Reply #4: I agree with Weisbrot. Our entire corpo-fascist press has been in lockstep on anti-Chavez stories

[Peace Patriot]

for some time and has NEVER, not once, published ANY pro-Chavez or neutral stories explaining why the voters of Venezuela have elected and re-elected Chavez and his government, by big margins, in transparent, internationally monitored elections. It has been one of the most popular governments on earth. Believe me, I would have noticed on objective story on Chavez. I've been following this psyops/disinformation campaign for almost a decade. It is unrelieved. There are no exceptions. The New York Slimes, the Washitdownthedrain Post, the Wall Street Urinal, the Miami Hairball, the Associated Pukes, Rotters, the BBCons, et al, and all broadcast conglomerates, never report on, let alone explain, Chavez's popularity, his government's achievements and his positive influence in the region. One of the worst pieces of shit reporting on Chavez I've come across was on BBC radio! But the Slimes take the medal for most consistent, "in depth" hit pieces on Chavez--lengthy tomes of anti-Chavez 'news' from every angle. I have not seen anything like it except the WMD lies leading up to the Iraq War--with the Slimes also in the lead on that disinformation campaign--and it has made me very alarmed that Venezuela is our war machine's next oil target (along with other evidence).

And if you do a bit of research, you find out that there are a lot of good reasons why big majorities of Venezuelans have been supporting this government for ten years. You furthermore find out that Chavez is respected by other Latin American leaders, and is good friends and allies with many of them, including the presidents of Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. Are the majority of Venezuelans stupid dolts? Is the president of Brazil a stupid dolt, and all these other leaders? Being led by the nose by a "dictator"? Or by an "incompetent"? (The contradiction in the rightwing "talking points" that pervade our press is never questioned, of course. Chavez can't control "street crime"? Some dictator!)

Not one even neutral article about Chavez. NOT ONE!

There are outright lies. And there are lies of other kinds, such as the black holes in 'news' stories where information should be. I've seen just about every kind of lying in our corpo-fascist coverage of Venezuela, including its utter distortion of Chavez's genuine popularity into this bogeyman "dictator" whom they can beat up on, without appearing to target their true victims--Venezuela's poor majority.

It's mind-boggling to see this groupthink in the western press. Imagine what it is doing to people on other issues--especially people who don't pay close attention to how the "news" is written or presented, like I do.

It offends me and appalls me. And it is very dangerous. I've certainly noticed this groupthink on another vital issue (besides the Iraq War and Chavez), and that is the alarming, fast conversion of our vote counting system, all over the U.S., to electronic voting machines run on 'TRADE SECRET' programming code, owned and controlled largely by ONE, private, far rightwing-connected corporation--ES&S, which just bought out Diebold--with virtually no audit/recount controls. They all pooh-pooh election fraud. They all IGNORE this gigantic "elephant in the room"--our loss of public control over vote counting. The U.S. public is FORBIDDEN to review this 'TRADE SECRET' code, and the audit/recount controls on it are laughable.

You could certainly argue that our entire democracy has been stolen, in every way that matters--corporate money control of who gets to run for office, corporate 'TRADE SECRET' control of who gets (s)elected, corporate lockstep control of the news media, corporate lobbyists writing bills in Congress and in state legislatures, a corporate resource war in Iraq, and more. And now these same malefactors are out to destroy Venezuela's democracy as well--if not by coup, as they tried and failed at, in 2002, if not by the oil bosses' lockout, to cripple Venezuela's economy in 2003 (which the Chavez government pulled Venezuela out of, with amazing success), if not by the USAID-funded recall election in 2004 (which Chavez won, hands down), and if not by this relentless, pervasive psyops, disinformation campaign, then how? What is all this disinformation FOR? Just dirty politics? Or is it the preliminary to Oil War II? And since the people who brought us Oil War I now have control of our election results, that is a vital question. What do they intend to use this 'TRADE SECRET' power to do?