Routinizing the apocalypse

PARIS—Schools and churches were burned in several French towns in an 11th straight night of unrest and arson, despite words from the president that restoring order was a top priority. Damage from protests across France hit a new peak overnight, as rioters burned 1,408 vehicles…

Here is an event of historic world importance, and, as far as the mainstream media’s coverage of it is concerned, it’s already settled into a repetitive and meaningless routine. Day after day, for over a week and a half now, each day’s news coverage follows exactly the same pattern as that of the day before: “Youths rioting in towns near Paris,” “Riots spread to more areas,” “Worst night of violence yet,” “Worst rioting so far,”“1,300 cars burned,” “900 cars burned,” “Ministers meet,” “Government calls for calm,” “Chirac calls for order,” and on and on it goes, with all the stories using exactly the same phrases and giving exactly the same superficial view of what’s happening, and, apparently, with nothing changing and nothing being done. All the French government has done up to this point is, well, have meetings, call for calm, and call out more feckless police forces. Who would have thought that the end of France would be a bore?

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 07, 2005 08:29 AM | Send