Macron Opens Year Pulling No Punches With Journalists, or Anyonebr 5, 2018br PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron met with French journalists this week in whatbr is an annual tradition by French presidents to extend a New Year’s greeting.br His grand vision for France’s role, as expressed in the New Year’s Eve address, harks back to de Gaulle, a leader to which the French press sometimes compares him: "A strong country with a universal pull which, because it is stronger, produces more,br and can therefore ensure solidarity at home and make humanist demands abroad," Mr. Macron said.br The irony was not lost on the assembled press corpsbr that Mr. Macron, in fact, owes most of his amazing political good fortune to bold French journalism: it was the weekly Le Canard Enchaîné that torpedoed his principal opponent — and the otherwise likely winner of the 2017 presidential election — François Fillon.br For now, he is the undisputed master of French politicsbr and his absolute self-confidence — critics say, arrogance — is undaunted, when it comes to French journalism, its labor code, migration or almost anything else.br Adding insult to injury, the French president then announced a new, if redundant, law repressing "fake news"br — hardly the currency of the professionals in the room, and a problem already addressed in French statutes.br Mr. Macron was hinting at the real disruptions he has brought about in French political life — in employmentbr and fiscal policy so far, with other big jolts promised soon.