I couldn't find any coverage regarding France's deportation of approximately 8000 Romas (also known as "Gypsies") on the home page of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News. However, once I dug further, I eventually managed to find it on one of CNN's websites. Later, I also found a news agency that covered it as its top home page story, but it was an European newspaper, BBC.
Is the lack of front page coverage of the Romas by American news agencies a result of Romas being "invisible people" or is it merely omitted because Romas are not of "local interest" in America? Which brings me to my next question, how do news editors know what the local population will find "interesting" if its readers are unaware that the story (or in this case, an ethnic group) even exists? Thoughts?
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ReplyDeleteEditors generally take great care in considering the interest of their readership and their demographic to decide the "importance" of a story in their publication. A wildfire decimating thousands of miles of land in Arizona is undeniably important, but not relevant to New Yorkers who may not even get wind of it (man that would really be SOME fire!)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think that the urgency to report this story is actually tempered by the underlying situation. It's not a clear-cut issue. CNN, The NY Times, might have chosen to distance themselves from this story because it has more to do with the contentious politics within the EU rather than a clear-cut case of discrimination. France, on the one hand thinks it has the right to deport illegal immigrants who may be “mooching.” On the other hand, I think it's important to be aware that Viviane Redding has continuously condemned France for its legislation about Muslims headwear in public schools, and may be trying to expose the Roma situation as something other than an immigration issue to support her position that the French discriminate.