… The French media covered the events but from a very limited point of view. In the hottest districts they worked side by side with the cops, they were ‘embedded ’ like in Iraq. Journalists couldn’t seriously inquire about the ‘other side’ because they often had problems if they had a camera or a tape recorder in hand. At least, that’s what most of them said during the riots. Now that the ‘events’ are over, we discover that French TV did not show the same images as the foreign media, and that the most violent events were shown only on foreign TV. That may explain why in other countries some people had the impression that an insurrection was going on.
…
Concretely the ‘suburbs’ have ‘won’ nothing for the moment (in a way, things have got much worse for their inhabitants, especially the youngest ones: everything will be more difficult for them after this movement), but the rebels succeeded temporarily on one point: things which were denied and considered as irrelevant are now plainly visible: the misery of some districts, the discriminations at workvi and at school, the despair of some significant layers of the French population.

That’s basically what the rap singers, sociologists, and social workers who sympathize with the youth are saying. They act as the interpreters-spokesmen of the youth in the media and say: ‘When young people don’t have words to express their anger and frustration they act to be heard.’