The Role of Opinion Press in the 6 February 1934 Crisis
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February 6 1934 crisis, opinion press, nationalist press, socialist press, Action Française, Le Populaire, Stavisky affair, Daladier government, press neutrality, journalistic ethics
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Abstract
This document examines the role of opinion press during the 6 February 1934 crisis in Paris, comparing the coverage by nationalist and socialist dailies.
Contents
The nationalist press
The socialist press
The limits of opinion press
The nationalist press
The socialist press
The limits of opinion press
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[...] Nationalist Press On the photo of document we can see the front page of the newspaper Action Française, a monarchist daily, the day after the February crisis. This daily is an extreme right-wing opinion journal, founded by a nationalist and royalist political movement of the same name. The large headline is 'after the thieves, the assassins', referring to the government and mainly the law enforcement forces who killed several protesters the day before, following the riots. There are also many references to blood with two titles 'bloody prefects' and 'Paris covered in blood'. [...]
[...] Following this demonstration, many others will see the light of day, pushing Daladier to resign under the pressure of the street and making way for a right-wing government. This is followed by a rise of the far right and, in general, of radical parties. This crisis allows us to realize the role of the opinion press but opens the way to more general questions about the journalistic profession and the ethics linked to this profession. We can thus wonder about the scope of the press and its overall role on the political and other life of the country. [...]
[...] The information press, on the other hand, is supposed not to be committed. It must help the reader to understand the information by restoring the context as close as possible to the truth, in order to allow the citizen to analyze the information himself. In the documents analyzed here, we can see this bias in the restitution of events. Upon reading these two dailies, we read a completely different story, and each accusatory towards the other. The opinion press therefore poses several problems. [...]
[...] The newspaper is mainly interested in the 'fascist coup' that 'failed'. We find a very different communication here, whether it's on the content or the form, with for example a very imaginative front page. There is also an important place given to the excesses of the extreme right-wing protesters who 'set fire to the ministry' and 'attacked with unprecedented savagery the order service'. Here, the police shots on their 'aggressors' are therefore legitimized, and passed to the second plan (with a much smaller police writing). [...]
[...] In addition, Jean Chiappe was very popular with right-wing groups and showed them great indulgence, unlike the left, which he had hindered for several years. The documents presented here are the front pages of daily newspapers diametrically opposed on the political chessboard, the day after the demonstration. These divergent opinions will serve to show the role of the press in this 6 February 1934 crisis. We will first discuss nationalist press, then socialist press, and finally the limits of opinion press. [...]
