Postponement and Observation

In light of the attacks in London, I am postponing the previously announced post on the Spanish Socialists.

Shortly after the London bomb blasts, an anchor on the French 24 hour cable news channel LCI noted that George W. Bush had in a recent speech stressed the need to combat terrorism. Turning to a French security expert who had been invited onto the program to comment upon the unfolding events, he asked: "In effect, the President of the United States is right, isn't he?"

It is exceedingly rare to hear such words on French television. It is sad - and highly revealing of the mix of negationism and apologetics that reigns in the French media with respect to the terrorist threat - that it should require tragic events like today's attacks to elicit them. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the French media will tend to follow the instinctively, I dare say, human reaction of this one newsman - and not rather, as according to the ingrained habits, tend somehow or another to minimize or relativize the events: to blame Bush, blame Blair, blame the victims.

We'll no doubt have some first indices by tomorrow...