Written by Josh Heine
February 11, 2014, President Obama held a lavish state dinner for President Francois Hollande of France in addition to diplomats and dignitaries from both countries and business and media leaders.
Obama stated that the purpose of the dinner was to demonstrate the tremendous improvements in the relationship between the United States and France during the past year. Hollande also desires to demonstrate that France is still an important world power in the midst of low poll numbers and rumors of an affair.
Though strong allies since the World War I, France was a frequent enemy of the United States following the Revolutionary War as it frequently raided American trading vessels.
More recently, the relationship suffered when France refused to support the United States during the war in Iraq. As a result, many American restaurants resorted to labeling French fries as “freedom fries” and some media personnel openly criticized the French government.
Relations also became tense last year due to revelations regarding the National Security Agency’s spying on France and other European countries.
Today France appears to be one of the United States’ strongest allies. They are the only two countries in the G20 that are committed to military action against Syria. In addition, Presidents Obama and Hollande called for more action in climate change, particularly forming more clean energy partnerships.
They also applauded each other on their respective action in the Syria peace conferences and removal of Syrian chemical weapons.
According to BBC, Hollande stated in his speech that relations between the United States and France were exceptional because they shared the “‘universal values’ of freedom, democracy and respect for the law”.
This was only part of Hollande’s visit to the United States. He also traveled to San Francisco in order to meet with the chiefs of technology magnates located in the Silicon Valley, including Facebook, Google and Twitter. Hollande’s purpose is to learn about technological innovations and discuss the future of business partnerships with France.
In June, Obama will travel to France at Hollande’s invitation to in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion during World War II.
Unfortunately, most news coverage of the dinner has been conspicuously lacking and ludicrous, as the major news corporations failed to mention most information about the dinner. Instead, the majority of news regarding the dinner has highlighted the exquisite menu, which included a winter salad created with greens from the White House garden, American wines, dry-aged ribeye steaks and Hawaiian chocolate.
Another priority news topic for most stations included Hollande’s single status, with some stations even referring to Hollande as “stag,” a common slang term for single men.
Shephard Smith of FOX News even spent the majority of his news coverage discussing the various courses and offerings in addition to comparing the dinner to others that he attended previously.
Comedy Central stars Stephen Colbert, who attended the dinner and sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama, and Jon Stewart greatly lampooned the news coverage on their shows.
