Thatcher Lifted Millions—Says Who?
New York Times reporter John Burns admires Margaret Thatcher’s legacy. But when he claims she lifted millions to prosperity, does he have any evidence?
Why We Need the New Yorker to Correct Its Error on Venezuelan Inequality
The New Yorker is a magazine whose name is practically synonymous with factchecking–which makes you wonder how the glaring, major errors in the its recent coverage of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got through.
USA Today: Venezuelans Voted for High Unemployment and Food Shortages
If USA Today is presenting an objective record of the Chavez years, how on Earth did he win so many elections? By that score, Venezuela must also have an especially ill-informed populace–or maybe Venezuelans know a different reality.
WikiLeaks: Was Chavez Right About U.S. Meddling?
It’s no secret that U.S. media loathed the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Much of that was purely political; sure, Chavez could have given shorter speeches and been nicer to his political opponents–but it’s hard to imagine that would have mattered much to, say, the Washington Post editorial board. One thing that turned up constantly […]
In Death as in Life, Chavez Target of Media Scorn
Venezuela’s left-wing populist President Hugo Chávez died on Tuesday, March 5, after a two-year battle with cancer. If world leaders were judged by the sheer volume of corporate media vitriol and misinformation about their policies, Chávez would be in a class of his own. Shortly after Chávez won his first election in 1998, the U.S. […]
FAIR TV: Hugo Chavez in U.S. Media, Time’s Path to Iran War, Keystone XL and the TV Left
This week on FAIR TV: Hugo Chavez was loathed by the U.S. press–and that didn’t change when they reported his death. Plus Time magazine provides a look at the “Path to War” with Iran–omitting a key fact along the way.
And the Keystone XL pipeline is back in the news. But when it came up on ABC’s This Week, “left” pundit James Carville had a curious message.
NYT Debates Hugo Chavez—Minus the Debate
“On Eve of His Funeral, Debating Chávez’s Legacy” is the headline over William Neuman’s piece in the New York Times today. Funny headline, since there was no one in the Times’ “debate” who argued that Chávez left much of anything.
Mark Weisbrot on Hugo Chavez, Kevin Gosztola on Bradley Manning
This week on CounterSpin: Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is dead but his independence and help for Venezuela’s poor remains unforgiven in the US press.
AP: Chavez Wasted His Money on Healthcare When He Could Have Built Gigantic Skyscrapers
Chavez squandered his nation’s oil money on healthcare, education and nutrition when he could have been building the world’s tallest building.
In Death as in Life, Chávez Target of Media Scorn
Venezuela’s left-wing populist president Hugo Chávez died on Tuesday, March 5, after a two-year battle with cancer. If world leaders were judged by the sheer volume of corporate media vitriol and misinformation about their policies, Chávez would be in a class of his own.
Hugo Chavez Keeps Showering the Poor
The Chavez years, as best we can tell, have been enormously beneficial to the Venezuelan public as owners of public resources. But when corporate media write about Chavez’s policies, they can barely disguise their real feelings–as if the natural order of things would mean that private companies managed the oil industry and captured the profits.
Why Do Poor People Living in an Abandoned Skyscraper So Outrage the New Yorker?
It seems like for the New Yorker, rising standards of living for the poor don’t matter much when weighed against the fact that rich people lost some property they weren’t using.
Hugo Chavez: Why Does He Hate Us?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might be excused for harboring some hard feelings towards a government that helped to try to overthrow him.
Venezuelans Continue to Defy Washington Post
The Washington Post has never been fond of left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As serious questions mount about the state of Chavez’s health, the paper’s editorial page found it a good time to take another swipe.
Does Hugo Chavez Keep Fooling Venezuelans?
The New York Times updates readers today (12/13/12) on the health status of left-wing Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and the political implications for his country. But the paper starts out by suggesting that the people who keep electing him must have some kind of problem. According to the Times‘ William Neuman, life in Venezuela is […]
Josh Eidelson on Wal-Mart strike; Keane Bhatt on Venezuela vote
Workers at Wal-Mart walked off the job this week and that is business far from usual at the retail giant. Reporter Josh Eidelson explains why it’s a game-changer. And U.S. media were rooting against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Journalist and activist Keane Bhatt will tell us about the worst of the coverage.
CNN Exposes ‘Villain’ Chavez’s Dastardly Plot to House the Poor
Corporate media’s depiction of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is often cartoonish, but the lead from David Frum’s piece from CNN.com (10/9/12) takes the cake: Venezuela’s authoritarian president Hugo Chavez is a villain out of a Batman movie: buffoonish and sinister in equal measure. You want to be careful about throwing around words like “buffoonish,” though, […]
ABC’s Very Efficient Anti-Chavez Propaganda
If you’re listening to a report on an Official Enemy like Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, you expect to hear a litany of misdeeds, real or imagined, about the leader in question. Just check out ABC World News (10/7/12), where anchor David Muir started out with this: And a fierce enemy of the United States, Venezuela’s […]
What Are Enemies For?: Iran Sham Helps PBS Smear Chavez
It’s no secret that U.S. media outlets don’t have much love for left-wing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. A PBS NewsHour segment (10/5/12) just ahead of the recent election showed just how far you could go. Correspondent Ray Suarez opened by calling the election “a watershed moment for the world’s second-largest oil-producing nation and a critical supplier […]
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 […]
