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Sunday, May 07, 2006

Media Bias

Sometimes you read things that are so openly biased that you can't help but laugh. Today I was scrolling through the news feed on the right hand side of the blog and came across "Strongmen of South America flex their muscles."

It begins with a story about a poor Nicaraguan lady who was flown to Venezuela for cataract surgery. "It was like a miracle from God," said the woman who obtained the surgery, one of 85 Nicaraguans flown to Venezuela for the medical help. The conclusion:

Venezuela’s swashbuckling would-be revolutionary leader had scored yet another propaganda victory in his venomous battle with Washington for influence and economic advantage across the Latin American continent.

Oh, and let's not forget the opening lines of the piece:

On the front line of a new cold war between North and South America...

A woman was freed of her cataracts thanks to the generosity and good will of Hugo Chavez and the people of Venezuela, and this guy calls it a "propaganda victory"? Sounds like a brilliant policy to me. We help our friends. It creates trust and provides for a spirit of cooperation. Perhaps if we utilized this approach rather than the "bomb them into submission" approach we would be better liked around the world.

The antagonism is clear. But within this garbled piece of propaganda is a grain of truth:

The stage has been set for a protracted standoff between western consumers worried about rising prices and South American oil producers whose newfound enthusiasm for bashing foreign companies may spread to Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

Look at how this is framed. As usual the story is pitched at us from the viewpoint of a consumer rather than a producer/laborer/worker. What is implied--but never explained--by "western consumers worried about rising prices?" Why do South American oil producers like to bash foreign companies?

Why don't you see it from the perspective of the workers of Venezuela? What if we realized that the people of Venezuela have been toiling at jobs making sub-sustenance wages in a country that is rich in natural resources? The people of Venezuela believe they have a right to profit from the sale of their oil before any bunch of foreign investors. When we hear about Lee Raymond receiving a $400 million dollar retirement package from Exxon Mobile we react with disgust, but what often goes unsaid is that money is mostly stolen profits from foreign countries thanks in large part to brutal dictators we have installed in most of the oil producing regions of the world. We don't seem to have much trouble understanding that the consumer is getting screwed here, but it's much more difficult to see how the actual producers of this commodity--oil--are also getting screwed.

Yet it is Nicaragua that has become the most intriguing proxy for the battle over Latin hearts and minds. Having spent millions of dollars under President Ronald Reagan to oust the left-wing Sandinista regime, Washington is now facing the prospect of a democratic comeback by Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista leader again running for president — this time with the help of Chavez.
Washington is backing Eduardo Montealegre, a former foreign minister who has accused Chavez of trying to “buy” the November election for Ortega by offering cheap oil to municipalities largely controlled by Sandinista mayors. Ortega retorted that Montealegre was a puppet of Paul Trivelli, the US ambassador in Managua.

Millions of dollars to oust the Sandinistas? How about millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars spent to wage a brutal war of terror against the people of Nicaragua for daring to oust their brutal U.S. backed dictator, Somoza? That would be a little more accurate. Notice Chavez is accused of trying to buy the election despite the fact that the U.S. admits to supporting one of the candidates and is, of course, funneling money into the campaign through the taxpayer funded National Endowment for Democracy--a newspeak phrase if ever one existed. Never mind that the NED also funneled millions of dollars into elections in Venezuela to help defeat Chavez. We did the same thing in Belarus, Haiti, Nicaragua, and a host of other countries. Bear in mind that if any other nation were found to be trying to influence our elections through donations or what not, it would be considered not only illegal but an overt act of aggression. What do you think we would do to Cuba if we found them investing millions to influence elections here? Can there be any doubt that the bombers would be sent immediately?

posted at 11:14:00 PM by David Buccola

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