Monday, December 14, 2009

A Decade of Propaganda? The BBC's reporting of Venezuela...http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5003

The researchers looked at 304 BBC reports published between 1998 and 2008 and found that only 3 of those articles mentioned any of the positive policies introduced by the Chavez administration.  The BBC has failed to report adequately on any of the democratic initiatives, human rights legislation, food programmes, healthcare initiatives, or poverty reduction programmes. Mission Robinson, the greatest literacy programme in human history received only a passing mention.

According to the research the BBC seems never to have accepted the legitimacy of the President, insinuating throughout the sample that Chavez lacks electoral support, at one point comparing him to Hitler ('Venezuela's Dictatorship' 08/31/99).

For the BBC, the only legitimate representatives of Venezuelan appear to be the unelected oligarchs behind the "opposition." It is the "opposition" that is Venezuela. 'Opposition leaders in Venezuela,' according to the BBC, appeal 'to the international community to intervene to protect democratic rule.' When democracy was "restored" by a military coup and the imposition of a dictator, the BBC reported that "Venezuela has looked not to an existing politician, but to the head of the business leaders' association." When a majority of Venezuelans elect Chavez it is not an act of "Venezuela" yet when a CIA-backed military coup imposes a corrupt oligarchy, it reflects the will of the whole of Venezuela; not the will of an elite class, but of Venezuela itself.

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