Foreign correspondent, journalism professor and author Howard French recently weighed in on the debate about media coverage of Charlie Hebdo and the massacres in Baga with a memorable stream of tweets. French has a deep understanding of Africa in the news, as a former professor in Côte d’Ivoire and the author of two must-read books about Africa, A Continent for the Taking and China’s Second Continent, about Chinese expansion in Africa.
French was reacting in part to a New York Times Public Editor note from Margaret Sullivan on the New York Times’s coverage of the two stories. He
references a Glenda Gordon article that notes the real problem: it’s not that we failed to value the deaths of those killed by Boko Haram, but that we did not value their lives.
Here’s French’s “Twitter Essay”:
1) NYT on Baga massacre "coverage seemed both light and late," by @Sulliview http://t.co/ZIftXStOor My 2 cents: http://t.co/ctRWaUAJIc
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
2) NYT on Baga massacre. Editors asks: ‘Is this a big deal? R we going to deploy someone?’ Good ?s, followed by defensive, sophist answers.
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
3) NYT on Baga massacre. Nigeria is not "remote," even if Baga is. Largest country in Africa, close to US, source of large portion of US pop
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
4) NYT on Baga massacre. Ebola coverage cited here. It was also late, w costly real world consequences.
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
5) On Baga. Individual reporters have worked v hard, done great stuff. Time to move beyond "they're really tired," or we'll get to it.
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
6) On Baga. It's time for honest discussion in US media abt how African continent is covered, including staffing resources and "news value."
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US press re Rwandan genocide. "Yeah, we're not really sure this is a big deal, you know, ancient tribal enmities and all. We'll get to it.
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US press re: Congo wars, 5 million death toll: Yeah, big country. It's a mess. So far away. And has anyone really counted all the bullets?
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US press, Ivory Coast meltdown: That's a French country isn't it?
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US media on ebola early on: Hey it's Africa. Sick people? What's new about that?
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US media on ebola later: Hey, Africans might contaminate us! Look, a case. (Full court press ensues… to Dallas)
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US media on Baga: Hey, we just did Ebola. Isn't there someone else to call?
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US media on Baga late. You know accuracy is sacrosanct to us, so until we have an exact and definitive death toll…
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
US media on Paris: Hey, these are our people. I mean people. I mean. Oh never mind. You know what I mean.
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 24, 2015
After all the criticism, genuinely big props to the Times for airing something like this in 1st place: by @Sulliview http://t.co/ZIftXStOor
— Howard French (@hofrench) January 25, 2015
“The Times’s West Africa correspondent”
The same guy is supposed to cover the AQIM/Tuareg rebellion mess, the ebola outbreak, Boko Haram, Nigerian oil, the Nigerian presidential election, the recent Gambian coup attempt by Americans…
Imagine if the Times had a single Western Europe correspondent.
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