Zero Percent of Elite Pundits Oppose Regime Change in Venezuela
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left. (Miraflores Press Office / AP)
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 (1/15/194/15/19), zero opinion pieces in The New York
Times and Washington Post took an antiregime change or pro-Maduro/Chavista
position. Not a single commentator on the big three Sunday morning talk
shows 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 administrations 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 proregime change. Another 11 (14 percent) took no position,
but many similarly offered ideological ammo for those in support.
The Times published 22 proregime 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 Maduros
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.
(The Times and Post pieces were found through a Nexis search for Venezuela
between 1/15/194/15/19 using each paper as a source, narrowed to opinion
articles and editorials. The search was supplemented with an examination of
each outlets opinion/blog pages. The TV commentary segments were found
through Nexis searches for Venezuela and the name of the talk show during
the same time period, in the folders of the corresponding television
network: NBC News/CBS News transcripts, ABC News transcripts, and PBS
NewsHour. Non-opinion TV news segments were omitted. The full list of items
included can be found here.)
Corporate news coverage of Venezuela can only be described as a full-scale
marketing campaign for regime change. If youve been reading FAIR recently
(1/25/19, 2/9/19, 3/16/19)or, indeed, since the early 2000s (4/18/02;
Extra!, 1112/05)the anti-Maduro unanimity espoused in the most influential
US media should come as no surprise.
This comes despite the existence of millions of Venezuelans who support
Madurowho was democratically elected twice by the same electoral system
that won Juan Guaidó his seat in the National Assemblyand oppose US/foreign
intervention. FAIR (2/20/19) has pointed out corporate medias willful
erasure of vast improvements to Venezuelan life under Chavismo, particularly
for the oppressed 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 between 201718 alone, and continue to devastate
the Venezuelan economy.
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