Musings on the Bedbugs of Paris

Paris is now infested with bedbugs—so the media tell us. But so mistrustful am I of the media that I can’t help wonder whether the whole story is a put-up job.

Oscar Rincon, a bedbug exterminator, holds up a glass vial containing live bedbugs used to train dogs, in New York, on July 26, 2010. Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

Commentary

Paris and the whole of France are now infested with bedbugs—so, at least, the media tell us. But so mistrustful of the media have I become that I can’t help but wonder whether the whole story isn’t what the French call a coup monté—that is to say, a put-up job.