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Praud challenges Trappes mayor over CNews's journalistic status

The French presenter invites Ali Rabeh onto his program after the mayor calls for CNews and its journalists to stop being treated as such.

Channel: Europe 1 ·

FranceStory of November 4, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of Europe 1's most watched videos since yesterday, with 93,581 views.

Europe 1: A French radio station on air since 1955, owned by the Bolloré family's media group. 2.3M subscribers and 2B views.

“Qu’Ali Rabeh vienne me dire que je suis raciste !” : Pascal Praud s’en prend à la gauche anti-CNEWS

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0:00Praud introduces employees' criticism of an alleged ideological drift at Nextprod and BFMTV.
1:43Panelists debate young voters' support for Mélenchon and Le Pen.
5:16Pillaud-Vivien criticizes BFMTV's invitations to right-wing figures; the panel argues this discourages opposing views.
9:02Bock-Côté argues that part of the left seeks to exclude opponents from public discussion.
12:37Rabeh rejects CNews's journalistic status; Praud responds by inviting him onto the program.
15:40Baptiste denies having appeared on CNews, followed by his correction acknowledging a previous appearance.

Ali Rabeh's criticism is directed at CNews's status as a news outlet. Pascal Praud answers by challenging the mayor of Trappes, west of Paris, to come onto his program and make his case directly.

France's radio broadcaster Europe 1 posted the exchange as part of an excerpt from CNews's television debate program L'Heure des Pros. Its description places the discussion against a petition seeking the channel's removal, which it says has gathered more than half a million signatures.

The central exchange arrives roughly thirteen minutes into the video. In a recorded clip, Rabeh urges people to stop treating CNews as a media outlet and its journalists as journalists. Praud calls that insulting to the channel's staff and invites him to debate. The upload's title frames Praud's challenge in more personal terms, asking Rabeh to come and tell him he is racist.

Before reaching that confrontation, the panel discusses a letter from employees at the production company Nextprod and BFMTV criticizing what they describe as an ideological drift at their own broadcaster. Joseph Macé-Scaron, Olivier Dartigolles and fellow panelists also debate younger voters' attraction to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen.

A clip of Pablo Pillaud-Vivien on the French talk show Quotidien then shows him criticizing BFMTV for inviting right-wing figures such as Robert Ménard. Praud and his panel interpret those remarks as resistance to debate with opposing voices.

Joining from a separate studio, Canadian sociologist and conservative commentator Mathieu Bock-Côté develops that argument further. He characterizes part of the left as seeking to exclude political opponents from public discussion. That is his interpretation of the dispute, rather than an independently established account of the critics' motives.

The final section turns to Higher Education and Research Minister Philippe Baptiste. The program plays his statement that he does not watch CNews and has never appeared there, then displays his subsequent social-media correction acknowledging that he had. Praud criticizes the mistake as a professional failing.