The Limoges Town Hall — built in 1876, survived two world wars — burned to the ground this week as rioters torched it along with cars, businesses, and anything else in reach across France. Police were pelted with projectiles. Buildings were ransacked. Entire blocks looked like war zones.

CBS News looked at the footage and called it "scuffles" with "small groups."

That was the actual language in a CBS News social media post on October 18, describing the widespread violent riots ripping through French cities. Not "riots." Not "mass destruction." Not even the politely vague "unrest" that networks usually default to when the footage gets inconvenient. They went with "scuffles" — the word you'd use for two guys shoving each other over a parking spot.

The post didn't survive long. Community Notes flagged the characterization, users dragged CBS across every platform, and the network quietly deleted the post without explanation. No correction, no editor's note, no acknowledgment that describing citywide arson as a minor disagreement might have been a touch misleading.

This is the same institutional reflex that gave us CNN's "fiery but mostly peaceful protest" chyron while a building literally blazed in the background. The template never changes: when the destruction doesn't fit the preferred narrative, shrink it. A riot becomes "unrest." Unrest becomes "scuffles." Given enough time, "scuffles" would probably become "a spirited exchange of views."

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron was attending a Celine Dion concert while his country burned. Historic buildings reduced to rubble, citizens terrified, police overwhelmed — and the president of France was watching a woman belt out power ballads. Nero fiddled. Macron apparently sang along to "My Heart Will Go On."

As commentator Eric Daugherty put it: "The media is not getting away with it anymore!" And he's right — but not because the media has suddenly developed shame. They deleted the post because they got caught, not because they realized "scuffles" was absurd. The instinct to minimize was the first instinct. The deletion was just damage control.

The gap between what people can see with their own eyes and what legacy outlets choose to describe has never been wider. A 150-year-old town hall is a pile of ash. Cars are overturned and burning in the streets. Businesses are gutted.

CBS saw all of that and reached for the word "scuffles."