[touisteur]

This NYT story/title has been mocked to death on French Twitter. The kids are reading. Manga, so what ? AND they're using culture-money to PAY the artists they like, even though they get their manga off the Internet for free. Isn't the greatest outcome possible? Sure, French artists might have wanted that money flowing back to French artists... But if they like it and when given a choice will pay for it... Maybe there's not enough market (want) for French BD or culture as it is today...

[rchaud]

What are they mocking? It seems from your comment that the facts were reported accurately. Money is going towards manga, so not towards French creators. This is a government program, so the intention is to support French artists, is it not?

[touisteur]

The intention is first to support teenagers. Usual culture and meeting places for teens have been closed because COVID-19. Even libraries...

Edit to answer your question: the framing of the question was 'we gave them money for 'culture', they bought comic books'. Expecting any other outcome would be counterintuitive if you've ever met teenagers. Cinemas, concerts, librairies, indoors activities are all closed. They're supposed to stay home and telecommute to high school (WTF?). General reaction was 'good', 'manga are culture too', 'who could have seen that coming'.