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Cost-of-living protests spread across France, Italy, Portugal and other EU countries

By

Coverage spectrum

Covered by 10 outlets, mostly left-leaning (60%).

14 articles in total, 1 of them opinion. The spectrum counts each outlet once and leaves opinion out. How we measure bias

Man carrying a blue bin past burning debris and fire on a smoke-filled city street
Image via SemaforHow images are chosenReport this image

Protests over living costs, housing and public services have spread across several European countries in recent weeks, with large crowds in France, Italy, Portugal and Belgium. Several outlets report looting, arson and clashes with police in French cities over the weekend, and violence in Milan, Brussels, Liège and Tirana. Tent camps have sprung up in Lisbon and in Spain over housing costs. According to Bloomberg, President Emmanuel Macron promised a “hard line”, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said hooligans exploited a march in the Italian capital. Semafor describes the French protests as largely peaceful, with riots in some areas.

Headline and summary written by Mantle’s AI from the coverage below, under published rules. How this works

What happened

Key points

Each point shows who reports it, from Far Left to Far Right.

  1. Cost-of-living and housing protests took place over the weekend in several European countries, including France, Italy, Portugal and Belgium.

    Reported byLeft5Center3See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    Al Jazeera English, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Business Insider, NBC News
    Center
    Newsweek, Financial Times, PBS NewsHour

  2. Protesters in France looted stores, torched cars and clashed with police during the weekend unrest.

    Reported byLeft3Center3Far Right1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    Bloomberg, NBC News, CBS News
    Center
    Semafor, Financial Times, PBS NewsHour
    Far Right
    Hot Air

  3. Semafor says the French protests were largely peaceful, though some areas saw riots and mass looting.

    One outletSemafor· Center

  4. President Emmanuel Macron promised a “hard line” over the violence.

    One outletBloomberg· Left

  5. Tent camps have sprung up in Lisbon and Spain over unaffordable rents and housing costs.

    Reported byLeft1Center1See the outletsHide the outlets
    Left
    The Guardian
    Center
    PBS NewsHour

  6. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said hooligans exploited a march in the Italian capital.

    One outletThe Guardian· Left

What is contested

Where accounts differ

Points the coverage does not agree on, and who says what.

  • The French protests degenerated into looting and burning nationwide.

    Bloomberg, CBS News, NBC News and Business Insider describe looting, torched cars and clashes with police; Semafor says the protests were largely peaceful, with riots and mass looting only in some areas.

How each side tells it

Compare views

Every side reports cost-of-living protests spreading from France to Italy and other countries, with looting and clashes in several cities. The main difference is emphasis: most left headlines lead with violence in France, while center headlines stress the spread and its causes.

  • the left

    6 outlets

    Most left headlines lead with violence, looting and chaos in France, while the Guardian leads with housing despair and the protests’ spread across Europe.

    French protests turn violent with looting, torched cars and more
    CBS NewsLeftAll left-leaning headlines

  • the center

    4 outlets

    Center headlines describe protests spreading from France to Italy, Belgium and Albania, with violence noted, or explain the housing, fuel and school grievances behind them.

    Violent protests spread from France to Italy and Belgium
    Financial TimesCenterAll center headlines

  • the right

    0 outlets · 1 opinion

    Only one right-side piece is supplied: a far-right opinion column headlined as riots and looting spreading to Italy, centered on scenes from Paris.

    Riots and Looting Spread to Italy
    Hot AirFar RightAll right-leaning headlines

The words they chose

Language to notice

Words that carry a judgement beyond the facts. Tap a highlighted word anywhere on the page to see why.

  • Left3

    Chaos and lootingRocksprotests explode

  • Center0

    No loaded words in its own voice.

  • Right1

    Crazy

In the outlets’ own words

  • Sensational language

    Chaos and lootingMore neutral: Violence and looting

    Uses a dramatic noun to describe the scope of the disorder beyond the specific incidents reported.

    Chaos and looting roiled major cities as Europeans poured into the streets to protest rising…

    Used byBusiness Insider (Left)

  • Loaded verb

    RocksMore neutral: Hits

    “Rocks” adds drama to a report that violence occurred, where a plainer verb states the same fact.

    Violence Rocks France as Protests Flare Across Europe

    Used byBloomberg (Left)

  • Sensational language

    protests explodeMore neutral: protests grow

    Explode suggests a sudden blast and adds drama beyond the reported growth of the protests.

    Violence erupts in France as protests explode

    Used byCBS News (Left)

  • Sensational language

    CrazyMore neutral: (omit) and quote the statement

    Diagnoses the speaker instead of quoting them.

    …d’un Franprix rue du faubourg du temple après un pillage https://t.co/K4t9osCAdv Crazy video of a French couple enjoying drinks and cigarettes at an outdoor café near the…

    Used byHot Air (Far Right)

Words quoted from someone else (1)Hide the quoted words

Loaded words that outlets reported someone else saying. They show what was said, not how the outlet chose to say it.

  • Sensational language

    Quoted

    uglyMore neutral: tense

    “Ugly” is an evaluative description of the exchanges, which the outlet reports without giving the speakers’ own words.

    …migration clash; regional leaders last week reportedly engaged in “heated” and “ugly” exchanges.

    Quoted bySemafor (Center)

    These are regional leaders’s words. The outlets are reporting them.

See the full language guide

See for yourself

Side by side

What each side leads with and what it leaves out. Open a side to read its headlines.

From the left

6 outlets

Leads with

  • Violence and looting in France
  • Spread of protests to other countries
  • Government response, including Macron’s hard line

Leaves out

  • Largely peaceful character of many protests

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the 6 headlines from the leftHide the headlines

From the center

4 outlets

Leads with

  • Spread of protests across countries
  • Housing, fuel and school grievances
  • Violence in several cities

Leaves out

  • Macron’s promised hard line
  • Meloni’s blame of hooligans for the Italian march

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the 4 headlines from the centerHide the headlines

From the right

0 outlets · 1 opinion

Leads with

  • Rioting and looting
  • Spread of unrest to Italy
  • Scenes from Paris on social media

Leaves out

  • Cost-of-living causes of the protests

Reported by other sides, not found in this side’s coverage.

See the headline from the rightHide the headlines
  • Hot AirFar RightOpinion

    Riots and Looting Spread to Italy

    At this point we've all seen the rioting and looting happening in Paris. If you've been on social media at all in the past few days, there are scenes like these from Paris.

    Read at Hot Air (opens in a new tab)

Articles you open from here build My Mix, a private picture of how your reading spreads across the spectrum, kept on this device. What is My Mix?

The left is Far Left and Left together. The right is Right and Far Right together. Every outlet keeps its own five-point rating.

Who reported it when

How the coverage built up

  • Left

    First to report

    Al Jazeera English, Oct 17, 5:02 PM EDT

  • Center

    20 hr 54 min later

    Its first report, Oct 18, 1:55 PM EDT

  • Right

    No report yet

    From the outlets Mantle follows

See the order the outlets reported inHide the order
  1. Al Jazeera EnglishLeftOct 17, 5:02 PM EDT
  2. The GuardianLeftOct 18, 7:02 AM EDT
  3. NewsweekCenterOct 18, 1:55 PM EDT
  4. BloombergLeftOct 19, 12:15 AM EDT
  5. Business InsiderLeftOct 19, 12:43 AM EDT
  6. SemaforCenterOct 19, 6:47 AM EDT
  7. NBC NewsLeftOct 19, 7:25 AM EDT
  8. CBS NewsLeftOct 19, 9:20 AM EDT
  9. Financial TimesCenterOct 19, 9:50 AM EDT
  10. PBS NewsHourCenterOct 19, 6:00 PM EDT

Times are the ones the outlets published in their own feeds, in Eastern time. Opinion is left out.

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