The war of French politicians and media against the American media ended up crossing the Atlantic, thanks to a phone call from President Emmanuel Macron, who called the New York Times to complain.

Until then, the indignation of the French president, but also of a good part of the press, against the American media guilty of not having understood the shock of the assassination of Samuel Paty in France, had been ignored on this side- this from the Atlantic. By picking up his phone, Emmanuel Macron made sure that this is no longer the case: his “war” with the American media appears since this Sunday in the New York Times, under the headline “The President vs the American media” .

Ben Smith, the columnist specializing in the media of the New York Times tells how the French president called him Thursday to be indignant at what the Anglo-American press “preferred to denounce the French integration system rather than those who committed ” the attacks of recent weeks. “And when I see, in this context, many newspapers which I think come from countries which share our values, which write in a country which is the natural child of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and which legitimizes this violence, which says that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, I say: the fundamentals are lost”Insisted Emmanuel Macron to the columnist.

The French president only wanted “to be understood” he explained. On reading the editorial, nothing is less certain… Ben Smith notes in particular that the Macronian lament has Trumpian accents (“attacking the press to serve its political goals ”), which, he suggests, does not please the occupant of the Elysee.

But the underlying criticism of Ben Smith goes deeper. While he does not deny the American misunderstandings regarding the concept of French secularism, the columnist notes that, “some of the reports that offended the French the most simply reflected the opinion of black French and Muslims who do not see the world as the French elites want ”. The French elites are outraged that the progressive American press does not understand the distinctions between French-style secularism and American-style religious freedom, but, notes Mr. Smith, “Such abstract ideological distinctions may appear remote from the daily life of the many ethnic minorities in France, who complain of police abuse, residential segregation and discrimination at work”.

“I am one of your readers, I read your newspapers” launched Emmanuel Macron to Ben Smith to convince him that he was not a Donald Trump. On reading the result of this phone call, the French president risks having to spend a lot of time on the phone if he wants to read articles in the Times that are more in line with his view of the world …

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