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In reply to the discussion: Venezuela's last democratic institution falls as Maduro stages de facto takeover of National Assembl [View all]Judi Lynn
(160,516 posts)APRIL 30, 2019
TEDDY OSTROW
A FAIR survey of US opinion journalism on Venezuela found no voices in elite corporate media that opposed regime change in that country. Over a three-month period (1/15/194/15/19), zero opinion pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post took an antiregime change or pro-Maduro/Chavista position. Not a single commentator on the big three Sunday morning talkshows or PBS NewsHour came out against President Nicolás Maduro stepping down from the Venezuelan government.
Of the 76 total articles, opinion videos or TV commentator segments that centered on or gave more than passing attention to Venezuela, 54 (72 percent) expressed explicit support for the Maduro administrations ouster. Eleven (14 percent) were ambiguous, but were only classified as such for lack of explicit language. Reading between the lines, most of these were clearly also proregime change. Another 11 (14 percent) took no position, but many similarly offered ideological ammo for those in support.
The Times published 22 proregime change commentaries, three ambiguous and five without a position. The Post also spared no space for the pro-Chavista camp: 22 of its articles expressed support for the end to Maduros administration, eight were ambiguous and four took no position. Of the 12 TV opinions surveyed, 10 were pro-regime change and two took no position.
(The Times and Post pieces were found through a Nexis search for Venezuela between 1/15/194/15/19 using each paper as a source, narrowed to opinion articles and editorials. The search was supplemented with an examination of each outlets opinion/blog pages. The TV commentary segments were found through Nexis searches for Venezuela and the name of the talkshow during the same time period, in the folders of the corresponding television network: NBC News/CBS News transcripts, ABC News transcripts, and PBS NewsHour. Non-opinion TV news segments were omitted. The full list of items included can be found here.)
Corporate news coverage of Venezuela can only be described as a full-scale marketing campaign for regime change. If youve been reading FAIR recently (1/25/19, 2/9/19, 3/16/19)or, indeed, since the early 2000s (4/18/02; Extra!, 1112/05)the anti-Maduro unanimity espoused in the most influential US media should come as no surprise.
This comes despite the existence of millions of Venezuelans who support Madurowho was democratically elected twice by the same electoral system that won Juan Guaidó his seat in the National Assemblyand oppose US/foreign intervention. FAIR (2/20/19) has pointed out corporate medias willful erasure of vast improvements to Venezuelan life under Chavismo, particularly for the oppressed poor, black, indigenous and mestizo populations. FAIR has also noted the lack of discussion of US-imposed sanctions, which have killed at least 40,000 Venezuelans between 201718 alone, and continue to devastate the Venezuelan economy.
More:
https://fair.org/home/zero-percent-of-elite-commentators-oppose-regime-change-in-venezuela/