Over the weekend during coverage of the French riots, a BBC reporter did the whole 2020/burning-American-cities thing. In the background of one clip, riot police were chasing masked youths at a Paris intersection. Others were lined in a shield formation, being pelted with rocks and bottles. Nearby a French flag lay burning. The English reporter, careful to mention that these aspiring atom splitters were just fighting for their future, ummed his way through flattering descriptions of a volatile situation, one in which a projectile could have smashed him in the face, before he launched the breezy “well-this-is-fine-mostly-peaceful-protests” routine, championed initially by CNN after the death of George Floyd.

Well, obviously it was not “fine”; anyone who agreed with that remark would then have to answer why “fine” or “peaceful” circumstances involved 7 000 people arrested before Saturday the 17th – which alone saw 2 400 protestors collared. They also might have to explain how spraying fiery aerosol in the face of a woman qualifies as a legitimate protest, let alone a “peaceful” one.

The BBC and other establishment media don’t always report on riots like this. At a protest in Southampton last year, protestors enraged by the police’s handling of the Henry Nowak murder picked up a wheelie bin and launched it at a group of unathletic English coppers running away. Then the BBC was quick to acknowledge how febrile the atmosphere was, speaking of the wheelie bin as if it contained AIDS or something. Or maybe it was because it was thrown by white, working-class darts enthusiasts.

The answer as to why the BBC and others behave like this entertains a number of theories. As the record shows, the BBC employs a handsome few of those paedo guys as producers. Unless a reporter makes explicit his awareness of historical injustice, the theory continues, he can look forward to waking up in a dark Soho alley with his pants round his ankles and a migraine.

Explanation

A more accurate explanation can be found in my friend Andy Ngo’s new book, The Zizians: Inside a Trans Death Cult. Researching why American media were so quiet on a wild murder spree terrorising parts of the country, Andy came face to face with the updated Associated Press (AP) stylebook, which is meant to be an American English grammatical guide, but is now just a woke reporting instruction manual, particularly since the 2022-2024 revision. In his introduction, Andy refers to an apparent and shocking rise in the number of reported murders committed by women in America as an example.

Did #MeToo unleash a generation of women serial killers? This is dangerous stuff: if you took that question to an old conservative in London, he may demand all women be immediately penned into internment camps – “until we figure out what the hell is going on”. You’d have to then hand the old boy the AP stylebook and there, he would see that it encourages killers (and others) to be identified in the way they identify themselves. So, not “women”, actually.

There is another entry that is interesting in the context. A new section of the stylebook illustrates something called “inclusive storytelling”, which also references pronouns, but could be interpreted as the continuum of CNN’s reporting in Minnesota, now snatched by the BBC. The BBC isn’t part of AP but it doesn’t have to be: the corporation sees woke stuff, and just takes it.

Part of you wants to feel sorry for today’s reporters and newsreaders subjected to this crap. Imagine the pressure. You have to maintain the establishment narrative, sound right-on and edgy, the only person you can really insult is whitey and if you depart – if you say the word “female” – there’s a Spanish Inquisition of television or newspaper executives waiting to discipline you, and after that, that rapey, slender producer with a gammy leg.

Social Justice

So bad is the reporting on France that critical information is being excluded, replaced by AP social justice conjecture so incoherent that it might as well be one of those lost African languages spoken by only four elders on a riverbank in Niger. In the unlikely event you’re seeking sympathy for the anarchists, then responsible – and honest – expression of the economics might do that. The 119% debt-to-GDP ratio in a country where the state now accounts for 57% of that GDP. Education underinflation investment where the interest on debt payments is set to overtake the department’s entire budget (next year). The entitlement and retirement complexes, the cradle-to-grave expectations or demands of its proudly unproductive citizens.

But it's also the stuff you’re not supposed to say, stuff the AP Stylebook and shifty BBC producers would hang you for. The relationships between the far left, led by the race communist creature Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Islamist groups. It’s the recent arrivals – by some estimates up to five million – nearly all of whom find it impossible to assimilate, or possess zero desire to. In that position, everything must burn, everything must fall – because it’s all meaningless.

These things need to be said because they are firstly, an accurate description of the present, and, secondly, a caution to other European nations who have also gotten themselves into a pickle with some of the same variables.

If Andy’s right about this, and there’s reason to believe he’s on the money, then journalists are just being ransomed by a book or interpretation and application of every bit as evil as The Exorcist. But I’d caution against charging into Paris, into a standoff between the police and masked youth, to rescue a reporter. Might be a bit too peaceful.