Le Monde’s Islam coverage relied on real scholarly command rather than balance-seeking quotes.
Evidence
It is useful to compare the elite American newspaper in this regard with the elite French newspaper. Exactly one year before (on December 6, 7, and 8, 1978) Le Monde commissioned Maxime Rodinson (an eminent French Marxist Orientalist quoted by Flora Lewis) to study the same phenomenon. The difference could not be greater. Rodinson completely commands the subject; he knows the languages, he knows the religion, he understands politics. There are no anecdotes, no sensational quotations, no “balance” in relying on “pro” and “anti” Islamic experts. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 248