Why this Blog?

A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.



Comments

I welcome your comments, so do please write. Please note however that all comments are moderated prior to publication. Whilst I fully appreciate that life can be frustrating, nevertheless, abuse, SMS language and illiteracy will not be tolerated!

Monday 25 February 2008

French News Nonsense

French TV is pretty grim: you might think that the TV where you are is bad - it is after all a world-wide problem - and I suppose that TV is the ultimate expression of the Age of the Common Man.

Here in France, we have TF1, this is basically the pits, with gormless game shows with even more gormless audiences, Star Academy, a load of American rubbish and the main 8 o'clock news in the evening read by either of their "star" newsreaders, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor or Claire Chazal, both of whom are inveterate mumblers in the current French speaking style. I won't bore you with the rest of the channels, though Arté is good.

So I watch the 8 o'clock news on France 2, the premier public channel which, to be fair, does actually have some decent programmes from time to time; even I can understand some of what the newsreaders say on this one.

This evening however, they blotted their copybook with a powerful surge of that great French disease: nationalism - a major curse in my view.

The news programme usually lasts 35 minutes (no advertising break). This evening the first 12 minutes were devoted principally to the fact that a French actress has won an award (an "Oscar") for appearing in a film about Edit Piaf the famous French singer (a "double-whammy" already then!). The remainder of the 12 minutes were taken up with extracts of her previous films and archive footage of various French "Oscar" winners through the years. ==Yawn==

Next up on the programme we had reports of a couple of workers' demonstrations (another French curse) and then a piece reporting criticism of the President, M. Sarkozy (another curse in the eyes of many) who is being seen as not sufficiently "presidential" in his behaviour.

Then there was an item featuring the Prime Minister M. Fillon (who at least looks and acts like a Prime Minister) all about the high food prices in France (another curse to add to the heap). And then we saw a map of Great Britain showing us where London is - but relax, it concerned a murder case involving (tragically) some French children and their grieving parents.

After this? Back to France with a story about the lack of snow in a place called Abondance famous for its cheese.

And that was that, more or less. Nothing about Iraq, the oil price, Iran, Darfur, China, Russia, the US elections, Pakistan, Chad, Al Quaida and so on.

Global Village? I don't think so!

Curously, the losing French Rugby team didn't get a mention...

Until the next time

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

France2, Pujadas: aren't they ridiculous? They're becoming television of the state - or television of the government...
(je voulais dire que c'était bien désormais "LA télévison d'Etat": je ne sais si j'ai exprimé correctement cette expression dans votre langue, Paul! En tout cas, c'est très chinois, maintenant, le PAF! "Paysage audiovisuel français")

Bonne soirée,
Fleur

Paul said...

Merci Fleur.

En anglais, "State Television" est parfait!

J'éspère que tout va bien pour vous.

Anonymous said...

ah, mais bien sûr, "State Television"! où avais-je la tête!
Merci.
Pour répondre à votre question-espoir: des hauts, des bas. Mais ça va mieux, en cette fin de printemps, merci, Paul.
Et vous? Vous espère en forme!
Fleur

Paul said...

Merci encore, Fleur.

On peut dire "Official State Television" aussi!

C'étais un très bon printemps oui?

Moi - comme vous avez dit, de haut et bas - peut-être un peu plus de bas - et mon français? eh bien voila!!

Anonymous said...

Oui, Paul, voilà, plus de bas que de haut... mais les saisons se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas! Souhaitons un été sans nuages!
Et votre français est toujours bien meilleur que mon anglais (il faut que je réapprenne l'anglais-américain: j'ai un neveu de six ans à Washington, il ne parle que l'américain, et vite, trop vite! donc bientôt, je me remets à mes grammaires d'anglais! au moins pour lui)...
à bientôt
Fleur