France is on fire. For five days straight, migrant youth have been rioting across the country. The police union has put out a press release saying it’s tantamount to civil war.

But the mainstream media in North America is virtually ignoring it. Why?

Who are the rioters? Are they young men upset about a police shooting? Or criminal gangs taking advantage of an opportunity to steal? Or — and I've seen some reports of this — is there an anti-France, anti-western motivation? 

Could it even be terrorism?

These don’t look like the run-of-the-mill protests that are part of France’s daily life, usually demanding more hand-outs from the government.

This time, rioters are using guns. They’re hijacking vehicles, looting some stores and torching others. Hundreds of police have been injured. Hundreds of rioters have been arrested.

What’s going on? I don’t trust the media.

I get very suspicious when there are huge political events like this and the mainstream media seems to be hiding it. Why is that? Is there a narrative here they are trying to suppress? I don’t want to guess — I want to find out for myself. I want to see for myself.

So I’m on my way to Marseille, one of France’s largest cities and the site of some of the most atrocious rioting. Marseille has long had a problem with gangs — and with terrorism. Are those factors here?

I’m writing to you from the airport now. I’ll arrive in Marseille in a few hours. We’ll spend the day talking to victims of last night’s riots, including shopkeepers who had their businesses torched and looted.

And tonight, when the sun sets, we’ll see if the rioters hit the streets again. (Don’t worry. We’ll be very careful.)

It’s just me and our head of video production, Efron Monsanto. And we’re travelling very economically, as we always do. (We’re sharing a hotel room.)

If you think this is an important story, and if you’re curious as to why the mainstream media is downplaying it, make sure to follow all of our reports, at FranceOnFire.com. We’ll follow the facts wherever they lead.

And if you think our citizen journalism is valuable, please consider chipping in a few dollars to help us offset the travel costs for our fact-finding mission. Our two plane tickets, plus our hotel room for two nights, will cost us about $2,800.

Thanks for your help — I’ll send you another report after we land!