Cartoon Time for Chavez and Venezuela

A recent medialens alert highlighted the cartoon nature of a news report/one-sided smear on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
John Pilger described it as “one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen” - in which, Channel 4’s Washington Correspondent Jonathan Rugman smeared Chavez in "a piece seemingly written by the US State Department".

Check out the excerpt below*.
And the full article via the link
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/06/060405_cartoon_time_...l.php
*
........Rugman interviewed Maria Corina Machado, describing her as a "civil rights activist". In fact she is a leader of Sumate, an extreme right organisation that was deeply involved in a 2002 coup that temporarily ousted Chávez (see below). Machado met Bush in the White House shortly before the coup. Last November, the New York Times reported:

“Ms. Machado does not hide her close relations with Washington, which has provided financial aid to Sumate, the anti-Chávez, election-monitoring organization she helps run. In May, she infuriated the government when she met with President Bush at the White House, and she further antagonized officials in September by announcing that Sumate had received a fresh infusion of $107,000 from Washington.” (Juan Forero, ’Venezuela's best-loved, or maybe most-hated, citizen,’ New York Times, November 19, 2005)

In a March 23 report Rugman again described Machado as a “civil rights activist”, citing her as the source for his claim that “government critics” are “fearing another Zimbabwe here”. (Rugman, ‘Lord Vestey’s farm,’ Channel 4 News, March 23, 2006; www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=2022 )

John Pilger sent a letter to Channel 4 News complaining of Rugman’s report:

“This was a piece seemingly written by the US State Department, although Channel 4's Washington correspondent, Jonathan Rugman, appeared on screen. It was one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen, qualifying as crude propaganda. I have been in Venezuela lately and almost nothing in Rugman's rant coincides with reality. Factories are like ‘Soviet collectives‘; a dictatorship is on the rise; Chávez is like Hitler (Rumsfeld); and the media is under government attack. The inversion of the truth throughout this travesty is demonstrated in the ‘coverage’ of a cowed media. Venezuela is a country in which 95 per cent of the press and TV and radio are owned by the far-right, who mount unrelenting daily attacks on the government unhindered. The Latin American Murdoch, Cisneros, unfettered, controls much of it. Indeed, it is probably the most concentrated, reactionary media on earth - but that was not worthy of a single word from Rugman.” (Pilger, op., cit)

First elected in 1998, Chávez launched massive campaigns, described as Bolivarian Missions (named after the Venezuelan revolutionary, Simon Bolivar), to combat disease, illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty, and other social ills. Eighteen months after taking office, in a country of 25 million people, 1.4 million had been taught to read and write, while three million previously excluded from education due to poverty had enrolled in the education system. Seventy per cent of the population now enjoys access to free health care while 45 per cent receive subsidised food. Julia Buxton, a British scholar of Venezuelan politics, argues that the Chávez government "has brought marginalised and excluded people into the political process and democratised power". (Buxton, ‘Resisting Confusion: Pundit Michael Shifter and Venezuela,’ April 23, 2005; www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1428 )

Chomsky comments on Chávez:

“The wealthy and the privileged hate him. On the other hand, the great majority of the population is very impoverished and has always been kept out of the country’s enormous wealth. This Bolivarian Revolution, whatever you and I may think about it, is actually doing something for the poor and apparently they are reacting.” (Chomsky interviewed by Steven Durel, ‘Toward Freedom,’ Social Change Today, November 7, 2005; www.chomsky.info/interviews/20051107.htm )

Radical attempts to raise the living standards of the poor are not welcomed by US elites. Such reforms risk creating “the threat of a good example”, unleashing demands for greater equality and justice among impoverished people across the region. The potential cost to Western corporations exploiting this poverty is incalculable.

Thomas Carothers, a former Reagan State Department official, described US policy in Latin America. He explained how the US sought to maintain "the basic order of... quite undemocratic societies" and to avoid "populist-based change" that might upset "established economic and political orders" and open "a leftist direction". (Quoted, Neil Lewis, 'What can the US really do about Haiti?', New York Times, December 6, 1987)

In February, US media watch dog, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), reported that 95 per cent of the nearly 100 US press commentaries covering Venezuelan politics during the first six months of 2005 expressed clear hostility to Chávez.

The Wall Street Journal labelled Chávez a "tyrant" and "strongman", claiming he had presided over "the collapse of democracy". Three Journal editorials also referred to Chávez as a "strongman", while the editorial board suggested that Chávez should be placed on a list of the world's worst dictators. The Los Angeles Times called Chávez a "would-be dictator," arguing he engaged in "undemocratic tactics". (Justin Delacour, ’The Op-Ed Assassination of Hugo Chávez,’ February 13, 2006;
www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1670 )

And yet the Venezuelan government and its programme of change have been ratified by the Venezuelan electorate in eight elections and referenda. FAIR noted that, in spite of the fact that recent polls indicate that Chávez's domestic approval rating is above 70 per cent, “almost all commentaries about Venezuela represent the views of a small minority of the country, led by a traditional economic elite that has repeatedly attempted to overthrow the government in clearly anti-democratic ways“. (Ibid)........

.......There is an ugly truth behind the high technology, smart suits and genial smiles - the modern mass media system provides the vital propaganda component for a brutal system of exploitation........