Media offensive against Venezuela or replicating the Chavista script?
By Miguel Octavio | The Devil's Excrement
23.02.05 | The Venezuelan Ministry of Information has started an aggressive campaign to demonstrate that the US media has started a media war against Venezuela. What is perhaps most remarkable about the reaction by Minister Izarra and his Ministry is that you could simply apply all of the charges he makes to the style of the Venezuelan Government during the last few years. In producing this document, it appears as if they may be more upset at someone stealing their playbook, than anything else. As first pointed out by Quico in the comments this morning when he rightly questioned my other choice for “Quote of the day” Minister Izarra actually said yesterday:
“We analyzed what is the use of pseudo reporting techniques to lie, advance half truths, confuse, exaggerate, fake sources, distort facts, and unfairly utilize anonymity”
Hey! Sounds like something out of the Chavista playbook! Izarra is the leading expert on it, nothing to analyze really, just jealousy! They may even think they invented these techniques by now!
In fact, the reason why I did not use any of this as “Quote of the Day” was that the whole thing is quote long and complicated and a story on itself, with dozens of quotes. How about this, for example:
“This new attack appears to be oriented at delegitimizing the democratic efforts being advanced by the people and the Government to democratically propel the changes towards the political, economic and social change of our country”
I particularly like the use of “the people” before the Government and the use of “economic progress” in the text. How is that for lying or for talking about something they could care less about!
But I particularly like the part about “Reiteration” the so called “Goebbels effect” by which things are repeated over and over until they believe it is true. Hey! Isn’t that what Chavismo is all about? Maybe Izarra could do similar studies about the lies of this Government on the four top priorities in Chavez’s campaign in 1998: Poverty, crime, corruption and participative democracy.
But there are so many others, like the lie by the US saying that there is an autocracy here. After all, autocracy means absolute and controlling power, supremacy. Apparently Izarra was too principled in April 2002, but left those same principles at the private TV station he used to work at, the moment he left it. Chavez IS an autocrat and to pretend to say that someone is falsely accusing him of that is idiotic or as Goebbelian as the charges he is trying to deflect. In fact, as idiotic as saying the US is trying to kill Chavez, but that is another article and story altogether.
Then there are the “false” charges that Chavez is protecting terrorism (We forgot Rodrigo Granda or the Bolivarian Congress already!) or starting an arms race. How could anyone accuse the Venezuelan Government of that, when it has “only” committed US$ 2 billion in the last two months, to buy weapons as people go hungry and are now homeless by the floods? Naw! This is all in Bush’s or Dr. Rice’s head, a silly paranoia which has no basis on reality!
Then there is that absurd charge by Fox News, that Hugo Chavez loaded the Supreme Court or jailed Capriles Radonsky or has control over the oil profits of the country. Naw! False! False! False! Just read how Bandes “disappeared” US$ 2 billion from the Governments coffers and accounting and nobody knows where it may be. Control? Naw!
Note how everything is done in chunks of US$ 2 billion at a time.
The whole defense is almost sophomoric, the quotes so correct that they may make you laugh, saying that they are criticizing them unfairly. But this is no laughing matter. This is what Venezuelans have been facing during the last few years. From the illegality of the Constituent Assembly and its election to the cheating at the recall referendum, it is the Chavistas that have been experts at manipulating external opinion and promoting the lies of this fake revolution. They now try to apply their style to the wide coverage of Chavez’ behavior in the last few months by the foreign press. They know the techniques by heart, they are experts!
send this article to a friend >>