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FAIR Study: Elite Media Allowed No Dissent on Regime Change for Venezuela Teddy Ostrow ([link removed])


A FAIR survey of US opinion journalism on Venezuela found no voices in elite corporate media that opposed regime change in that country. Over a three-month period (1/15/19–4/15/19), zero opinion pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post took an anti–regime change or pro-Maduro/Chavista position. Not a single commentator on the big three Sunday morning talkshows or PBS NewsHour came out against President Nicolás Maduro stepping down from the Venezuelan government.

Of the 76 total articles, opinion videos or TV commentator segments that centered on or gave more than passing attention to Venezuela, 54 (72 percent) expressed explicit support for the Maduro administration’s ouster. Eleven (14 percent) were ambiguous, but were only classified as such for lack of explicit language. Reading between the lines, most of these were clearly also pro–regime change. Another 11 (14 percent) took no position, but many similarly offered ideological ammo for those in support of forcing Maduro out.

The Times published 22 pro–regime change commentaries, three ambiguous and five without a position. The Post also spared no space for the pro-Chavista camp: 22 of its articles expressed support for the end to Maduro’s administration, eight were ambiguous and four took no position. Of the 12 TV opinions surveyed, 10 were pro-regime change and two took no position.

Corporate news coverage of Venezuela can only be described as a full-scale marketing campaign for regime change. If you’ve been reading FAIR recently (1/25/19 ([link removed]) , 2/9/19 ([link removed]) , 3/16/19 ([link removed]) )—or, indeed, since the early 2000s (4/18/02 ([link removed]) ; Extra!, 11–12/05 ([link removed]) )—the anti-Maduro unanimity espoused in the most influential US media should come as no surprise.

This comes despite the existence of millions ([link removed]) of Venezuelans who support Maduro—who was democratically elected ([link removed]) twice by the same electoral system that won Juan Guaidó his seat in the National Assembly—and oppose US/foreign intervention. FAIR (2/20/19 ([link removed]) ) has pointed out corporate media’s willful erasure of vast improvements to Venezuelan life under Chavismo, particularly for the oppressed ([link removed]) poor, black, indigenous and mestizo populations. FAIR has also noted the lack of discussion of US-imposed sanctions, which have killed at least 40,000 Venezuelans
([link removed]) between 2017–18 alone, and continue to devastate ([link removed]) the Venezuelan economy.

Many authors in the sample eagerly championed the idea of the US ousting Maduro, including coup leader Juan Guiadó himself, in the Times (1/30/19 ([link removed]) ) and Post (1/15/19 ([link removed]) ), and on the NewsHour (2/18/19 ([link removed]) ).

New York Times (1/30/19 ([link removed]) )

The Times made its official editorial opinion on the matter crystal clear at the outset of the attempted coup (1/24/19 ([link removed]) ): “The Trump administration is right to support Mr. Guaidó.” Followed by FAIR’s favorite Times columnist,Bret Stephens ([link removed]) (1/25/19 ([link removed]) ):

The Trump administration took exactly the right step in recognizing National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s constitutionally legitimate president.

It’s generally a nation’s supreme court that has thefinal say ([link removed]) on who is constitutionally legitimate, but in this case they can apparently be overruled by a foreign government—or a foreign newspaper columnist.

The Post editorial board also joined Team Unelected President (1/24/19 ([link removed]) ):

The [Trump] administration’s best approach would be to join with its allies in initiatives that would help Venezuelans while bolstering Mr. Guaidó.

The Times even produced an opinion video (4/1/19 ([link removed]) ) with Joanna Hausmann, “a Venezuelan American writer and comedian,” as she is described in her Times bio, who urged, “Let’s provide humanitarian aid and support efforts to restore democracy.”

Odd that the Times didn’t find it necessary to note a blaring conflict of interest ([link removed]) : Hausmann’s father is Ricardo Hausmann, Juan Guaidó’s appointed ([link removed]) Inter-American Development Bank representative. Mint Press News (3/19/19 ([link removed]) ) bluntly described him as the “neoliberal brain behind Juan Guaidó’s neoliberal agenda.”

It would be ludicrous to think the Times would withhold as blatant a connection to Maduro if one of his aides’ daughters made a snarky opinion video calling Juan Guaidó a would-be “brutal dictator”—even if our theoretical commentator was “an independent adult woman who has built a popular following on her own,” as Times opinion video producer Adam Ellick said ([link removed]) in defense of the omission.

These are just a few of many media pundits’ endorsements of Guaidó—someone whose name most of the Venezuelan populationdid not even recognize ([link removed]) before he declared himself interim president. Put more accurately, they are endorsements of a US-backed coup attempt.

This isn’t the first time that FAIR (e.g., 3/18/03 ([link removed]) , 4/18/18 ([link removed]) ) has found a one-sided debate in corporate media on US intervention. When it comes to advocating the overthrow of the US government’s foreign undesirables, you can always count on opinion pages to represent all sides of why it’s a good thing. And the millions of people who beg to differ? Well, they’re just out of the question.
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