MSM reaction on Venezuela's rigged voter roll: too litle too late
By Aleksander Boyd
London 21.03.06 | On October 2005, Venezuelan bloggers and media reported that there was something fishy with one Gonzalez family out of Maracaibo. Quoting from Miguel Octavio "according to the Electoral Registry, 2002 Gonzalez' were born on the same day and year March 15th 1974. Even more amazing, 1887 of them have registered in the same state of Zulia under Chavez' flash ID campaign by the Government before the recall vote in 2004, instead of doing it when they should have. But these guys are really, really good. On top of that, 409 are registered to vote TWICE. Isn't that wonderful?"
As customary with all things Venezuela, the MSM is always behind the curve, reporting on such grave issue nearly 6 months after. Too little too late. Had it not been for the moronic PR maneuver of the owners of the North American Opinion Research Inc., the fact that Hugo Chavez's favourite pollster fabricates results to keep being favoured with oil contracts and other saucy deals would have gone unnoticed, as has been the case with other equally shocking findings revealed in this and other independent Venezuelan websites.
Take for instance the conflict of interests of Smartmatic; or the many millions that Hugo Chavez wastes in lobbying and propaganda efforts in Washington DC, in spite of being the seat of the Empire he so yearns to destroy; or the spurious and unsubstantiated claims of US invasion plans; or the forced dissapearance and imprisonment of political opponents; or the state promoted political prosecution; or the love affair with rogue regimes and terrorism... In sum, had we, Venezuelan bloggers, the sort of attention that the media dispenses to Hugo Chavez's and his apologists' socialist babble, the Venezuelan reincarnation of Che Guevara would probably be by now, just as the latter, serving the fetiche purpose of the world's barking moonbats and armchair revolutionaries.
Truth is romantic tales of heroes liberating the oppresed are always in high demand; in economic, political, social and scientific circles. Very few people have the strenght of mind required to escape from such bullshit. Another example, the 105 clueless British MPs that have pledged support to Venezuela's tinpot dictator, disregarding such facts as the 16 year-sentence given to the country's largest union boss or the statements that their revolutionary idol has uttered with respect to the Falklands, where British soldiers were killed or, graver still, the irrevocable support that Venezuela has offered to Iran vis-a-vis its nuclear race.
No, militant useful idiots don't know about any of it, simply because the mass media systematically fails in doing what's meant to do: i.e. informing on issues of relevance.
Venezuela does not need invasions or patronage from other countries, but it could certainly do with a bit of timely, proper journalism. In December this year Hugo Chavez will be re-elected, there's no point arguing to the contrary. He's got almost unlimited funds and the perfect electoral machine at his disposal. Some observers and journalists argue that the opposition stands disunited, that it hasn't got a plan, that it doesn't represent our concerns and, to a certain extent, that is unfortunately the truth. However I don't hear opinions expressing deep preoccupation regarding the most unfair electoral conditions; on the one hand a Frankenstein exercising absolute control of his domain and on the other an atomised bunch of idiots, who lack the most basic common sense to, at least, realize that under such conditions the monster they created is unbeatable, unless a given candidate counts with a similar financial muscle. It is always easier, and less intellectually challenging, to play the blame game rather than actually pointing out the crude reality.
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