paris-mayor-says-she-will-sue-fox-news-over-no-go-zones-coverage

January 20, 2015 4:16 pm By Robert Spencer 80 Comments

Anne Hidalgo sounds here very much like the Islamic supremacists who regularly barbecue cars on Paris streets: Paris has been insulted. Its honor has been impugned. Therefore she wants to take Fox News to court. That would be a very interesting lawsuit: in its defense, Fox could call David Ignatius, who wrote in the New York Times in April 2002: “Arab gangs regularly vandalize synagogues here, the North African suburbs have become no-go zones at night, and the French continue to shrug their shoulders.” Fox could also call Newsweek, which reported in November 2005 that “according to research conducted by the government’s domestic intelligence network, the Renseignements Generaux, French police would not venture without major reinforcements into some 150 ‘no-go zones’ around the country–and that was before the recent wave of riots began on Oct. 27.” The New Republic could also testify in support of Fox, as it wrote just last week: “The word banlieue (‘suburb’) now connotes a no-go zone of high-rise slums, drug-fueled crime, failing schools and poor, largely Muslim immigrants and their angry offspring.”

But now the mainstream media, and Anne Hidalgo, have decided that Fox made up the whole idea of No-Go Zones in France, and Fox is going to have to take the fall. That Fox already took the fall, with its ill-considered apology, makes this legal threat even more absurd. But if the suit does go forward, Fox should request a change of venue — to a banlieue, and invite Mayor Hidalgo to take a walk through it with hair uncovered, at night.

“Paris mayor: We intend to sue Fox News,” by Gregory Wallace and Brian Stelter, CNNMoney, January 20, 2015 (thanks to Ron):

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told CNN Tuesday she intends to sue Fox News in the wake of the channel’s coverage of supposed “no-go zones” for non-Muslims.
Hidalgo said the channel had “insulted” her city.
“When we’re insulted, and when we’ve had an image, then I think we’ll have to sue, I think we’ll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed,” Hidalgo told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced.”
Fox News representatives did not respond to requests for comment, and outside legal analysts largely dismissed the likelihood that a lawsuit would succeed.
Hidalgo’s warning about a lawsuit came after a series of Fox segments suggested there are parts of Paris and other European cities where Islamic law is practiced and where police are fearful to work. The “no-go” zone segments were widely mocked and challenged as inaccurate, particularly by French media outlets.
Some critics have accused the network of using the controversial “no-go zones” idea to perpetuate a fearful narrative about Muslims, particularly in the days since terror attacks in Paris….
Citing the apologies and the embarrassment suffered by Fox, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said “the system has worked” and “the courts don’t need to get involved here.”…