From a Parisian very close to me: be wary of falling for the 'rioters & looters' slant on the protests in France. The most consumed press & tv in France is owned by a far right billionaire. Much of the Anglo press is feeding off a take designed to push an anti-immigrant, racist politic. Yes there is looting by some & can hurt small businesses, but what is not shown is the extreme brutality of the police, encircling peacefully protesting kids, teargassing & beating them as they beg for a way out.
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@JulianOliver If you think Franco abuse of power, via too-long ignored emotional range exercise is terrible, come to the US and witness ICE aggression displacement.
Every ICE agent should pass a Hollywood level, healthy performance of human emotions, prior to being graduated. At scale, emotional range should be core education, along with Behavioral Science, in every educational system.
@JulianOliver I notice Serge above insisting that a synagogue was attacked, and that only "Jewish-owned" (he means Israeli) or right-wing press dare to report on this.
I invite people to use their common sense to discern whether the centrist media are really in thrall to anti-Semitic and left-wing ideas, or whether this is, in fact, a manufactured smear to divide Jewish sentiments against left-wing movements.
@JulianOliver This sounds very similar to what was done in Portland with Black Lives Matter.
@JulianOliver French rebels are used to all this and at least since the sans-culottes.
@JulianOliver Heard the "immigrants are the looters" thing from a colleague today, and knew she was just parroting the media.
@JulianOliver there is looting by some, even the police.
@JulianOliver Yup. Macron's address was quick to try to create division among protestors and focusing on the damage rather than the issues at hand. Transparent and predictable.
what is not shown is the extreme brutality of the police, encircling peacefully protesting kids, teargassing & beating them as they beg for a way out.
Or ramming protestors with armored SUV.
I have met with French Flics (Police) Extreme violence is the norm, corrupt and mini IQ on top.
The mostconsumed press tv in France it's not owned by Bolloré.
Yes, it is true that in 2025 CNews (owned by Bolloré) was the most consumed tv chain, but since the beginning of 2026, CNews audience has been falling, people don't trust them anymore:
"Viewership for the 24-hour news channel CNews is plummeting. Having been overtaken by BFMTV and LCI in April, Vincent Bolloré’s channel is struggling to stem a credibility crisis. "
@JulianOliver saw a video earlier of some black-clad and masked guys lobbing stuff into a building
Then they ran back to a police group and were calmly escorted away.
Police agitators.
From what I have seen from international news media (CNN, BBC, Al-Jazeera, DW, TRT) interviewing protestors they seem to be a mixed bag ethnically but on #socialmedia and the #internet I see a lot of racism being thrown around against immigrants, black people. Algerians, Muslims and Anti-Semities !
(because there seem to some protestors with 🇵🇸 Palestinian flags)
The Onion sums it best.
The news loves to amplify the bad stuff happening.
In France, there is the myth of the "Violent Left". There are violent people on both sides, but a successful propaganda campaign has convinced people that most leftists are bloodthirsty savages and the only reason why there are leftists is because they are paid to show up to events and make YouTube videos.
2 people died. People have lost limbs. Police were caught looting and starting fires. But the poor are the enemy?
Your source seems to be very biased.
Sounds like #LFI or extreme left propaganda
Not all tv is owned by Bolloré, we do have public tv.
So, we avoid Bolloré (Cnews), but you can trust BFM, LCI, FranceInfo, etc.
What about the reports that a hidden synagogue (ie a synagogue that was temporary with no outside markings) was ransacked?
@serge No idea, unsure of your point. But I doubt it was the will of tens of thousands of kids, that have been very clear as to why they are protesting.
My point is that saying "The source is biased" is not sufficient to dismiss its claims. Media bias is everpresent- and I can give you hundreds of examples of that on a variety of topics.
I was born in Paris and am fully aware of how "intense" French protests can be. But dismissing the concern because the reporter is right wing is to ignore the suffering of innocent people.
Also... a destruction of a place of worship should be sufficient for it to be condemned. There doesn't need to be any other "point".
@serge @JulianOliver in Paris Sunday, in the marais one store and only ransacked. It was not the demonstrators it was regular thief hiding behind them with the police occupied.
That may be the case. The synagogue was in the 19th.
@JulianOliver young orchestra playing in Paris and police throwing tear gas grenades