TENNYSON JOSEPH
ALL AH WE IS ONE
THE FLAGGING United States-orchestrated coup against the duly elected leadership of Venezuela has exposed, in a very real way, the dependency of Caribbean media houses upon the US to determine the “truth”.
We often think of “neo-colonialism” and “dependency” as weaknesses of our state leaders, but the inability of our regional Press to separate themselves from US propaganda in their reporting on Venezuela, has shown that non-state actors can be far worse perpetrators of neo-colonial dependency.
While the Caribbean Community has issued a stern rebuke against a US-controlled renegade Organisation of American States secretary general, who was busy taking anti-Nicolas Maduro positions and claiming to speak for all governments, our media houses have not extricated themselves from US propaganda.
Significantly too, once the US State Department “recognised” Jaun Guaido, all of our news outlets began to uncritically refer to him as Venezuela’s “interim president”.
Our news people have done this, despite the fact that an official government of Venezuela has been in place and recognised by all the legitimate authorities of the country, and despite the fact that our own Heads of Government have continued to recognise Maduro’s administration as the legitimate government.
None of this matters to the opinion shapers of the Caribbean region. Whom the US curses, stays cursed. Whom the US blesses, stays blessed. That is, until the US changes its mind, like it did with Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Manuel Noriega and many others. Like sheep, our media houses play “follow the leader” and wait for the US’ cue for the next “rogue”.
Another shocking example of this tendency was a radio report which claimed that the Opposition Leader of Trinidad and Tobago had agreed to “recognise her counterpart” as the president of Venezuela.
How is Juan Guido the direct counterpart to the formal Leader of the Opposition in a parliamentary system such as Trinidad possesses, the goodly reporter, of course, would never be able to say.
It was important, however, to paint Guaido as a legitimate “leader-inwaiting” and in the context of the Caribbean, what easier way to do this than to place him on the same status as the Opposition Leader in a Caribbean parliament.
Amidst all of this, no media house has found it necessary to interview one representative of the Venezuelan government, at least for the sake of balance. So much for a free, democratic and unbiased Press.
All of this could be brushed aside with a shrug and a headshake, had it not been for the very strong likelihood of a US dirty war in Venezuela. Our media houses, by their slavish swallowing of American “Kool-Aid”, may be naively facilitating an unjust war in our region, which we have been insisting should be a zone of peace, to atone for all the blood that has been spilled by imperialism since 1492.
Tennyson Joseph is a political scientist at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, specialising in regional affairs.
LIKE SHEEP, Caribbean media houses are playing “follow the leader” and referring to Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s
interim president. (FP)
