The international corporate press goes out of its way to ignore victims of political violence by the Venezuelan opposition. An article is doing very well, by the dismal standards that have been established, if it simply acknowledges – however briefly – that the pro-government people and security forces were among those killed during last years’ protests. No doubt, as I’ve been shown off the record, a minimal level of balance in an article provokes angry complaints from opposition supporters. The blackout is even more extreme when it comes to peasant activists murdered by the hundreds since 2001 in crimes that strongly implicate wealthy land owners opposed to the government’s land reform initiatives. The only responses I’ve ever received from cooperate journalists in Venezuela have been pitiful: lack of time and resources to investigate has been the excuse. English language journalists from all over the world have been stationed in Venezuela for years cranking out article after article “all saying the same shit” as Tariq Ali once put it. Time and resources are never in short supply (in fact redundancies abound) when it comes to spinning news about Venezuela in the opposition’s favor – though still not enough for some of the more extreme segments of it.
Today I sent some journalists a VenezuelaAnalysis.com article about the murder trial of wealthy landowner accused of orchestrating the asssassination of Sabino Romero, an indigenous leader. His widow, who was wounded during the hit, has just testified. Frankly, I expect to hear crickets chirping in response. Perhaps somebody will contact me privately, off the record, making excuses for ignoring, yet again, the assassination of Venezuelan peasants. If it were the other way around – hundreds of wealthy landowners being killed in crimes that implicate pro-government peasants – corporate journalists would be all over it. There would probably be calls for “humanitarian intervention”.
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