‘We Have to Look at the Underpinnings of Environmental Degradation’
“Environmental degradation is about… these US corporations, backed by US government, that are allowed to run roughshod over peoples’ lands in the name of, again, profit.”
A ‘Regime’ Is a Government at Odds With the US Empire
A country’s political leaders are likely to be called a “regime” when they do not follow US dictates, and are less likely to be categorized as such if they cooperate with the empire.
The Empire’s Media and the Quest for Veto Authority in the Americas
The corporate media’s reaction to US assaults on democracy in Latin America, with rare exceptions, ranged from ignoring them to spreading misinformation in defense of them.
‘Whether or Not the Presidents Change, the Generals Remain Connected’
“For over 100 years, the US has utilized Honduras as an airport, as a base, a military base, to control what goes on in Cuba, to control what’s going on in Nicaragua, and then, now, to control what’s going on in Venezuela.”
Suyapa Portillo on Honduras Electoral Chaos, Rebecca Cokley on GOP ‘Tax on Disability’
The electoral chaos in Honduras—where a president has not been declared nearly two weeks after voting—requires media to connect the dots between a bipartisan US foreign policy that supports leaders deemed friendly to US “interests,” and the hardship and violence and voicelessness that pushes many to flee the countries run by those “friends.”
ACTION ALERT: NYT Claims US Opposed Honduran Coup It Actually Supported
Please contact the New York Times and ask it to correct the false claim that the United States tried to restore the democratically elected president of Honduras.
Five Years Later, US Admits Lies About Deadly Honduran Shooting
Presented now as a shocking revelation unearthed by government digging, findings that the DEA lies about a deadly 2012 shooting are no surprise to regional experts like Dana Frank—nor should they be to the press.
‘There Will Not Be Change as Long as US Sends Military Aid to Honduras’
“Until there is a change in the actions of the Honduran government, and a respect for lives, human rights and democracy, indigenous and other environmental actors will not be safe.”
Norman Solomon on Trump and the Press, Beverly Bell on Berta Caceres’ Work
Donald Trump says the press corps are the “enemy of the people.” The press corps, in turn, say Donald Trump is “presidential.” Where the people find themselves in this dance is unclear.
NYT Touts Honduras as Ad for ‘American Power’—Leaving Out Support for Murderous Coup Regime
A Times writer offers the results of Honduran anti-violence programs as “a striking rebuke to the rising isolationists in American politics,” who “seem to have lost their faith in American power.” But she failed to explain how American power paved the way for the shocking rise in violence in Honduras.
But Nazario failed to explain how American power paved the way for the shocking rise in violence in Honduras.
All They Will Call You Will Be Detainees
One of corporate journalism’s bad habits is framing international stories on the premise that news is what happens to the US. There is no better recent example of this than the story of tens of thousands of children fleeing Central America.
Azadeh Shahshahani on Honduras, Esther Armah on Marissa Alexander
fter a 2009 coup removed left wing president Manuel Zelaya, many were watching the elections in Honduras to get a sense of where the country—and US policy—might be heading. The early results said the elections were relatively clean, and the leading conservative candidate won the vote. But is that the whole story? Azadeh Shahshahani from the National Lawyers Guild will fill us in.
Also on CounterSpin today, Marissa Alexander is free on bond. But the Florida woman sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot in an altercation with her abusive husband still faces a retrial next year. How far has our legal system, and our society, really advanced in understanding domestic violence cases and are media helping? We’ll talk with journalist Esther Armah about that.
Washington Post Gets Honduras Wrong
Today the Washington Post gloats over the Honduran election, the results of which they see as a rebuke to left-leaning former President Manuel Zelaya, who was removed from office in a 2009 coup. But the Post isn’t getting the story right
The Threat—Again—of Left-Wing Latin American Democracy
You can count on U.S. corporate media to express alarm about the threat posed by left-wing governments in Latin America. Sometimes it’s military hype (think Soviet MiGs in Nicaragua), but more typically it takes the form of a generalized concern about certain governments’ commitment to democratic ideals. But how do you sound the alarm about […]
NYT, WaPo Let Unnamed U.S. Officials Spin Honduras Killings
The details are somewhat murky, but we know the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is heavily involved in counternarcotics in Honduras. A shooting incident last Friday reportedly left four innocent people dead–including two pregnant women. Questions are being raised about whether they were shot by DEA agents who were apparently going after a boat carrying drug […]
Dana Rohrabacher’s Honduran Adventure
Today’s New York Times (12/20/10) brings the latest from the WikiLeaks cables, an interesting piece about how Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) went to Honduras after the coup to praise the new government and hopefully arrange business deals for his friends. Unfortunately the Times bungles the story of the coup itself: Honduras had grabbed international headlines […]
Honduras Down the Memory Hole
A year after a military coup removed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya from office, Hondurans are still living under a repressive government—but the U.S. is pushing Latin American countries to join it in normalizing relations with the regionally ostracized nation. Reporting from a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), the New York Times […]
NYT’s Murky Cold War History
Kudos to the New York Times for publishing a front-page article (10/8/09) about the U.S. advisers and lobbyists who have been working (in one form or another) on behalf of the coup government in Honduras. But the piece glosses over the U.S. history in the region. Reporters Ginger Thompson and Ron Nixon write that the […]
New Developments in Honduras–Same Old Bad Media
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya has returned to Honduras, though not to office.Unfortunately, press accounts still manage to mangle the story behind his ouster, relying on those who supported the coup to explain what happened. In today’s New York Times (9/22/09): At the time of his removal, Mr. Zelaya was planning a nonbinding referendum that his […]
Rerun in Honduras
The pretext for the Honduran coup d’état is nothing new. In a remarkable replay, bogus charges that the corporate media in the U.S. and Europe have repeated endlessly without attempting to substantiate—that Honduran president Manuel Zelaya sought to amend the country’s constitution to run for another term—are virtually identical to the sham justification for the […]
