Ann Sterzinger writes:
I-Télé yanked Éric Zemmour off the air for a word he never said.
Days after I wrote about him last, French journalist Éric Zemmour got fired from his job at I-Télé because, back in October, he apparently told a reporter for the Italian paper Corriere della Sera that five million innocent, French-flag-waving Muslim citizens should be deported.
I thought that didn’t sound much like the laconic Zemmour. Indeed, a couple of clicks’ worth of “investigation” reveal that not only did Zemmour not say anyone should be deported, he wasn’t even asked whether they should be deported. The reporter asked him whether Muslim foreign nationals (not French citizens) living in France might be encouraged to perhaps board planes and boats. (Zemmour’s answer was ambiguous, and he finessed it further by discussing his concern that large numbers of unassimilated foreigners, many of whom are actively hostile toward their host culture, could spark a civil war.) The question was rephrased to “deported” when it went into print, and then the left in France ran with its own fantasy tale.
Funny thing is, the scandal played out just as the country reeled from a spate of jihad-inspired violent crimes. It would seem that naughty words are still more dangerous than ramming your car into a crowd of pedestrians.
Which is why it’s still worth continuing to write.
