So. You're right. It's slanted and unfair. Not because of the detailed picture (why are you surprised at cités that look like US housing projects? I've used the comparison myself here on ET a number of times. Or, haven't we said here that there is racial discrimination in the French job market, for example?), but because, overall, the right-wing push Sarkozy has given the election campaign here gives the English-language media the opportunity to pursue one of their favourite French-bashing themes, according to which France is a dismally racist country beset by conflict with "immigrant youth" yada yada yada.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind