objectivity, the reporters are instructed to present all sides. The paper is meant to present the dialogue itself, not participate in a larger one that occurs on a wider stage.
There is much less room for news and wires in Le Monde. It's much more like the Economist than the Reuters newsfeed. The Economist reporter will say, Murdoch is buying fast (and it's a good thing too because otherwise he'd be toast, or whatever).
It all happens under the banner of the paper as well; very often, highly particular viewpoints (such as one recent frontpage box laughing at "Tony the Rascal's" problems with Her Majesty the Black Rod--which they translated as "la verge noir", the first meaning of "verge" being "penis") will be presented as from "our correspondent in London".
They also now include the New York Times on Sunday. (Le Monde on Dimanche costs exactly what it costs every other day, euros1,20.). I'll check the NYT/LM out and report back on it later. But the 12-page insert runs in English, not French. The American transmission appears not as an integrated body of reporting, but as an undigested ingot of Americanism. Presumably it is also spit out in just this fashion.
Posted by amol at June 23, 2002 01:57 PM