Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité are not the only things I love about France, though I deeply connect to these concepts. I remember my time in Paris some years back very fondly, the amazing culture, food & wine and a people who in general seem far more interested and understanding of what is happening in the world than my friends here.
Years later I've reconnected with that experience when I discovered just how superb the FRANCE 24 (free) app for the iPad is. For the past couple years I've watched France 24 on my computer, but I'd not had it on my iPad until last week - that was a mistake. FRANCE 24 was the brainchild of former President Jacques Chirac specifically to compete with the Anglo/American dominance in world news. The channel only started back in 2006, but with the stations ability to draw from its own 200 + journalists and tap into Groupe TF1 and France Télévisions, they have a lot of reach! And a balanced perspective! Now I'm certain some readers will point out that they are a state owned media outlet therefore they have an agenda, true. But that's not hidden. But do you think CNN or FOX don't have agendas? What makes a news source dependable in my book is how well they clarify their biases... The one down side is, I've heard rumor that President Nicolas Sarkozy might limit the broadcasts to French. That would certainly be a loss, since my High School French could not keep up, they also broadcast in French and Arabic. 
It is now part of my news stable right up there with the ABC Player and some of my other favorites (more on them later), and Let me explain why. Again, like with ABC Player, they beat the pants off competitors slow to move into the iPad or for that matter mobile computing market. CNN's app is horrible, not intuitive and so reduced in news content it's like a Twitter feed IMHO, plus it costs $1.99. For great world news which is insightful and accurate, forget CNN on your iPad, get FRANCE 24 and your brain will thank you! -- Post From John Painter's iPad
Update 5/5/10 9:40pm fixing images
France24 is at least available to U.S.
Let's thank France for having the vision to provide their excellent news coverage to North Americans.
Unfortunately,the BBC restricts their iPhone/Pod/Pad app to Europeans only.
There is also Deutsche Welle, which has an iPhone app and English newscasts, and let's not forget Al-Jazeera. Whatever you think of them, they offer a different perspective, and many people appreciate that.
I agree on all fronts, I
I agree on all fronts, I think one needs a variety of news sources to get the best information out there. I really appreciate what France 24 is trying to do and for moving their news onto the iPad platform, I think this shows the network has some vision and sense of purpose - CNN could learn a thing or two, they've become too complacent.
By the way my son periodically watches the Al Jazeera cartoon network, he's figured out how to stream it on the Mac Mini, interestingly it's probably more oriented towards family than many of the US cartoon stations.