TIME EUROPE
December 4, 2000, Vol. 156 No. 23
Full-Screen Press
French television program Arrêt sur Images entertains audiences by taking the media to task
By BRUCE CRUMLEY Paris
If the French public's appetite for news sometimes appears insatiable, so does its lingering suspicion of being manipulated — and even lied to. Such misgivings lead many French news junkies to top off the week's diet of partisan papers and ratings-obsessed nightly newscasts with a dose of Arrêt sur Images (Freeze Frame). Every Sunday at noon, the program examines how the media can skew information, propagandize reporting and sensationalize coverage of events. "The lines between journalism and entertainment have been blurred, and people are being influenced as much by the manner in which information is being presented as by the information itself," says Daniel Schneidermann, a former Le Monde television critic who has hosted
Arrêt sur Images since its launch in 1995. "We help viewers discern hard facts from opinion and show-business packaging that often passes as news."
That sifting process is done each week in programs that compare the depictions of selected events and provoke debate among journalists, producers and TV executives who are invited to explain — and justify — their work. Reporters for Arrêt sur Images prepare by conducting their own investigations into the varying ways news has been covered, noting evidence of manipulation and bias. "We're not out to ridicule people or ruin reputations, but our first and only responsibility is to the viewer," says Schneidermann of that inquisitional approach. "Television and the images it broadcasts have such power and influence that we're not scared to step on toes if that helps us and our audience get closer to objective truth faster."
Playing the role of France's loudest-barking media watchdog has earned Arrêt sur Images wide critical acclaim. But it hasn't necessarily thrilled TV insiders. Broadcast on the educational public channel La Cinquième, Arrêt sur Images enjoys a freedom from commercial considerations that allows it to speak more frankly than larger operations more beholden to ratings. As commercial TV has injected its priorities into news programming, Arrêt sur Images has widened its scope to include the pseudo news of "infotainment" — current affairs shows that tend to treat news as entertainment. Disturbed by the carelessness and intellectual dishonesty often evident in such programs, Schneidermann and his team conduct counterinvestigations that have debunked at least two sensationalized prime-time broadcasts — including one that incorrectly exculpated neo-Nazis in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery in the south of France.
But Arrêt sur Images' regular focus is on conventional news coverage and how viewers may have been misled by it, both intentionally and accidentally. For example, its analysis of war reporting in Kosovo — and more recently Israel — featured journalists explaining how their work inadvertently became a tool of combatants' propaganda aims. Similarly, a program in November discussed how the compulsion to be first with breaking news led many channels to repeatedly supply worldwide viewers with erroneous results in the U.S. presidential election. At the height of France's New Economy frenzy earlier this year, Arrêt sur Images analyzed business coverage — and its use of American start-up lingo without explanation — and found lots of hype for unremarkable French businesses in an effort to heighten the dotcom mania. The show also examines how news programs favor certain guests over others and has blown the whistle on conflicts of interest involving reporting — and even product-placement — that benefits companies in a channel's ownership group.
Though praised for its integrity and thoroughness, Arrêt sur Images has plenty of critics. They note that its viewer base is relatively small — just 5% of a total Sunday noon audience of 13 million. But that diminutive share is also one of the most valuable in ratings terms, representing viewers in the highest educational and income brackets. Reaching that viewership is considered so important that few guests can resist Arrêt sur Images' invitations to be raked over the coals for an hour. Even the heads of France's main TV channels agreed to participate in the program's 200th broadcast last March.
Nonetheless, there are topics that insiders would rather duck than defend. "Top TV executives won't come to debate how violence on television may impact viewer behavior," laments Schneidermann. "Despite the importance of the subject it remains an industry omertà." While he awaits more cooperation from TV big shots on that subject, Schneidermann will continue scrutinizing the other failings and hidden agendas of news coverage that influence — and exasperate — French viewers.
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