Free thinking in France

France is not like Britain. Obviously. But nowhere more obviously than in the variety of media political leanings. Brits might complain about newspapers, but at least you get a choice depending on whether you support right-wing attitudes (Daily Mail) or  lefty points of view (Guardian) or a bit of this bit of that (Independent although more lefty if their reader commenter-ship is anything to go by), etc.

In France we have far left, trendy left, left of centre, left left and all points in-between. The left have decided that they have the monopoly of 'competitivité moral' and if you want anything else the internet is the only place you'll find it. So, if your sources of news and information are newspapers and the tele which is nauseatingly left-wing then your world view will be based on the biased and politically correct attitudes of French entertainer-journalists. I wouldn't flatter them with the title of pure journalist because they have little capacity or indeed need for independent thought in their work.

Last night I watched 'Ce soir ou jamais' on France2. I usually avoid these 'discussion' programmes because all they offer is smug, self-satisfied verbal diarrhoea from a bunch of self-proclaimed leaders of opinion. Or you get a media lynching, or trial by vicious media luvvy where 4-6 politically correct moralisers 'debate' with one person who doesn't agree with them. They turn on the victim with the aim of humiliating, criticising, ridiculing, and breaking them so that they become destabilised and aggressive whereupon they are accused of being dangerously enraged.

Anyway, last night I watched the programme and, as usual, it was squatted by those-who-believe-themselves-superior-because-they-own-the-nation's-moral-compass. They were discussing economics, the rise of violence and the Boston bombings. One guy, a supposed humorist who I've never heard of, Alevêque, declared that he knew nothing about economics or geopolitics but he had a 'donneur de leçon' opinion anyway. Why he was there I have no idea unless it was to expose us to the 'common man' understanding of what was being said. Not that he would identify himself with the common man, heaven forbid. He was a peculiar shade of orange too.

Basically he had nothing to say, but he was given the same amount of speaking time as those who did have sufficient intelligence to say something worth hearing, and his idiotic statements were regarded with as much consideration as those who knew their stuff and added to the debate. He did not add to the debate, too stupid. He was just there to add moral fibre I suppose, a bit like verbal All Bran... (and similar in colour).

The same day, funnily enough, I received through the post a letter telling me about a new television channel called 'Notre antenne'. It is being set up by Philippe Milliau as an antidote to the nauseating mono-thinkers that pollute our screens on a daily basis. You may remember when I wrote about an exchange on a chat show where the star presenter declared that anyone who does not bide by politically correct diktats should be banned from the tele: "Mais on a le droit de penser ce que l'on veut" -"Non!".

There is an urgent need for a channel where you can think what you like, where debate covers both sides of an argument equally, where people who represent both sides of an issue are invited onto programmes in equal numbers and which does not pander to the lobbies of vocal minorities. The majority exists too, but they are not represented as such in the msm except to be criticised for not thinking or behaving politically correctly.

The channel will be available on the internet mainly because a politically incorrect group has no chance of obtaining the necessary authorization to broadcast from the CSA (body that dishes out television broadcast licences). New technology has made it possible to create a television channel for the internet which is less costly to produce than traditional television. More and more people have access to fast broadband connections thus by-passing their dependence on multi-national group/-millionaire owned, publicity-dependent tele.

Their first test broadcast was the Bobards d'Or 2013 which I watched, and which was very professionally produced.

The letter I got was asking me to support this fiscally advantageous project (66% off donations) with money, and/or four other types of contribution: an office in Paris, voluntary help from those with televisual experience, ideas for programmes, or time to give a hand with manning the phones, administration, etc. for those living in Paris.

I think it's a very interesting project and I'll be watching out for further news on its progress. If you have any ideas for them, you can contact them by a gmail address: projectnotreantenne.