Let me tell you how the media works.
I live in Paris, France. In 2005, there were some riots in the poor, immigrant-dominated outskirts of Paris. When I say riots, I basically mean young
kids setting cars on fire, while throwing rocks at firemen and police. It's a pretty common occurrence in Paris suburbs, but this time it spread to
other similar suburbs in other cities, so it became a national event.
The media was all over this like flies on fresh cow dung. My aunt who lives in Austria called me up - real worried - and asked me if I needed to come
over to Austria to take refuge, because the impression she got from watching Austrian TV was that the whole of Paris was in flames, and you could
hardly go outside without getting attacked by violent rioters. Amused, I explained to her that in central Paris, not a siren could be heard, no cars
burned and everything was just business as usual.
So in short it works like this, you blow it all out of proportions, the story ends up on page one, if you report it factually the story ends up in the
back next to the weather section.
Lots of people only read page one.
I didn't see the riots that apparently took place in Spain a few days ago, but I did see the demonstrations that took place in France last week with
my own eyes. Mainly it was just lower middle class and working class people demonstrating against a pension reform. No riots, no police cars burning.
Every European country has its particular social/economic woes, and the reasons for protesting are all different. So if you try to bunch them all up
and read something out of it, you're making a conspiracy out of nothing.
edit on 2-10-2010 by Heliocentric because: Among the lilacs Lips embraced in spring's sweet air -- Petals paint the floor
