Another Google Alert cropped up in our services, but this time it wasn’t another article about “Freedom Fries”, but – alas – “French Surrender”. As soon as we investigated the link, we discovered that the TMZ Staff from Glendale California thought it would be quite humorous to write some fluffy entertainment story about Britney Spears in France and bash the French at the same time.
The headline was vulgar and blunt: Brit Performs, French Surrender.
We immediately posted a note in their comment section which read as follows: “Very disappointed by TMZ’s French Bashing. By referring to the 1940 surrender to describe some pop culture news, TMZ is showing utter contempt and disdain for a people and their history. To the French, the 1940 surrender is as funny as 9/11 is to Americans. Please show some cultural understanding the next time you wish to write something about France or the French.” We added for good measure a quote by Edward C.Knox.
Within hours, our comment was removed. Was it the mention of 9/11? TMZ can dish it out certainly, but can they take it? It seems not. These cowardly writers believe they can vilify and trash the French anytime they want, but when faced with the ugliness of their words, they censor.
Source : TMZ.com
Act Now : Contact TMZ and let them know how you feel about French Bashing and the trivialization of our painful history and request an immediate retraction
Please feel free to leave your own comments over at TMZ’s page as well as comments to the staff. Just watched this evening’s show on cable and they mentioned Britney and France, but no attempt at Anti-French yuk yuks on air.
The staff, save Harvey Levin, seems to be comprised of 20somethings with a lot of blogging experience but the historical perspective of gnats.
What’s unfortunate, as I mentioned in a previous thread, is how fighting against French Bashing is like whack-a-mole. Every time you think things have quieted down, another case pops up somewhere else…
TMZ is the slimiest gossip website of all, and there’s no shortage of disgusting ones on the Net. They enjoy reactions to their french bashing the same way they enjoy taking videos of celebrities getting violent after a pap provoked them to that effect. Same tactics.
After I send them a comment (that disappeared within less than 2 minutes), asking them if they bashed the French because France is one of the only countries where privacy is protected by the law and they would not be able to do their disgusting “work” the way they do in the US, a flurry of very violent replies to my post were published (of the “nuke’em, kill’em” type), which is funny considering my original post had stayed online only a few minutes before it got taken down. Not so many people must have had the time to read my post, but it still got dozens of french-bashing replies… probably emanating from TMZ people and not readers, I guess.
Not really a direct comparison. A big reason for the derision of the French regarding the surrender was the fact that they..and by they, I mean the government and it’s police, military, etc.. basically becaome an extension of the Nazi party in France with the Viche government. It wasn’t just that the surrendered…they had no chance militarilily, so they cannot be faulted for that necessarily..but they paved the way for derision with their awful, awful behavior and support of the Nazi’s and making life difficult for the Allies in WWII…that has a lot to do with the attitude towards the French regarding WWII. Unfortunately with regards to WWII, the French did alot to warrant a huge amount of criticism from allied nations. This is a long standing prejudicial feeling towards the French by americans and other Allied countries…and the surrender itself is not really the issue
Hey Bob, what about the Free French? What about the Résistance? Read up in “112 gripes” for some first-hand figures and facts, from the US intelligence bureau itself.
Sure, some were collaborators, but there were plenty who also, even after the defeat of their country, fought on at the Allies’ side. They campaigned extensively in Noth Africa (remember the heroic battle of Bir Hakeim!) Lebanon, Italy, France — by the end of the war, they fought their way into Germany alongside the U.S. divisions! Maybe they weren’t that decisive — that’s besides the point — but it’s the principle that counts.
You can’t lump all Frenchmen into a bunch of nazi sympathizers in Vichy. Most often, those were just gangs of blackshirts who, already before the war, were waiting for a chance to pounce — just like in Spain (Civil war) or Italy (Mussolini’s rise to power).
And what about the U.S’ willingness to recognize the Vichy government? What about the Miquelon incident? Does this speak well of the United States?
Let’s not be so one-sided. All I’m asking for is balance; we must forget neither the good nor the bad. But right now, Americans are remembering the bad, and hiding the good. How noble is that? That’s not America — that’s Murrrka. The Murrrka of the Patriot Act, the Murrrka of Freedom Fries.
A couple of suggestions: we could all copy and paste Miquelon’s response (with miquelon’s permission of course) and send it to them en masse until the response is kept on the page. They had no right to remove Miquelon’s response. Another would be to ridicule TMZ itself. Hajnal is right, TMZ is a well know gossip rag.
I posted it, and posted a response to one of the bashers. Vive la France!
Poilu : well of course !
Poilu they censored the entry that was #40 something, but number #84 is still up, but let’s embarrass them.
Miquelon, I posted something yesterday but I don’t think it went up. Those guys at TMZ are probably high on drugs so they speak from their backsides.
LOL @ the French
Bob Dobbs,
I don’t know where you read your history — if you read some parochial edition published by some ignorant American printer, obviously, you’ll have a pathetically warped view of what was happening in France circa WWII. To say that the French military, police, etc all surrendered to the Nazis is <b> just a load of utter, despicable crap!</b> (Trust the likes of you to revise history!) You are thinking and speaking from your stupid backside, man!
This is a problem with these folks who think or pretend to know everything that went on in Europe during WWII but they don’t!
Speaking of military history, Bob Dobbs, don’t try to put that holier than thou act — US government and military in WW II acted despicably against its own elements, black soldiers and Japanese-Americans that many black soldiers preferred to stay behind in France than be counted in America… not to mention how completely abusive Americans were vis a vis their fellow Americans who happened by accident of colour and features to be Japanese.
So don’t get on your holier than thou frigging crap — if you wanna do that, learn more about French history so you don’t spew utter nonsense and moronic generalities!
(And don’t you start spewing nonsense again because lemme tell you that this is one commenter here who comes from a family with a long military officers lineage that dates back from the Napoleonic Wars (with members in the military continuing to this day) — so, don’t even begin to think you can sell your revised history; sell your history to parochial Americans like you.)
Hillblogger # 9: Did you check your mail? They seem to send a confirmation email. Until you confirm it, the post doesn’t go up.
André, Is that so, OK, will check. Thanks.
J’ai moi meme essayé de poster un commentaire sur leur site plusieurs fois pour me plaindre de ce French bashing et il n’a jamais été publié! Par contre tous ceux qui insultaient les Français n’ont pas été censurés. Ce n’est pas la premiere fois que TMZ se moque de nous et censure les commentaires!
Merci de nous défendre!
Coco vérifie tes mèls, il y a des liens de confirmation pour chaque message. Par contre, s’il y a censure, tu le verras quand on laisse passer ton message, puis quelques heures plus tard il n’y sera plus.
Okay! Merci je vais le faire! 😉
Kan wanteth war — Kan getteth war. If only Tourville were here! In any case, let’s beat the cr*p out of this proto-basher.
Heh! Ca marche…… 😀
Allez, les gars, tous ensemble! “La victoire en chantaaaant, nous ouvre la barrièèèèreuuu” 😉
I’ve recently learned how the United States treated the French soldiers in Indochina when the Japanese army invaded Vietnam. No air support (except for Claire Chennault’s, which led to the destitution of the leader of the Flying Tigers), and when the french army that had been fighting the japanese had to take refuge in China, they were kept there, under orders by Roosevelt.
FDR is one of the greatest presidents the United States have ever known, but as far as his dealings with France, he was completely in the wrong.
I clicked, “contact TMZ,” yesterday and expressed my disproval of their article.
Gerard Morvan #20 – A very interesting historical note indeed! May i ask, where you read this? I’d be interested in doing some more research for myself. Merci!
Screw France, I’m St. Nazaire right now and have been to Paris as well. The French have notoriously bad attitudes. You can’t compare a surrendering to 9/11 as after 9/11 America struck back France rolled onto itself like little women.
A documentary about the history of Vietnam which aired on the cable and satellite channel Histoire. I’m pretty sure it’s in every history book about Indochina.
You are in Saint Nazaire, Will Ross? Well, it’s not that long a trip to the island of Sein. Go there and learn about what those breton islanders did in june 1940, and why De Gaulle called them “a quarter of France”.
“France rolled onto itself like little women.”
France was invaded by an army. The US were scared to death by three or four towelheads.
#23 Will Ross: I bet you have trouble getting along with people everywhere you go. You need to learn good manners.
I would like to give people some very important information about how some very brave French people fought back against the Nazis during world War II. Yad Vashem is a holocaust memorial museum that is located in Israel and it has an international award which is given to non-jews who risked their lives to save the Jewish people from the nazis during World War II. This award has been given to people all over the world. Would you like to guess which country has the third highest number of citizens who have received this award? It is France and 2,833 French citizens have received this wonderful honor. Only three Americans have received it. You can go to www1.yadvashem.org and read about these brave holocaust rescuers. After you learn about the French holocaust rescuers who helped save Jewish people’s lives, please feel free to tell their stories to as many people as you can because people need to know about them.
Of course, it isn’t enough to simply educate people about the work of the French citizen who received this international award for saving Jewish people from the Nazis. We don’t to ignore any genocides that could kill innocent people anywhere in the world because this is inhumane and it doesn’t honor the memory of the holocaust rescuers. Unfortunately, there is a genocide going on in Darfur, Sudan right now and not enough people are doing anything to stop it. You can help stop it by visiting the following websites: iabolish.com, http://www.savedarfurcoalition.org, and http://www.standnow.org. After you start helping these human rights organizations, ask the French bashers what they are doing to stop the current genocide in Darfur, Sudan and learn what their reaction is to your question. If those idiots do nothing to stop this current genocide, then they are hypocrites and don’t have a valid reason to bash anyone because some people are French.
I’m an American citizen but I’m also 1/8 French Canadian. My great-great-grandparents immigrated from Quebec, Canada to the USA in the 1880s. They lived in New York, NY for a while and then they moved to Macon, GA. My maternal grandmother was born in Macon, GA and my mother was born in Atlanta, GA. I was born in Virginia but grew up in Atlanta. I still live here.
Will Ross,
You must be a masochist. What on earth are you doing in St Nazaire if you don’t like the French? You must be so sick?
Jeez, creeps like you should not be allowed to travel. You should be kept in isolation on bread and water treatment like many American low life jihadists.
Elaine,
wonderful bit of history — thanks!
“You can’t compare a surrendering to 9/11 as after 9/11 America struck back France rolled onto itself like little women.”
Do you know how many French “little women” paid for their lives during WW2, Will Ross (600 000)? Oh and while you’re in France, I suggest you visit the battlefields of WW1 and try to understand what a devastating war at home and 1.5 million dead soldiers really means.
It’s amazing, how the US are held in check by a bunch of determined outlaws, and spend years throwing punches in the dark and not hitting a damn thing (“War on terror”, A-stan, Iraq) and they dare gloat about how they “struck back”. And still, they’ve got the cheek to claim that our 100,000 dead, 200,000 wounded and missing in the first six weeks of fighting, are “rolling over like little women”. Hah!
But still, I guess 9-11 was a new experience to you; one of the first few times Americans get bombed on their home turf, I guess it’s normal for you to crap your pants. We French have been bombed on our home turf, and have had the fighting at our doorstep for hundreds of years.
Little women? After 9/11 the US overreacted like a hysterical adolescent girl, that’s what.
Hahahahah!
” The US were scared to death by three or four towelheads.”
So very true — I like that!
#24
The Yad Vashem memorial (the garden in fact) is not exactly a site commited to celebrate Resistance, fighting, but to remember those who helped Jews escaping the extermination planned by Hitler, which is not exactly the same. So it is objectionable to present the fact that a fair amount of French is represented there as an evidence that many French “fought back against the Nazis during world War II.” You can save Jewish lifes without “fighting back against the nazis” and similarly be a resistant without saving Jews. And anyway the fact that Americans are hardly represented has a very simple explanation : the US were never occupied. Saving a Jew threatened in his life is a personal moral act that can happen only in an occupied country. That’s why you also have many Poles in the Yas Vashem garden and only a few Britons.
[…] Miquelon.org » Monitoring Anti-French Activity » TMZ, French …I’ve recently learned how the United States treated the French soldiers in Indochina when the Japanese army invaded Vietnam. No air support (except for Claire Chennault’s, which led to the destitution of the leader of the Flying Tigers) … […]
I say, what’s that “surrender monkey friday” site that always gets caught up in the filters? Some sort of French-bashing site?
Sorry for being away from Miquelon.org, tragedy has hit St Pierre & Miquelon and time was spent updating news for the community over at RadioBarachois.com
Not sure what the pipes pick up on the web. They scour sites for “surrender monkey” among other keywords. Didn’t get a chance to investigate.
On another note, here’s a reddit thread on some ridiculous caffeine drink that offers French American Vanilla …
That thread is actually hope instilling — there is some very light bashing, but more often than not, people seem to condemn the bashing rather than revel in it.
I am beginning to think that French-bashing was almost necessary — as the puncture of a bubo on a plague-infested man. There was too much “bashing potential” built up, with all the Dennis Miller and whatnot.
Precisely, the other day, I saw an old post from a forum in… 2002, saying something like the French were unhappy and would surrender en masse.
So much for the Iraq war… I think it was just a catalyst, but that French Bashing has deeper, less tangible reasons.
One thing I can say that most of you cannot, I’ve been to 28 countries spanning five continents in my lifetime… including such countries as Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE. In all the countries I’ve been to, the French were the rudest people I have ever met. It wasn’t just one time either, I’ve been to St. Nazaire, Paris, Nantes (all work related travel). Iraqis that clean crap houses were friendlier.
Its a sad truth, and very unfortunate, but in the end, the french just need to learn a little more politeness and put aside their differences and arrogance. Granted that may just be my perception, but perception is what it is.
Comparing the french occupancy to 9/11 is not even possible, yes we were attacked by 21 total identified hijackers, and its also true that as a result we went and occupied several countries in the middle east for it. We hung Iraq’s dictator, killed his sons, permanently imprisoned those caught and tried and did so at the further expense of more than over 4,000 additional American lives. France invaded Germany when?
William, you only can speak of your experience in France as we were not there. On a sidenote, I found the people from Charleston West Virginia not only rude but creepy. I mean easy-rider scene in Louisiana pie shop “they ain’t making it to the parish line” creepy… but do I hold a grudge against all West-Virginians – or Americans – for that matter? Nope. May I raise the “self fulfilling” hypothesis here?
Anyway, my comparison deals with the hurt caused society and nation by each historical event. 9/11 hurt America deeply, and so did the 1940 “armistice” by Marshall Pétain given the ensuing occupation and its trail of misery.
Insofar as America’s response to 9/11, please explain to us how Saudi terrorists protected by Pakistanis and Talibans led to the invasion and occupation of Irak and a stalemate in Afghanistan ?
“France invaded Germany when?”
We invaded them back in Louis XIV’s time, the Germans surrendered in four weeks when Napoleon invaded them, and we also invaded Germany in WWI, and once during the interval between WWI and WWII when we occupied the Rhuhr region.
“we went and occupied several countries in the middle east for it. We hung Iraq’s dictator, killed his sons, permanently imprisoned those caught and tried and did so at the further expense of more than over 4,000 additional American lives.”
That’s called throwing punches in the dark.
4,000 American lives? That’s dandy. 100,000 Frenchmen DIED and another 200,000 were wounded during the six weeks of the Battle of France.
And also, what merit is there in invading such a weak and worthless country? The Iraqis didn’t even put up a fight! Hey, tell you what — if we Frenchmen were to invade Burkina Faso and kill a whole lot of people, would we be any better?!?
You forgot that France invaded Germany in 1945 as well. In fact, Leclerc’s troops (despite what they said in the TV series) were the first to reach Berchtesgaden. And then, we occupied the south of the country and north of Berlin for more than fifty years. I should know, my father was stationed in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden Oos, Rastatt and Berlin for a cumulative total of ten years, and myself, I did my military service in Trier.
Re: “And also, what merit is there in invading such a weak and worthless country?”
Sadly, bullies find such ignoble actions meritorious.
As I’ve said in the other post, I don’t believe, but not at all, that It is a measure of courage or intelligence for a government and a people who have at their command an omnipotent military poke holes on every square foot of land in a third world country and cause devastation and misery to its already suffering population. However, I do believe it takes immense courage and great intelligence NOT TO DO something as odious and ignoble as that.
(And for that we are called cowards?)
I support what has been said here: (my personal comments in italic)
[…] Just because the French military don’t go around rampaging like amoks when they are deployed like your friends are capable of doing or have done, i.e., incapable of identifying friends from foe, doesn’t mean that political will is lacking. […]
It is extraordinary that because our government and our military (or the French in general) don’t behave like the Americans do as when they impress media with their so-called “bravoura”, they interpret our own ‘un-amok’ or non-boisterous way of behaving outside a theater of war as being surrender monkeys. Remember when Bush pompously claimed before the whole world aboard an A/C “mission accomplished?
— the French are fielded everywhere and anywhere they are needed. That’s political will. In Kosovo, who do you think provided the ground ops so your folks could come in and bomb and awe (yet Americans have been feted while the French took backstage)? The French! […]
The French should perhaps stop remaining silently in the background when that happens and behave as pompously as their American colleagues???
[…] During the Russian Occupation of Afghanistan, while your American leader Bush was dealing with the Talebans, who was actually supporting, financing, providing training to the the Northern Alliance to battle their Russian occupiers? France! And that’s great political will. And who the frig did he turn to when he couldn’t attack both Iraqi and Afghan fronts knowing that if he did, he would fail? He begged NATO to take over and sought France’s help big time. France supported the request up to UN level (without France’s political will, it wouldn’t have been possible.) […]
In Afghanistan today, French Air Force and US Air Force work side by side bombing and ‘aweing’ the enemy, yet it’s only the US Air Force that receives public commendation. It is unfortunate that the American public take our being discreet there as a sign of French cowardice. It shows the breadth and depth, or lack thereof, of the average American knowledge of current events.