July 19, 2009

Reuters Still Stuck on "Coup"-pid

Hatched by Dafydd

I reckon the antique media still thinks they're living back in the days of "Uncle Walter."

Reading this Reuters story about "talks" between negotiators for deposed leftist wannabe-dictator and the legitimate government of Honduras is a little like reading Pravda: It all seems perfectly sane, perfectly rational -- but originating from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away:

Prospects for a breakthrough in Honduras' political crisis looked dim on Sunday, with negotiators for deposed President Manuel Zelaya and coup leaders divided over his proposed reinstatement....

Envoys sent by Zelaya, a leftist ousted in a June 28 military coup, and interim leader Roberto Micheletti said the main stumbling block was [Oscar] Arias' proposal that Zelaya return to power and form a government that shared power with his rivals.

Our previous offerings on this subject are:

Perhaps Reuters thinks that if it just keeps saying "coup" often enough, eventually everybody will start to believe it! It's a magical spell. In all, the story uses the word "coup" to describe the arrest and impeachment of Manuel Zelaya three times; one time it uses the phrase "the army toppled Zelaya;" they refer to the impeachment as "Central America's worst crisis since the end of the Cold War;" and they inform us that "Zelaya has wide international support for his desire to return to power" -- by which they mean:

  • The Castros in Cuba;
  • Oogo Chavez in Venezuela;
  • Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua;
  • The Left-dominated and controlled Organization of American States (see "Piddling Away Greatness," linked above);
  • And the U.N. General Assembly... currently run by President Rev. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, a liberation-theology Catholic priest (almost defrocked) and a former Sandinista leader (foreign minister under Ortega).

(Just five years ago, shortly before Ronald Reagan's death, Brockmann referred to him as "the butcher of my people." Rev. Brockmann has never apologized for, or even explained the rationale of, the Sandinistas' butchering of tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, as they struggled to maintain their stranglehold on that country.)

We do learn a couple of actual facts, so the story is not a total waste of phosphor:

  • Zelaya is no longer in Costa Rica; he is now ensconced out in Nicaragua... probably lunching in one of the palatial estates that his pal, President Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front and raper of his 11 year old stepdaughter, "liberated" just after being voted out of office.

(Was that coup by the Sandinistas -- an actual coup d'état, by the way -- also a "crisis?" I don't recall the "unbiased" news media thinking so at the time.)

  • The United States is in constant contact with Zelaya -- the enthusiastic chum of Ortgega, Oogo Chavez, and los Bros Castro -- and feverishly working to restore him to power in Honduras.

On that last point, if this doesn't make you wince, you haven't been paying attention:

"We are indeed concerned about (Zelaya) going back," the second official said [anonymously -- of course], adding that Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon "is in practically daily contact with him, urging him to allow (the) Arias process to play out."

The "Arias" referred to is Oscar Arias -- Nobel Peace Prize winner, also winner of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism, and recipient of "over fifty honorary degrees, including doctorates from Harvard University, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Oberlin College, Wake Forest University, Ithaca College and Washington University in St. Louis," according to his Wikipedia entry.

He is a member of Economists for Peace and Security, as well as the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims. He is a member of Costa Rica's National Liberation Party. Hey, kids -- see if you can guess Arias' political ideology...!

Incidentally, speaking of creeping socialist Newspeak revisionism, here is Wikipedia's description of the 1980s and 90s in Central America, the crisis that Oscar Arias resolved in order to win his Nobel Fleece Prize:

Arias received the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his work towards the signing of the Esquipulas II Accords. This was a plan intended to promote democracy and peace on the Central American isthmus during a time of great turmoil: popular indigenous movements and guerrillas were struggling against repressive governments in El Salvador and Guatemala, which were backed by the United States under the auspices of the Cold War; the reactionary Contras, supported by the United States in the now-infamous Iran-Contra affair, were fighting an insurgency against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua; Honduras, only recently wresting political power from its military, was caught in the middle as a base for U.S. military forces; and on Costa Rica's other border, Panama faced the oppression of Manuel Noriega's military dictatorship. With the support of Arias, the various armed conflicts ended within the decade (Guatemala's civil war finally ended in 1996).

Either Oscar Arias rewrote his own Wikipedia entry -- or else maybe Lt. John F. Kerry did. Either way, yeah, that's how I remember that "time of great turmoil"...!

Arias is, of course, the most perfect envoy to mediate between the two sides in Honduras -- the dictator, Zelaya, and the legitimate president, Roberto Micheletti; he certainly has no conflicts of interest.

True, Arias, too, was frustrated by a Costa Rican constitution that strictly banned presidents seeking a second term. True, Arias, too, tried to get the Costa Rican Supreme Court to overturn that clause, but he was completely rebuffed by the Court.

But in Arias' case, rather than turn to Venezuela to print illegal "ballots," so that the Dear Leader's followers could hold a sham "referendum" to allow him to run for as many terms as he wanted, Arias took a different path: He packed the court with hand-picked cronies, who then overturned the previous decision.

See? Arias' personal experience at illegally circumventing term-limits is totally different from Zelaya's. No conflict of interest there!

Ye gods. Do reporters actually live in a literal cone of silence? Or do they just consciously and with ignorance aforethought ensure that they never, ever, ever come into contact with anybody whose worldview differs from theirs in the least degree? Heavens, their ideological purity might be tainted by the serial heresies of neocons.

I picture an entire newsroom full of journalists who still, to this day, boycott grapes; who jump up and do "the wave" whenever they see Oogo Chavez on the tube; who tie the knot at Che Guevara-themed wedding ceremonies; who casually write that Cuba has the greatest health-care system in the whole world... and insert that lecture into a breaking-news story about Paula Abdul no longer being a judge on American Idol.

They're the lost media generation, and they're irredeemable. We shall have to wait until today's middle-school kids grow up to see a return to adult supervision of the nation's newswriting... our "first draft of history."

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 19, 2009, at the time of 7:43 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: MarkJM

Yes, Dafydd. You basically summed it up in your last three paragraphs. They (90% of all 'news' media) are truly that ignorant (unless, of course, you ask them). They are what I call 'irreversibly stupid'. Any history, fact, logic or reasoning that does not support their skewed and narrow world view, simply bounces off and is ignored as if it never existed. Therefore they are unable to learn or be educated. They will remain stupid, ignorant and classless for the rest of their miserable lives. In order for our Nation to even have a hope of recovering back to greatness, these nimrods need to be exposed for the fools and frauds they truly are. I honestly believe that this CAN happen, as their condescendingly arrogant presentation of themselves is becoming too abrasive for even the least educated 'commoners' to tolerate. Keep up the great work! Yours is always a 'must read' blog!

The above hissed in response by: MarkJM [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 19, 2009 10:24 AM

The following hissed in response by: AD

Unfortunately, it is even the alleged "smart" members of the Media that are complicit in this madness. On last weeks McLaughlin Group, Mark Tapscott had an opportunity to correct Eleanor Clift when she repeated the "coup" slander, and he pointedly (at least that's my impression) ignored what she had just said, and let the lie stand. By not correcting the mis-statements (and bald-faced lies) of the "usual suspects" when they are made, only allows the narrative to continue until it takes on the imprimatur of fact.

The above hissed in response by: AD [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 19, 2009 11:16 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dick E

My dad used to say that, whenever he knew the details behind a published story, the article always, without exception, misstated a material fact. My experience in such matters is not as extensive as was his, but I have never found an exception to this observation.

That’s the quality standard we can expect from the “professional” journalists who provide us with “unbiased,” yet somehow consistently liberal, news coverage.

The above hissed in response by: Dick E [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 19, 2009 7:22 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman

I don't think these reporters are either ignorant, or stupid.

Ignorance implies a lack of knowledge, they do have that,

Stupid implies a lack of thought power, they have that also and it is directed to their own political agenda.

Recall Walter Duranty author of a propaganda program for which he recieved the Pulitzer to cover up the atrocities of the HOLODOMOR Genocide is reported to have replied to queries

How could he justify his actions if not as a human being, then as a journalist, is reported to have said that the deaths of a few tens of millions of peasants was inconsequential when compared to the future victory of the Revolution.

No they are neither, ignorant, or stupid they know what they are doing they follow a careful plan to further their political aims and they are dangerous, venal and vicious,

The above hissed in response by: Dan Kauffman [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 20, 2009 1:07 AM

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