There is no need to add "France" to disambiguate Paris because Paris is an iconic location familiar to every educated person in the world. If you want to identify an obscure town in Texas that shares the same name, clearly you do need to add "Texas" to disambiguate.
I believe it's more about habits than pedantry. The "new world" has tons of duplicate city names. Aside from those already quoted, there are also Vancouver, BC and Vancouver, Washington cities that are only separated by 300 miles, and the famous and ubiquitous Springfield.
In Germany and France, it seems that when two cities share the same name, the name of the nearest river is often used for disambiguation (e.g. Romilly-sur-Seine/Romilly-sur-Andelle, Frankfurt am Main/Frankfurt an der Oder). Americans seem to prefer state names, and it seems they interpolated this habit on the international level.
I agree that it's a habit and absolutely not pedantry. I am arguing that when applied unnecessarily (Paris, France when it's an international news story, an action movie set in glamorous European locations, or a set of charming early 20th century Paris cityscapes) it's an unthinking habit that shows a lack of respect for the intelligence of the audience and reflects a media "dumbing down" trend. I also suspect you are right about the origin of this habit being disambiguation using state names, and extension of that to the international level.
That would be much more relevant if the name of Paris was Paris sur Seine. It's not. Your accusation that I am useless and a troll is uncharitable and unfounded. This is particularly disappointing given that it seems that (judging from your other comments) you are normally an intelligent and thoughtful commentator.
Thank you for at least providing me with your reasoning this time. I will respectfully disagree with you. It's hardly a hobbyhorse, I am not the chairman of the "Stop Paris, France" society. It's the 8,345,235th most important thing in my life. I happen to think it's an interesting thing, it's certainly something that amuses countless non-American people. Several other people commented in a civil way, not all of them disagreed with me, maybe they thought it was interesting too. Perhaps I am imagining it, but just about every thread on Hacker News gets derailed to a certain extent, the side-issues and byways that get explored are one of the things that give Hacker News its charm.
Incidentally, as a non-American who happens to love America and things American I have found myself in the past trying to defend the habit in conversation with others; "Well, it makes sense, you see there is a Paris in Texas too". Eventually I realised the cause was hopeless and gave up, "No, you're right it's just a crazy habit they have".
Anyway, enough, as you say it's a tiny thing. I will move on.