Labor strikes
These labor strikes, by the way, are majorly annoying. Public transportation has been majorly disrupted because the protests invariably spill beyond their planned routes and block the tram, but you don't know about it until it's already happened. This evening as I was coming home, it apparently got so bad that they had to close the main metro transfer station in the center of town. I saw fire crews rushing to catch the train in the direction of this transfer station--hopefully they were only going for only preventative measure. But apparently the protests escalated to a new level today, with police throwing tear gas at protesters in Bellecour and teenage hooligans smashing store windows and stealing stuff.
But, wow, I'm really disappointed with the NYTimes' coverage of these strikes. The text has been pretty standard, but the photos and videos with their captions, are quite misleading. The caption for the first photo in this slideshow used to say "In Lyon, protesters clashed with riot police" (emph. added) implying there was conflict, when the police in fact were informed days beforehand of the protest and it was a standard march.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/19/world/20101020-FRANCE.html
Photo 5 at least has a more accurate description "While most marches seemed orderly, about 300 young people threw barricades of garbage cans to snarl traffic in the Place de la République in central Paris..." Yep, that's the disorderly element, but of course it's what catches American news media's attention.
In this video, the line of cars waiting for gas at minute 2:03 is actually a line of cars waiting to pull into an underground parking garage (notice the blue signs with the white P on them).
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/timescast/1247467375115/index.html?hp
DrudgeReport, in comparison, is not much better, linking to yahoo story that makes it seem like violence has overtaken the country. And FoxNews.com isn't misrepresenting the events because it isn't even representing the events. I looked the entire homepage over and it didn't make the headlines for the section on world events; instead the theft of a Cartier ring got repeated twice.
The actual big effects of the strikes are not the handful of rocks thrown at police by youths, or youths looting stores, or youths setting garbage cans on fire. These are limited incidents by young guys just looking for an incentive to cause trouble. The big effects are the blockade of the refineries and oil depots and the major impact on national and international transport by train and air. That's what's "crippling" the country: the inability to run businesses smoothly, of travel plans disrupted, of transport of goods being delayed. Some punks lighting a garbage can on fire is more flashy but it's little impact and should mostly be ignored.
But, wow, I'm really disappointed with the NYTimes' coverage of these strikes. The text has been pretty standard, but the photos and videos with their captions, are quite misleading. The caption for the first photo in this slideshow used to say "In Lyon, protesters clashed with riot police" (emph. added) implying there was conflict, when the police in fact were informed days beforehand of the protest and it was a standard march.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/19/world/20101020-FRANCE.html
Photo 5 at least has a more accurate description "While most marches seemed orderly, about 300 young people threw barricades of garbage cans to snarl traffic in the Place de la République in central Paris..." Yep, that's the disorderly element, but of course it's what catches American news media's attention.
In this video, the line of cars waiting for gas at minute 2:03 is actually a line of cars waiting to pull into an underground parking garage (notice the blue signs with the white P on them).
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/timescast/1247467375115/index.html?hp
DrudgeReport, in comparison, is not much better, linking to yahoo story that makes it seem like violence has overtaken the country. And FoxNews.com isn't misrepresenting the events because it isn't even representing the events. I looked the entire homepage over and it didn't make the headlines for the section on world events; instead the theft of a Cartier ring got repeated twice.
The actual big effects of the strikes are not the handful of rocks thrown at police by youths, or youths looting stores, or youths setting garbage cans on fire. These are limited incidents by young guys just looking for an incentive to cause trouble. The big effects are the blockade of the refineries and oil depots and the major impact on national and international transport by train and air. That's what's "crippling" the country: the inability to run businesses smoothly, of travel plans disrupted, of transport of goods being delayed. Some punks lighting a garbage can on fire is more flashy but it's little impact and should mostly be ignored.