I Don't Even Know Him, But...

The work new articles written by Sebastian Rotella of the Los Angeles Times based in the French bureau is a prime example of what I call "journalistic activism."

In the wake of so much protest against "judicial activism" where supposedly impartial judges defer the task of interpreting law from a politically neutral position to pursue indoctrination of their own political and moral agendas through rulings from the bench.

I will not get into a debate regarding Right and the Left on the issue of judicial activism, but point out that our countries "journalists" are committing the same misapplication of their duties.
Sebastian Rotella, in an article covering the Paris riots, all but declares himself an Islamic sympathizer by using ridiculously soft euphemisms to describe the criminals who are perpetrating riots.

Rotella: "With clashes ongoing in largely Muslim suburbs of Paris, officials deploy 1,000 police in hopes of reining in restive Arab and African youths."

"Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin held emergency meetings aimed at avoiding a crisis that the French have feared for years: large-scale disturbances in restive slums where youths of African and Arab descent feel rage against society."

"Restive" youths? "Restive" slums? As if somehow these rioters are not the instigators of the violence that has gone on in massive scale for eight days. Oh yes, they are the oppressed, the righteously indignant! They have a right to rebel and burn down shops in their own neighborhood. That's the spirit of independence taking hold in France, not insurrection and anarchy.

Rotella: "Nonetheless, police said there were not as many violent clashes as the previous night, when hundreds of young men rampaged in 20 working-class
communities that are a few miles north of the Paris city limits but a world away from the capital's glittering tourist attractions."

Sebastian, please just report the news. We don't need your smug, "working class" moral superiority injected into every paragraph you write. What do you mean "a world away form the capital's glittering tourist attractions"? Is this journalism or poetry? As if "a world away" was some sort of measurable distance. Well, I suppose the measure you are trying to imply is that the snooty Parisians are benevolently unaware of the riots in some revisionist Marie Antoinette sort of way. Please just report the facts and save the social commentary for the Op-Ed columns.

Rotella: "Violent disturbances are nothing new in the bleak public housing projects on the urban periphery, where intelligence officials say that the two most powerful social forces are the drug underworld and Islamic activism. Even minor incidents pitting police against youths periodically set off arson attacks on cars and assaults on symbols of the state: postal workers, firefighters, day-care centers."

"Islamic activism"? Is that the new and catchy politically correct terminology for terrorism? Somehow the "bleak public housing" and the "drug underworld" are the culprits here: because they youth are surrounded by hopelessness and bleakness, they have an increased propensity toward "violent disturbances". It's liberal socialist policy sneaking its way into reporting. Who are the drug lords and Islamo-fascists? The bleak buildings or the violent, unruly youth, I wonder?

Rotella: "Although Islamic extremism is seen as a serious problem in some of the affected neighborhoods, there is no indication that fundamentalist leaders have encouraged the unrest…"

In other words, if they don't encourage it, they're not condoning it, right? Just like if I don't encourage my son to be violent toward his sister and he smashes her face with a soda can it's not my responsibility. I didn't tell him to do it but I didn't tell him to stop either. I'm just an innocent bystander with no responsibility whatsoever. The Muslim community and its leaders haven't "encouraged the unrest" so they've done their part, I guess.

Rotella: "Despite France's extensive social welfare programs and emphasis on civil rights, the weeklong tumult reiterates the persistent difficulties of integrating a predominantly Muslim minority beset by unemployment, crime and identity crisis.'There's a gap between what the politicians say and reality,' said Abd al Malik, a writer and rap artist who grew up in a housing project after his parents emigrated from the Republic of Congo. 'Even the most banal incident can be a trigger because people are so frustrated. They are told this is their home, but they don't feel it is their home. 'The government has to convince them that the Republic accepts them, that they are French. There has to be a real profound effort, because this has the potential to become really dramatic.'"

Wait a minute. Don't the immigrants have a responsibility to uphold the laws of the republic they have chosen to reside in? Where is their sense of social responsibility and their sense of community? Is it any wonder that the government has a hard time opening their arms if there is constant anti-government undertones to all of the violence that takes place? Didn't the thugs just burn down 20 townships? Why would I welcome someone into my home if after they enter my house they burn all my furniture? Why doesn't Rotella report on the fault that lies on the shoulders of the terrorists who are torching the friggin' city?

In another article dating back to March of 2002, Rotella outlines a supposed wiretap of Al Qaeda operatives that could have revealed the plans to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11. But in this article, Rotella consistently reports on the alleged transcripts of the wiretaps and the resulting failings of our intelligence gathering communities as factual events. But when it comes to the subject matter of the intelligence gathered (i.e., names of terrorists, their whereabouts and their illicit actions), Rotella keeps using the term "allegedly".

Rotella: "...he allegedly commanded a network that specialized in providing forged documents."

"He allegedly had close ties to Ayman Zawahiri, the Egyptian considered Bin Laden's second in command..."

"Abdulrahman allegedly has ties to Al Qaeda and 'was identified by nowledgeable foreign sources as chief of a Yemeni political security organization, which provided ogistical assistance and intelligence to the Egyptian terrorist group Al Jihad,...'"

Why is Rotella constantly deflecting blame from the terrorists for their illegal, murderous acts?

It is interesting that a third-party, non-partisan website whose purpose is to give an avenue for political and journalistic figures to voice their position on the War in Iraq called, "U.S.-Iraq ProCon" rates Rotella as a "one star" on their credibility scale. A two-star is defined as "national and international mainstream publications which present unbiased reporting, such as media news (television, radio, internet) and non-profits whose reporting can generally be considered unbiased" and Rotella didn't make the cut.

And even after Rotella has published a book outlining his investigative journalism into Mexican/U.S. border politics and the illegal underworld thereabouts? Surely after publishing a book he would gain some semblance of credibility. No? What about after winning the Columbia School of Journalism's Cabot Award for Excellence in Latin American reporting? Not even then?

Rotella reports from his politics instead of from the facts. In describing Jean-Marie Le Pen, a conservative French presidential candidate, for an article he wrote for the Times in 2002, Rotella wrote "Le Pen, pugnacious 73-year-old ex-paratrooper…" Since when did pugnacity become a political platform upon which you could unequivocally report? How is this responsible journalism?

Look, I don’t even know this guy. I just read an article in the Google news headlines and red flags starting going up all over the place. Then I searched the web a little to find out more about this guy's politics and it became clear that he is a textbook case of Journalistic Activism.

Report the news, Sebastian, not your opinions. If you want to report on your opinions, book yourself on Oprah. Or better yet, find a job at the L.A. Times. Oh,… right. My bad.