Venezuela
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Bolivia's elites seek a media coup By Justin Podur
The opponents of the Morales government, led by several governors of the wealthier provinces in a part of the country called the ‘media luna,’ are trying to use violence and sabotage to stop that agenda by provoking a civil war and chaos. Continue reading
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Hugo Chavez Denounces Coup Plot in Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez denounced on Wednesday evening a coup and assassination plot against the Venezuelan leader in a TV program. He announced that some of the people involved in the conspiracy were already arrested. HAVANA, Cuba, Sept 11 (acn) The Venezuelan president said the new plot was another attempt by the United States against the Continue reading
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Which way is up? by William Bowles
3 December 2007 A major blight of the ‘Left’, at least in my experience, is that it spends more time in-fighting than out. Why this should be so I’ll leave up to the psychoanalysts (or perhaps anthropologists?) to explain but it is surely a legacy we could well do without. My feeling is that is Continue reading
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Is the “New Left” Simply More of the Same, or a New Political Force in Latin America? – Council on Hemispheric Affairs
Is the “New Left” Simply More of the Same, or a New Political Force in Latin America? – Council on Hemispheric Affairs • South American leftward shift here to stay? • Latin Business Chronicle’s malpracticing prescription • Chávez is very different from Morales and Correa, though they all may face similar challenges. • What does Continue reading
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Media Lens: Chavez and RCTV – Tilting the Balance Against the ‘Bad Guy’
As we have previously reported* Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has long been demonised by the Western media as a “leftist firebrand” (The Independent), “Venezuela’s demagogue” (Washington Post), and as a “militaristic strongman” (Financial Times). No surprise, then, that Chavez’s decision not to renew the licence of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) has elicited outrage across Britain… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Shining City On A Hill – Part 2
11 May 2007 — Media Lens The BBC’s Justin Webb On ‘Anti-Americanism’ The Lexicon Of Totalitarianism In Part 1 of this alert (www.medialens.org/alerts/07/070508_the_shining_city.php), we analysed Justin Webb’s recent BBC Radio 4 series on “anti-Americanism”, ‘Death to America’. It is worth considering Webb’s premise that “anti-Americanism” is a meaningful concept that merits ‘balanced’ analysis. Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Shining City On A Hill – Part 1
8 May 2007 — Media Lens The BBC’s Justin Webb On ‘Anti-Americanism’ “The shining city upon a hill” was how John Winthrop, one of the early Pilgrims, described America, his new homeland. Winthrop was making reference to the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus had addressed a large crowd: Continue reading
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Book Review: Capitalism – past its sell-by date? By William Bowles
Historically, it has been the CIA which up until the 1990s did the dirty work for US imperialism as the record clearly shows. However, the CIA’s record in overthrowing foreign governments is far from being a success story. A new strategy was needed, and one which was untainted with the ‘dirty tricks’ label of the… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Ridiculing Chavez – The Media Hit Their Stride – Part 2
In Part 1 of this alert we showed how the mainstream media have been united in depicting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as an extreme, absurd and threatening figure. In essence, the public has been urged to consider Chavez beyond the pale of respectable politics. Continue reading
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Media Lens: Ridiculing Chavez – The Media Hit Their Stride – Part 1
16 May 2006 — Media Lens Controlling what we think is not solely about controlling what we know – it is also about controlling who we respect and who we find ridiculous. Thus we find that Western leaders are typically reported without adjectives preceding their names. George Bush is simply “US president George Bush”. Condoleeza Continue reading
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Media Lens: Lining Up the Next Victims
The British media is moving up a gear in support of Washington and London’s agenda of demonising the next potential victims of western power, whether in Iran or Latin America. Consider ‘The Big Question’ posed last Thursday by the avowedly critical ‘Independent’ newspaper in London: Continue reading
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Media Lens: Cartoon Time – Channel 4 Smears Chavez
5 April, 2006 — Media Lens On March 27, Channel 4 News included a report by Washington Correspondent Jonathan Rugman: ‘Hugo to go?’ (www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=2046) Rugman relentlessly smeared Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, in a piece described by John Pilger as “one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen”. (Email to Channel Continue reading
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The world – one year later By William Bowles
Like a runaway train, the ‘war on terror’ that must have seemed such a good idea at the time, has taken on a life all its own that now threatens to crash into the imperial terminus. Continue reading
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Haiti: Gangster (F)RAP(H) By William Bowles
No matter that the corporate media have done their best to cover up the outrage that has been committed against the people of Haiti, things have a way of working their way out into the light of day. The telephone conversation between Randall Robinson of the TransAfrica Forum and Jean Bertrand Aristide has blown the… Continue reading
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National Endowment for Democracy: At It Again in Haiti! By William Bowles
The National Endowment for Democracy that ‘celebrated’ its 20th anniversary this year has a long and less than illustrious past. It’s dead hand has descended on a number of countries over the past two decades including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Venezuela (currently also on-going) and of course Haiti. Continue reading
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History Repeating Itself? Not Exactly By William Bowles
This time around, in spite of (or perhaps because of) a massive propaganda campaign preceding the war (whereas the Vietnam debacle was effectively hidden from the public), the imperium has been forced to try and justify its actions every step of the way. For those of us engaged in actively opposing the imperium, there are… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 