Jean-François Kahn

Jean-François Kahn
Kahn in 2008
Born	(1938-06-12) 12 June 1938 Viroflay, France
Nationality	French
Occupation(s)	Essayist Journalist
Relatives	Axel Kahn, Olivier Kahn (brothers)

Jean-François Kahn (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ fʁɑ̃swa kan]；born 12 June 1938) is a French journalist and essayist.

Life and career

Born in Viroflay, Yvelines, he is the brother of scientists Axel Kahn and Olivier Kahn, and son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Having obtained a degree in history, he started work at a postal sorting office, then at a printing works. He soon moved into journalism and was sent to cover the war in Algeria, undertaking the journalistic investigation that became known as the ‘Ben Barka affair’. Kahn then worked as a reporter for Paris-Press, L'Express and Europe 1. He later moved to Le Monde as special correspondent for North Africa. In 1977, he became editor of the compilation of the ‘Nouvelles Littéraires’ and in 1983, was named editor of Matin de Paris. In 1984, he created L'Événement du Jeudi then in 1997, together with Maurice Szafran, started the weekly magazine, Marianne, where he was the editor in chief until 2007. He often writes under the pseudonym of François Darras or Serge Maury.

Kahn has taken a clear position on many media subjects, including:

• Denouncing economic liberalism in 1995.
• Denouncing the intervention of NATO in Serbia in 1999.
• Denouncing the American-led intervention in Iraq in 2003.
• He adopted a positive position on the European Constitution in 2005 but denounced the failure of the press to provide a proper platform for those who opposed it.
• In 2007, he actively supported UDF candidate François Bayrou for the presidency.
• In 2011, he dismissed the allegations of sexual assault against Dominique Strauss-Kahn as un troussage de domestique (literally, stripping or having casual, forced sex with a servant). He later apologised and resigned from journalism.

He introduced the concept of Pensée unique.

Partial bibliography

• “God, How They Hated Him!”. Telos 44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press.
• La guerre civile, Seuil, 1982
• Et si on essayait autre chose?, Seuil, 1983
• Les Français sont formidables, Balland, 1987
• Esquisse d'une philosophie du mensonge, Flammarion, 1992
• Tout change parce que rien ne change, Fayard, 1994
• On prend les mêmes et on recommence, Grasset et Fasquelle, 1997
• Les poèmes politiques, Fayard, 1998
• Tout était faux, Fayard, 1998
• Demain la révolution, Flammarion, 1999
• Chacun son tour, Stock, 2000
• Complot contre la Démocratie, Denoël, 2000
• La pensée unique, Fayard, 2000
• Le retour de terre de Djid Andrew ; Critique de la raison capitaliste, Fayard, 2000
• Victor Hugo un révolutionnaire ; L'extraordinaire Metamorphose, Fayard 2001
• Moi, l'Autre et le loup, Fayard, 2001
• Les Rebelles, ceux et celles qui ont dit non, Plon, 2001
• Ce que Marianne en pense, éditions des Mille et une nuits, 2002
• Le camp de la guerre, Critique de la déraison impure, Fayard, 2004
• Dictionnaire incorrect, Plon, 2005
• Comme deux frères - mémoire et visions croisées (avec Axel Kahn), Stock, 2006
• Les bullocrates, Fayard, 2006