CNN (12/11/16)
Turning facts on their head, CNN transformed the Venezuelan government’s act of helping the poor into the complete opposite.
In the article “Venezuelan President Called a ‘Grinch’ After Government Toy Seizure” (12/11/16), CNN reporters Rafael Romo and Jorge Luis Pérez liken President Nicolás Maduro to a dastardly Grinch who is stealing toys from under children’s Christmas trees — while he is doing precisely the contrary.
On Sunday, December 11, the Venezuelan government confiscated nearly 4 million toys from the country’s largest toy company. Venezuela’s consumer protection agency said the company was hoarding the toys and planning to sell them at inflated prices in order to maximize profits during the Christmas season. The head of the consumer protection agency charged that executives at the toy company, Kreisel-Venezuela, “don’t care about our children’s right to have a merry Christmas.”
The government announced it would give those toys to local committees in impoverished neighborhoods to sell at below-market prices, so poor families can afford gifts for their children. But given the propensity of US corporate media to distort Venezuelan government policies, it’s unsurprising that CNN discounted this explanation.
On CNN‘s website, reporters Romo and Pérez cite anonymous “critics” who claimed “many families won’t be able to buy the confiscated toys for the holiday.” On the cable channel, the “critics” claimed that “many families won’t have any toys to buy their children.”
Who are these “critics”? CNN cites just two people, both obscure Twitter users, neither of whom claimed that families now won’t be able to buy toys.
In fact, not until more than halfway through the CNN video broadcast does the report acknowledge the reason the Venezuelan government gives for confiscating these toys. In the final seconds, CNN deigns to include a clip from Maduro, who explains that his actions are precisely the opposite of what the media conglomerate implied: “We have found a case of criminal hoarding of 4 million toys, so the children of our communities, barrios and government committees will for sure have their toys for Christmas, thanks to our laws,” the Venezuelan president declared. “This is like reinforcements for baby Jesus.”
If a government distributes hoarded toys to children, who is the Grinch in that story?
Similarly, not until the sixth paragraph does the online article mention the Venezuelan government’s rationale for confiscating the toys, after Maduro is smeared as the “the Grinch that stole Christmas.” (One cannot help but notice that, if anyone were to be compared to the Grinch in this situation, it would be rich corporate executives hoarding toys to maximize profit.)
The deception does not end there. In the article, under a large subhead titled “Worse than the Grinch,” Romo and Pérez write, “‘Now what?’ a Venezuelan woman asked on Twitter, ‘is [President] Nicolás Maduro the modern Grinch?'”
The tweet the CNN reporters link to is from an unknown Twitter user with 165 followers, who goes by the name Joli. If readers were to click on the link, they would soon see a thread in which Joli expressed surprise that her tweet inspired a CNN article, adding, “Aunque, no soy venezolana” — “Although, I am not Venezuelan.”
@OlivasJudith CNN se inspiró en mi tweet para su artículo! :,)… Aunque, no soy venezolana. pic.twitter.com/SmIrlLXq5S
— Joli (@OlivasJudith) December 11, 2016
Clearly, CNN‘s Romo and Pérez did not try to confirm the identity of the person whose quote they framed their entire article around. Yet the journalists continued with their shoddy reporting, writing, “Another Twitter user told CNN that the Venezuelan government is ‘worse than the Grinch.'”
By “told CNN,” Romo and Pérez do not mean they interviewed this person; they mean another unknown Twitter user with 500 followers who goes by the name Mivida tweeted at Romo.
The tweet they linked to, which had no favorites or retweets, also smears Venezuela’s government as a “narco regime” (although that part of the tweet is not cited in the article). A quick glance at Mivida’s Twitter feed shows that it is full of right-wing memes.
CNN‘s “Grinch” report exemplifies a popular new technique: Twitter has become the lazy journalist’s favorite tool. With millions of users expressing millions of different opinions, ostensibly “neutral” news outlets can cite tweets that confirm their biases as putative “evidence” that the public feels a particular way on an issue–a way that almost always just so happens to reflect and serve powerful interests.
Random tweets from unknown users can hence be quoted as examples of anonymous “critics” who echo corporate and government propaganda and rehash conventional wisdom. CNN‘s reporting is a case study in how to further sling mud at an elected socialist government that has for years faced aggression from the United States.
The US government, the interests of which major corporate media networks like CNN so obediently echo, has supported right-wing opposition groups in Venezuela for well over a decade. In fact, in 2002, the US even backed a coup that toppled the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez, and temporarily replaced it with a right-wing, US-allied regime headed by businessman Pedro Carmona. The same media that continues to demonize Venezuela with outright lies today helped sell the coup then (Extra! Update, 6/02)—although Chávez was so popular, masses of Venezuelans filled the streets and demanded that their elected socialist leader be returned to office, promptly overturning the short-lived 2002 putsch.
The CNN video playlist included with the above article demonstrates this propagandistic tenor. The videos are all extremely negative, and blame “Venezuela’s economic disaster” solely on its government.
If this kind of sloppy reporting were done on a US ally, it could ruin a journalist’s career. But as American economist Mark Weisbrot (Guardian, 3/10/12) put it more than four years ago:
Such is the state of misrepresentation of Venezuela—it is probably the most lied-about country in the world—that a journalist can say almost anything about Chávez or his government and it is unlikely to be challenged, so long as it is negative.
More recently, an investigation in The Nation (6/22/16) by Gabriel Hetland found that while “Venezuela is in the midst of a severe crisis…mainstream media have consistently misrepresented and significantly exaggerated the severity of the crisis.”
This suffocating climate lets major media networks get away with portraying progressive government policies that are infinitely more reminiscent of the deeds of Robin Hood, or even of the magnanimous Santa Claus himself, than they are of the greedy green Christmas monster.
Ben Norton is a journalist and writer based in New York City. You can find him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.
Messages to CNN can be sent to here (or via Twitter @CNN). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
No lack of Xmas jeer when it comes to Latin non lackeys
CNN, the voice of the CIA!
So company wanted to save toys for the holiday season when it new that everybody would be looking for toys, and maduro is deciding what the market price for the toys should be. Easy to do when you steal them from the producers.
He is the grinch because what use is a toy to a child who’s father just lost his job because the grinch stole the toys and with the lack of profits and the debt to remake the toys, the company has to lay off 100s of workers if it decides it’s worth it to do business in the country at all. After all, they can’t compete with a communist who is destroying th economy more every day.
This lack of faith in the market is one reason for the problems in the country and its mostly because of the government.
Maduro is definitely a grinch. We don’t need the media to see that.
Profits over people always, right? That is a sick crony-capitalist mentality, and THAT is what’s destroying the world.
Its just toys compared to peoples lives.
Did you choose to ignore my message or do you just hate people?
People will lose their jobs over this, meaning, no mouths to feed and more carnage as there are more homeless and sick unemployed people, but you only care that some kids got toys?
Heaven forbid they dont have the latest barbie to play with. Thats more important than a man being able to feed his family.
Yes, companies need to make money to keep paying employees and producing goods, like toys, for these children to play with.
They get toys this year, but next year no toys because nobody wants to make toys for Venezuela anymore. Are you happy now?
I’ll be happy when you trolls stop using logical fallacies to perpetuate misinformation on behalf of your predatory capitalist overlords.
When is the last time an anti-Capitalist produced anything of value? Even one job?
When is the last time an anti-Capitalist produced anything of value? Even one job? Maduro thinks that this supplier will be around next year? Who will he steal from when nobody produces anything? Currently, Venezuela imports 96% of its commerce. How many jobs did he just kill?
I don’t respond to straw man arguments. What else ya got?
While CNN is far from being an example of journalism, this knee-jerk defense of Venezuela’s authoritarians thugs by Ben Norton is kind of laughable. There is a rationale behind the ROBBERY (yes, robbery) of Kreisel and its production? Really? Are toys staple products? Are they needed to live? Will poor kids prefer them instead of the food they can’t find in Venezuelan stores?
What is happening with regards of Kreisel, or the shoe stores that are forced to sell way below any profit margin anyone would eve conceive (save communists with a total disconnect from basic economics) is the mopping of the last remnants of Venezuela’s private sector. Simple as that. Is just circus, with little bread (if there is any). The confiscations do not even respect the procedures established by Venezuelan law. There is not even the attempt to verify any paperwork related with the items.
And BTW Mr. Norton, why don’t you say that the confiscated toys will only be allocated to followers of chavismo? Because the CLAPS (the local committees you mention) only reward those who stay within the party line, as ordered by Maduro and the government. Will the kids of non-compliant parents receive a toy out of the plundered loot? Care to answer that?
Perhaps not. You are only interested in propagandize in favor of the Venezuelan autocrat. Pathetic.
Alfonso Guevara is the only person telling the truth here, Mr Norton is either ill-informed, speaking from his own bubble or a Chavismo apologist which is very inexcusable these times… also is quite telling that any information that doesn’t confirm the bubble of Mr Norton and his friends is deemed as “right wing”. Again is misinformation, Venezuelan people is so hurt by communism disguised as “21st century socialism” that yes they can express their anger toward left wingers but when you check all the opposition parties and their political programs in Venezuela at the moment the majority of the population is more positioned in a centrist and centre-left when it comes to social policies maybe a bit more centre-right in economy but the amount of people that can be called “right-wing” in the opposition is really insignificant… the vast majority of Venezuelan opposition leaders and voters are center-wing… So stop the harassment to Venezuelan opposition voters, they are being hurt enough by Chavismo government authoritarian regime as for external apologists to keep the abuse on them…
Me thinks the commenter doth protest too much. One way to spot a misinformation troll. Another is by overuse of meaningless labels (left, right, center, communist, socialist, etc) meant only to distract and divide.
You guys are losing the information war. Time to find a new job.
The troll that is trying very hard to pick up a fight with anyone criticizing Ben Norton’s piece is calling somebody else a troll. Boy, that’s rich XD
Maduro only wants to bring happiness to poor children, and you paint that as a “bad” thing? You’re sick.
TeeJae
Yeah, Maduro is such a caring and loving man :/
Please tell me that you dont believe that crap.
And there is a cost to everything, so what is the cost of bringing toys, which are not a necessity, to starving families?
He would be better served to sell them outside of the country and use that money to feed his people who have to leave Venezuela by the millions just to get food currently.
Your priorities are the ones that are sick.
Cite anything that shows those particular poor people are starving. Enough with that strawman.
Btw . Those poor kids are still waiting. Still No toys
People who side with the money and against the many in Venezuela are aware that the price of oil, the resource that funds the Venezuelan government, is the prime cause of the country’s economic difficulty. !Maduro should have known! that the Saudis intended to glut the market and cause oil price to fall.
OH COULD SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF BILLIONARIE COMPANIES!!?!? They stole the million.-dollar christmax bonuses to their CEOs ;-(
Lol, right wingers are laughtable.
these companies do not even “produce” any toys, they are merely distributors.
Speculation is cancer on the economy.
These people should have at the very least learned that on the 2008 crisis, while banks speculated with housing and loans until the very last second of the catastrophe.
And then, the capitalist government robbed for the people to bail ouit the banks. Thus “austerity” for the poor and money for the rich.
For some reason, this sin’t considered “stealing”…
Mamertos and left wingers are so predictable. In that they call “right wingers” to anyone and everyone who disagree with their vision of the world. LOL.
Also, that they recur on a frequent basis to el cheapo logic to argue and reason. Yeah, a nice strawman fallacy to smear the directives of Kreisel. Boy, those evil guys in suits, how horrible they are, aren’t they? They only worry about themselves. I guess they surely have hooked noses, horns, and make pacts with the Devil.
Talk about laughable.
BTW, that you are transferring your 2008 anti-corporate angst and anger to the Venezuelan current situation speaks how much you know about what is happening here.
Speculation have nothing to do with a company being robbed of their production at gun point by thugs in green olive suits in Venezuela. Toys are not staples, as far as I know. They’re not food, neither drugs needed to live.
Do you know for a fact Kreisel does not produce their toys? I would love to hear your confirmation on that one.
And, speaking of which…
Have you give a thought about Kreisel workers?
Yeah, how are they going to feed their families once Kreisel is put out of business? I guess you didn’t think on that one.
But hey, yeah, those horrible suits, they’re the devil.
So only that company’s employees matter? Not the poor families who don’t have jobs at all? What’s wrong with you? Oh that’s right, you’re a pro-capitalist shill.
TeeJae, so your answer is to make more people jobless?
And to give poor jobless people, begging for food, toys instead? Toys that they probably cant even afford at below market prices?
Because toys cant be made, they must be bought, and are now a necessity?
What is wrong with YOU!
Straw man much?
Dear Troll TeeJay:
Get a real job. Perhaps in that way, you would understand that everyone needs to make a buck to make a living, and pay the bills.
You seem confused. Maybe it’s because the only places where everything seems to be free, are those safe spaces within your campus where you are sipping your latte while emblazoned in your Che Guevara T-Shirt, trying very hard not to get micro-triggered.
Cheers ;-)
Thank you for the good job Mr Ben Norton.
A couple of guys who have posted here work for the toy company.
Either that, or they really hate it when many poor people take something from the very few rich.
So, we either have to agree with Ben Norton’s version of this story (the angelical Venezuelan government fighting the good ol’ fight for the poor), or we are a couple of deluded shills that hate the poor?
As stated: Mamertos and left wingers “reason” through logical fallacies. False dilemma FTW.
I guess the soon to be unemployed Kreisel workers in Venezuela would have a lot of things to say about the people that, from the comfort of their refuge abroad, celebrate a measure (and a government) that doesn’t affect them at all. After all, they are not living here.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/12/13/Venezuela-seizes-38M-toys-from-company-accused-of-money-laundering-fraud/2521481641307/
Oh. 21 companies owned by Avi Kreisel, oh. other problems…
Yeah, so instead of sending him to court for money laundering and letting the workers keep their jobs, the gov steals seemingly only toys which they can use in propaganda campaigns, so the company will have to fire most of its people.
Bad move for the economy, good move for the gov, at least until it runs of out things to steal.
No country can survive under such a regime.
For the record . Those asshole Chavistas never gave those toys to any kids .
This whole article is Chavez propaganda.
Your a fuct up dude Ben Norton
It’s hell on earth there nowadays.
And that terrible excuse of a government is sucking the the life out those beautiful people and their culture.
Fuck Chavez. Fuck Maduro and all those pieces of shit .
And you know all this how? Care to provide (credible) citations?