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Nuclear Disarmament: French citizens, wake up! Resist the televised toxins!


Published 8 April 2010

At 8pm on 5 April 2010, on the « Journal Télévisé » (Televised Daily) of the France2 Channel, the journalist and star presenter David Pujadas informed the viewers of this state TV channel that the US President, Barack Obama, wishes for a world without nuclear weapons. He then announced an « opinion poll » on the France2 website, wtihout specifying the question.


Here is the question, and here are the poll results as they were given on Wednesday 7 April around 2pm:

"Your opinion

Does the disappearance of the atom bomb from the world seem to you possible?

- Non: 77.1%
- Yes : 21.4%
- No response : 1.5%
- Number of voters : 7431

NB : "this poll has no scientific value and reflects only the opinion of those who chose to respond"

We comment:

Despite the prudent NB at the end, designed to clear to organisers of the « poll » from all responsibility, one can quickly see the conclusion that will be drawn : « 8 out of 10 French citizens do not consider it possible to eliminate nuclear weapons. »

Perhaps this Televised Daily is a Telebiased Daily ?

OBVIOUSLY, the question as formulated can only elicit a majority of negative answers, especially from TV viewers, since most of them still don’t know or have only just learnt that the US President has taken the lead in a campaign to abolish nuclear weapons.

In fact, in order for the atomic bomb to disappear from the world, it would require several conditions to be met:

- that the states possessing bombs agree to renounce them, which is evidently not the case if one judges simply by France’s attitude ;

- that the states without bombs do not want to obtain them, which is evidently not the case if one judges by Iran’s intentions, or at least by the intentions the French media impute to it, and even if Iran doesn’t manage it, other states will ;
- that the elimination by all nuclear weapons be technically possible (but what do people really know about that ?) ;
- that their effective elimination can be verified ;
- that the building of new weapons, after the old ones are destroyed, should be made impossible.

These conditions would be hard to meet and so may be judged « practically impossible ».

Therefore, you don’t need to be favourable to nuclear weapons to answer NO to the question put. Even someone in favour of their elimination may be tempted to answer NO : the fact that one wishes for a positive event doesn’t mean that one ignores all the difficulties and obstacles that render it improbable. One of the chief obstacles is the disinformation about nuclear weapons, the toxins that have been distilled for decades by France’s press and media, notably France2 and continued by the current President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Under these conditions, it is almost amazing that despite all that, at this moment today (April 7, 2010), more than 20% of people polled gave the answer : « YES, the disappearance of the bomb seems possible to me. »

Disinformation by Silence

In 2008 French viewers, especially the viewers of France2, heard a lot about Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, but NEVER about his commitment in favour of eliminating nuclear weapons, although he declared that he would make this goal "a central element of US nuclear policy". He said so as far back as September 2008 - yet this did not prevent him being elected two months later, it actually helped him (let France’s presidential hopefuls take note of this!).

France’s viewers heard little or nothing about the solemn historic speech given in Prague in April 2009 by the same Obama, who had become the president of the world’s number one military power.

They never heard anything of the commitment that British PM Gordon Brown made to the same goal, in Delhi, India, on 21 January 2008.

They never heard of the meeting of over a hundred personalities gathered in Paris by Global Zero on December 8-9, 2008 and again on 2-4 January 2010, nor of the speech given at the latter meeting by former PM Michel Rocard.

They never heard of Resolution 1887 adopted on 24 September 2009 by the UN Security Council, which declared itself « determined to work for a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, in conformity with the aims set out in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in such a way as to promote international stability, on the basis of the principle of non-diminished security for all. »

There was a reason for all this ignorance. On the evening before that historic meeting of the Security Council (14 heads of state or of government had specially gone to New York to represent their nations), Laurence Ferrari and David Pujadas, the two star presenters of TF1 and France2 - our two main TV channels - together spent half an hour interviewing Nicolas Sarkozy in New York. But they breathed not a word about that exceptional session of the Security Council. Nor did they ask the least question about France’s nuclear policies. It was as if none of that stuff existed. President Sarkozy did not mention it either.

When the ignorance of the French public is maintained to this extent, it is logical that a question like « Does the disappearance of the atom bomb form the world seem to you possible ? » should elicit a negative result.

Different question, different result

Let’s take a different question :

"Suppose that an international agreement was finally made to eliminate all nuclear weapons. All nations possessing nuclear weapons would be required to eliminate them in conformity with a precise timeline. All other nations would be required to not obtain any. All countries including your would be monitored to ensure they honoured this agreement. Would you be for or against such an agreement?"

In response to this question, an international poll commissioned by Global Zero from WorldPublicOpinion.org and conducted in 21 countries between January and August 2008 indicated clearly that a strong majority of public opinion is favourable or very favourable to the abolition of nuclear weapons : 76% on average. According to this poll, the proportion reached 69% in Russia, 77% in the US, 81% in the UK, 83% in China... And France with 86% (including 58% « very favourable ») had the highest proportion of all the nuclear-armed nations. This despite the taboo surrounding this question in France! Perhaps that explains why French citizens have never been consulted on this matter? It is a further reason for calling a referendum. The French people ought to give their opinion.

Given that the supposition on which the Global Zero question is in the process of becoming a reality, we wager that if one asked this question :

"Do you wish France to propose to all nations that she should renounce her nuclear strike force and dismantle its component parts, in the context of nuclear, biological and chemical disarmament - comprehensive, universal and verified disarmament, and with a genuine system of international security."

then the answers very likely would be closer to those of Global Zero that those of France2.

So who in France is pulling the strings in the media ? It’s high time we refused to have the wool pulled over our eyes!

Citizens, put a spanner in the works of manipulation: become informed (the links above can help you) and then vote on the France2 website!

Yes, the disappearance of nuclear weapons is not only necessary: it is possible. We just need to want it - and to tell our leaders we want it. Write to President Sarkozy demanding a change in policies and a referendum on this question!


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