Reuters Article an Example of Media Complacency and Corruption
Cuba USA

Reuters Article an Example of Media Complacency and Corruption


By Joe Emersberger
Source venezuelanalysis.com

While Reuters apparently has the time and resources to explore allegations of corruption in the Venezuelan government’s funding of communal councils, it cannot mention, not even in passing, very damning and readily available criticism made of Human Right Watch, a group run by North American elites. This is typical of the corporate media’s easy acceptance of dishonesty on the part of governments and organizations whose activities align with US foreign policy. This complacency is a form of corruption – even when it doesn’t take a blatant and vulgar form – that deserves very harsh judgment. By failing to educate readers, as it very easily could have, about what serious Latin American scholars have said about HRW, or about a grave falsehood HRW has recently spread about the Venezuelan media, Reuters also raises serious doubts about the accuracy of its report on Venezuela’s communal councils, in fact all its Venezuela reporting. What other important sources and facts has Reuters ignored that readers are not in a position to check?

Reuters has often seemed to make an effort (unlike the Associated Press) to avoid becoming propagandists for the Venezuelan opposition, but this article really exposes Reuters’ limitations. Media corruption will continue to restrict democracy until journalists no longer have to choose between independence (from government and corporate power) and access to a significant audience.


RE: Venezuela violated rights of protesters: rights group
Dear Brian Ellsworth

Why, in this article, do you leave readers to investigate for themselves how reliable HRW is in what it says about Venezuela? You mention only the Venezuelan government’s criticism of HRW but not those of independent scholars.

For example, in 2008, 100 scholars, including Noam Chomsky, sent HRW a petition objecting to a lengthy 2008 report about Venezuela.

The petition stated that the report “does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility”.

Just recently HRW official, Daniel Wilkinson, made a demonstrably false clain about the Venezuelan TV media in an article for the New York Review of Books, essentially the same falsehood the New York Times recently corrected, but only after receiving a petition from thousands of people.

HRW and the NYRB, both of whom are copied on this note, have simply ignored numerous requests to have the article corrected. These facts about HRW could have been mentioned without sacrificing brevity at all.

Why does Reuters seem to feel obliged to shield HRW from criticism?





- The Bolivarian Revolution Is Not Over
by Rosa Miriam Elizaldesource Desbloqueando Cubatranslation Cuba - Network in Defense of Humanity It is wrong to delight of others' misfortunes especially if it occurs in the middle of a perfect storm of lies and nonsense about Venezuela that has...

- Palestinian Children Arrive In Venezuela In The Coming Hours
Source AVN Minister for Foreign Affairs, Elias Jaua, envisages that the first Palestinian children victims of Israeli aggression, could be arriving in Venezuela in the coming days, to be house in shelters named Hugo Chavez aimed at hosting children...

- Us Business Leaders Visit Cuba And Assess Cuba Business Climate
blah..blah...blah.....How many times do we have to hear when some US Official or Hollywood ELITE visit Cuba praise the Cuban DICTATORSHIP and tell the media: "We're very pleased to be here," Donohue said. "We're learning a...

- "cuba Wants Churches' Help In Stopping Corruption"
"Cuba's Communist Party is asking the island's churches and religious associations to help it stamp out the small-time corruption, petty theft and apathy that plague daily life, state media reported Friday." What?...you have to be kidding me...

- Limited Pilot Testing Of The Alba-1 Cable?
Muchas Gracias sent us a link to an article in which Jorge Arreaza, Venezuelan minister of Science and Technology says the cable is operational, but not saying what it was being used for (http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/11252-venezuela-asegura-que-el-cable-de-internet-esta-absolutamente-operativo)....



Cuba USA








.