Above Photo: An edition of El Nacional newspaper from 2013. The lead headline translates as ‘Capriles asks the FAN [the National Armed Forces] to defend sovereignty’ By La Hojilla.
The mainstream corporate media lies incessantly and unashamedly about what’s happening in Venezuela. An example of a current lie circulating in the corporate media is a story published by Reuters news service. The Reuters story is headlined, ” Venezuela’s last anti-Maduro paper clings on as media intimidation grows.” The Reuters story has been picked up and published by numerous other corporate media outlets.
There may be elements of the Reuters story which are true, or partly true, but the claim that the newspaper, El Nacional is the last anti-Maduro newspaper in Venezuela is a complete fabrication. Don’t just take my word for it. Take a look what other national newspapers in Venezuela are publishing as of the writing of this article, July 26, 2018.
The web cite of El Universal has a story on its home page under the headline, “Capriles: A Democratic Exit of the Regime is Possible if the FANB respects the Constitution .” The story reports on Henrique Capriles Radonski , a former presidential candidate and leader of the Primero Justicia, an opposition party, saying that it is possible to leave the regime, if the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) respects the Constitution. This is an extremely thinly veiled call for the Venezuelan armed forces to stage a military coup to overthrow President Nicholas Maduro. The story makes no mention that there is no provision under the Venezuelan Constitution which allows for a military coup — all military coup’s are absolutely illegal under the Constitution. Does this sound like the kind of story a pro-Maduro newspaper would publish?
El Universal is a major national daily newspaper in Venezuela. In 2014,El Universal was sold to a group of Spanish investors. The right wing pro-corporate capitalist media group, the Committee to Protect Journalism, put out a story that claimed that under the new ownership,El Universal had, “cozied up to Venezuela’s socialist government.” The rest of the corporate media ate up the story as fact. How cozy to the Maduro government does the above-referenced story seem to you?
Tal Cual is another national newspaper in Venezuela. Its home page features a story under the headline, “There will be no economic improvement until Maduro leaves.” It reports on a statement by Julio Borges, a leading right wing opposition politician elected to the National Assembly. “T he deputy to the National Assembly, Julio Borges, said on Thursday July 26 that the economic announcements made by Nicola’s Maduro will not stop hyperinflation, unless a “radical change of government” is made.” The article includes no report of a government retort to Borges’s claim, nor any comment that disagrees with Borges’ statement, which would provide even minimal balance.
Tal Cual was once considered a left of center newspaper, but it fell out with the Chavista led government in the early 2000s. Since that time, Tal Cual’s editorial stance has been exclusively anti-government.
2001 is another national newspaper. in Venezuela. Its home page features a story with the headline, “TSJ in exile sets start date for oral and public hearing against Maduro.” The story reports that a body of former judges who are all anti-Maduro, who are living in self-imposed exile and meeting in Bogota, Colombia, will begin a “trial”of Maduro on corruption charges. The story is reported as though the “Supreme Tribunal in Exile” is a legal judicial body. It most certainly is not. It has absolutely no legal authority whatsoever and is strictly an opposition propaganda formation. It is nothing more than a kangaroo court. This is the kind of story a pro-Maduro publication would publish — right?
Then there are the regional newspapers in Venezuela, of which there are 80, according to Wikipedia.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Venezuela#National
The majority of regional newspapers in Venezuela are privately owned. The majority of those have editorial stances which are anti-Maduro to one degree or another. The same can be said of the majority of television and radio stations in Venezuela.
Most Venezuelans, like most Americans, get their news from T.V. There are many anti-Maduro television stations which Venezuelans can access and, in fact, these are the most popularly viewed stations. Many Venezuelans have access to cable T.V. Cable stations available in Venezuela include not only stations emanating from Venezuela, but stations based in other countries, including the U.S. Both CNN in Spanish and Fox News Spanish . Both stations are widely viewed and both contain extensive coverage which is exclusively anti-Maduro. (This is in line with U.S. corporate media policy which can be summarized as never publish a single word which is positive about anything in Venezuela.) So, the entire notion that Venezuelan’s have no access to news coverage critical of the Maduro government is completely false. The fact is that Venezuelans have extensive access to anti-government news reports and propaganda.
None of what I’ve written above should be taken to mean that there has been no government repression aimed at anti-Maduro newspapers and other mass media news outlets in Venezuela. There has undoubtedly been at least some, and perhaps a lot. I do not defend such tactics. The extent of such repression is both beyond the scope of this article and beyond this reporter’s knowledge.
Governments around the world make efforts to discredit, repress, and even censure newspapers and media outlets which oppose their policies. This is certainly true in the United States, where President Donald Trump has bluntly repeated on almost every available occasion that newspapers which are critical of him are “fake news” and are, “the enemy of the American People.” Trump has also frequently attempted to intimidate news media by threatening to sue media news outlets over coverage he objects too. The fact that most, if not all, governments engage in such repression does not excuse any of it.
President Maduro should not be immune to legitimate criticism of actions his government has taken to suppress, intimidate, or censure newspapers and other news outlets which are critical of his government, providing such allegations are factually supported. However, the story that the last anti-Maduro newspaper may be on the verge of closing is a complete fabrication — a big lie.
