If USA Today is presenting an objective record of the Chavez years, how on Earth did he win so many elections? By that score, Venezuela must also have an especially ill-informed populace–or maybe Venezuelans know a different reality.
Jan
08
2013
Venezuelans Continue to Defy Washington Post
By 36 Comments
The Washington Post has never been fond of left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. As serious questions mount about the state of Chavez's health, the paper's editorial page found it a good time to take another swipe.
Dec
04
2012
Julian Assange, Erin Burnett and the Battle Over Press Freedom
By 38 Comments
There seems to be an expectation in the Assange case that a dissident must take refuge with a government with a sterling human rights record. This message is conveyed by journalists whose own country has detained, harassed and killed their journalistic colleagues.
Jun
29
2010
Larry Rohter Responds on South of the Border
By 6 Comments
New York Times reporter Larry Rohter turned in afactually challenged fact-check of Oliver Stone's new film South of the Border. So Stone and the film's co-writers Mark Weisbrot and Tariq Ali wrote a devastating rebuttal. A reader passed along a link to that piece to Rohter, suggesting that he "should be embarrassed" by his review. Unsurprisingly, Rohter would not seem to be embarrassed at all, judging his reply email, which FAIR has received: Dear Mr. Fuentes: Actually, it's Oliver Stone and company who need to heed your advice. I've been scrupulously honest in my reporting and writing, and they are [...]
Jun
28
2010
NYT Reporter, Playing Film Critic, Pans Film About Himself
By 13 Comments
It's not a huge surprise that a correspondent for a newspaper that supportedthe coup thatousted Venezuelan PresidentHugo Chavez would dislike a film that offers a more sympathetic view of Chavez's politics. That said, Larry Rohter'sreview (New York Times, 6/26/10) of the new Oliver Stone film Southof the Border still manages to surprise– mostly because Rohter's attempt to fact-check themovie is such a failure. Rohter's first big catch is this: Mr. Stone argues in the film that Colombia, which "has a far worse human rights record than Venezuela," gets "a pass in the media that Chavez doesn't" because of his hostility [...]
Sep
22
2009
New Developments in Honduras–Same Old Bad Media
By 16 Comments
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya hasreturned to Honduras, though not to office.Unfortunately, press accounts still manage to mangle the story behind his ouster, relying onthose who supported the coup to explain what happened. In today's New York Times (9/22/09): At the time of his removal, Mr. Zelaya was planning a nonbinding referendum that his opponents said would have been the first step toward allowing him to run for another term in office, which is forbidden under the Honduran constitution. Mr. Zelaya has denied any attempt to run for re-election. An Associated Press report appearing in today's USA Today (9/22/09) was much [...]
Jun
30
2009
A Look at Iranian Voting Turns Up Bad News for U.S. Democracy
Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research had one of the most informative pieces I've seen on the Iranian election, published on WashingtonPost.com (6/26/09). Weisbrot examines the actual Iranian vote-counting procedures, and concludes that in Iran, "large-scale fraud is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without creating an extensive trail of evidence." Since votes are supposed to be counted at individual polling places in the presence of 14-18 witnesses, Weisbrot points out that "if this election was stolen, there must be tens of thousands of witnesses–or perhaps hundreds of thousands–to the theft. Yet there are no media accounts [...]
