Where’s the balance on Chavez?Venezuela’s ambassador sees Bush talking points on U.S. editorial page

[Judi Lynn]

Where’s the balance on Chavez?
Venezuela’s ambassador sees Bush talking points on U.S. editorial pages.
By Bernardo Álvarez Herrera
December 6, 2007

The Times printed an editorial on Venezuela's recent national referendum. I am particularly concerned because your editorial, like many in other newspapers, strongly echoed the opinions of the Bush administration, failed to provide needed balance and displayed a misunderstanding of dramatic changes taking place in Venezuela.

editorial on Venezuela's recent national referendumIn the wake of the Dec. 2 referendum, virtually every newspaper of regional or national circulation has published an editorial or an Op-Ed article on the results or on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New York Post, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Kansas City Star, Seattle Times and Chicago Tribune all published editorials on the referendum, all of them critical of Chavez. In fact, most of the editorials celebrated the result of the referendum as a victory for democracy without mentioning that democratic participation and consultation have expanded dramatically in Venezuela in recent years.

Beyond the sheer geographic and numerical reach of such a large number of editorials (five of the newspapers are within the top 10 in circulation; all 11 are in the top 35), the very remarkable coincidence is that they all — including The Times — speak or echo the Bush administration's line on Venezuela. There seems to be little interest in balance, much less in challenging the Bush administration's double standard in how it approaches Venezuela's democratic institutions. On Nov. 30, the White House claimed that free and fair elections could not be held in Venezuela, and on Dec. 3, it it celebrated the results. Your editorial did the same thing. Are Venezuelans to think that our democratic institutions can only be considered acceptable if the results they produce agree with U.S. policy?

More:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-herrera5dec05,0,5663824.story?coll=la-opinion-center

[rAVES]

1. re last line: No.. the Venezuelans are to Know that.. truley KNOW it.

Their Democracy is fragile and they should thread carefully so as not to upset the master upstairs...

:puke: