Reporting on Venezuela news and headlines
Two papers, two views

Thursday 11, March 2004

Today the bevy of articles on Venezuela since troubles began allows me for an interesting comparison between the Washington Post and the New York Times styles. I will give you the result right now: the Post wins, largely.

Let's start with "From Chavez, Divisive Rhetoric (washingtonpost.com)", an article from Jon Jeter in the Post. This article actually comes off as rather sympathetic for Chavez. But it is so because it underscores the strength of Chavez, instead of trying to justify the unjustifiable.
Example:
After returning from a state visit abroad, for example, Chavez has spoken on television using a map and pointer. "He will say this is where I was and it takes X number of hours to travel there by plane from Caracas," Arvelaiz said. "For the rich and the middle class, this is all quite boring because of course they know where Spain is on the map. They think it is stupid. But poor people love this. No one has ever taken the time to explain this to them."

Or later, a simple and fair assessment of the situation:
Monitors from the Organization of American States and the Atlanta-based Carter Center said they did not see widespread fraud in the referendum process. But the National Electoral Council ruled that many of the forms were improperly completed and that signatures did not match identification numbers. Chavez said many names were of dead people.

Or we can go to the columns of Marcela Sanchez, a rather opinionated writer in the Post. Either her Venezuelans get sacrificed in the blame game or her Hemispheric Inaction Breeds 'Coup de Streets' can be put as examples of expressing a opinion without twisting the facts.

Now let's look at Juan Forero from the New York Times who has been very active these days. I have already criticized the man here quite a lot, and in all truth he is not improving. Perhaps he does not read my blog (nor other blogs as critical of his way of twisting information).

Let's start with Chavez Says U.S. Is Fueling His Enemies. In this article Mr. Forero, who should know better, retakes a canard that I have discussed long ago in this blog. My readers are, it seems, better informed than Mr. Forero himself. You can read:
Endowment aid had fallen to $257,000 in 2000, as political parties and other beneficiaries in Venezuela were left crippled after Mr. Chavez's sweeping victories in elections. Assistance more than tripled to $877,000 in 2001 as political parties reorganized to counter the president. In 2002, aid rose again, to $1.1 million.
and a little bit later:
The documents, obtained by a freelance reporter, Jeremy Bigwood, and posted on the Web site of the Venezuela Solidarity Committee, show that much of the aid benefits political parties and groups leading the recall effort. Those benefiting from assistance include Sumate, a group that has staged signature gatherings for a referendum. It received $53,400 last September.

The question is of course: is the incredible effort made by Sumate attributable to that meager 53,400?

Does Mr. Forero genuinely thinks that with that amount of money one can mount a credible electoral challenge effort in a country of 25 million people. Even with 1.1 million, while we are at it. No. Really, one has to wonder if Mr. Forero is naive and ill informed or if he is trying to give credence to the multiple Chavez campaigns to discredit at any cost whomever opposes him.

But it gets better:
"The government believes it is unacceptable for the United States to be involved in the affairs of Venezuela," said Andres Izarra, a spokesman for the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington.

Somebody that pretends to be as informed as Juan Forero should know better than to quote Mr. Izarra on what is obviously a "standard" reply. Does Mr. Forero know that one of the main complaints of the Venezuelan opposition is the constant intervention of Cuba in Venezuelan affairs, be it from security personel or the Cuban ambassador in many offical events where he is the ONLY ambassador attending?

Eventually at the end Mr. Forero acknowledges that these grants can actually go to pro-Chavez groups that would present proposals promoting political development. But the damage is already done.

Pirate Radio as Public Radio, in the President's Corner is yet another exercise by Mr. Forero where he admires the support given by the Chavez administration to "neighborhood" radio stations, at tax payer money of course. While ignoring again the attacks to the private media, the journalists on the beat, the refusal of Chavez to attend press conferences where he would be questioned over his policies, etc... things that would be totally unacceptable in the US, just to mention the country for which Mr. Forero writes.
Here, 4 key paragraphs of that article:
The message, beamed from a 13-kilowatt station in what was once the storeroom of a housing project, reaches at most a few hundred homes. But Radio Perola is part of a mushrooming chain of small government-supported radio and television stations that are central to Mr. Chavez's efforts to counter the four big private television networks, which paint him as an unstable dictator.

With Venezuela on edge, stations like Radio Perola are poised to play an even bigger role in this oil-rich nation's political battle.

Instead of shutting down his news media tormenters, Mr. Chavez's tactic appears to be to ignore them as much as possible while relying on former ham radio operators and low-budget television stations to get the government's message across.

Although the stations say they are independent and autonomous, Mr. Chavez has announced that $2.6 million would be funneled to them this year. They also will receive technical assistance and advertising from state-owned companies.

Really, Chavez can give 2.4 million to his political allies but the opposition cannot receive 1.1 million from a US foundation open to all, including Pro Chavez groups if they bothered to apply? Where is your sense of proportion Juan?

Mr. Forero, in case you do not know, if I wanted to open a small private community radio station in San Felipe I would be shut up real quick. My equipments would be immediately seized. But if the local chavista bolivarian circle wanted to do so, I bet it would succeed. And get a grant at that.

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Since these links will expire soon, the articles have been posted on my "documents on Venezuela" section.