Aristide regained nominal power in 1994 after he agreed to Washington's neoliberal terms. Haiti's constitutional rule was restored, and he was allowed to return as President along with 20,000 US "peacekeepers" to assure IMF demands were observed.
The authors noted the "free press" version of events from when Aristide was first elected. Like always, it glossed over facts and ignored "the long, documented history of US support for mass murderers attacking Aristide's democratic government and killing his supporters....the hidden agenda behind (his return) to power (and) the limits imposed on his range of options by the superpower protecting its business interests." There was barely a mention of US commercial interests in Haiti or how brutally Haitians are exploited for profit.
Against all obstacles, however, Aristide was overwhelmingly popular. It showed in November, 2000 when he was reelected President with 92% of the vote, and his Lavalas party dominated parliament from the earlier May election. Their control lasted four years, then ended abruptly on February 29, 2004. In the middle of the night, a US Marine contingent forcibly removed the Haitian leader because he defied the rules of imperial management, governed like a democrat and was committed to helping Haiti's poor. Ever since, the country has been a killing field under US control with a paramilitary "peacekeeper" contingent as enforcers. They were sent illegally for the first time ever to support a coup d'etat against a democratically elected President instead of backing his right to return to the office he won freely and fairly.
The media ignored the facts and portrayed the US as an "honest broker." They supported the scheme that Aristide "had to go" because his people no longer supported him nor did the international community. "Forget the democratic process. Forget the landslide victories." Forget the successive US-backed bloodbaths following Aristide's rise to power in 1990. Forget any hope Haiti might emerge from its nightmarish 500 year history. All that mattered was power and where most of it lay. No need to point a finger. A great need to denounce the media that turns a blind eye to it.
Idolatry Ink - Reagan, the 'Cheerful Conservative' and 'Chubby Bubba' Clinton
Few US presidents did more harm yet got more praise than Ronald Reagan, and Mark Hertsgaard wrote about it in his book,"On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency." The authors here review his record and cover some of the adulatory avalanche following his death on June 5, 2004. It was a painful week to recall and one that abandoned any measure of truth to portray a man and his "extraordinary successful presidency." It was indeed for the power elite and the way he served them at the expense of the public good.
Out of sight and mind were a few minor things that happened during his tenure. The Iran-Contra scandal for one that would have sunk Nixon faster than Watergate had he been the culprit. But there was much more, and the authors cover some of it to set the record straight on a man only corporatists and friendly tyrants could love.
Reagan earned his bona fides on two issues - supporting big business and claiming he was hawkishly anti-communist. The two were, in fact, the same with the authors saying "the real motive behind the American slaughter in the Third World - profits, not fear of the Soviet Union - is indicated by patterns of investment" that rose dramatically under US friendly regimes. Examples were in Chile under Pinochet, Iran under the Shah, Brazil under the generals, Guatemala after its democracy died, and many other client countries around the world. Excluded from investment and targeted for regime change are states run independently that place their sovereignty above our right to control it.
The authors give examples of leaders who tried in Central America and paid dearly for their effort. They put it this way: "Reagan's eight years in office (1981-1989) produced a vast bloodbath as Washington funnelled money, weapons and supplies to client dictators and right-wing death squads battling independent nationalism across Central America." Central Asia, Africa and wherever else an independent leader arose followed a similar pattern.
Major media ignored official Reagan administration policy - to "terrorize impoverished people into accepting a status quo that condemned them to lives of profitable misery." It doesn't matter how many tens of thousands die or how impoverished we condemn the living. Instead, typical media comments about Reagan were like the one from the London Guardian saying he'll be "chiefly remembered now for....his tax cutting economic policies, his role in (ending) the cold war and his ability to make America feel so good about itself after the turmoil of Vietnam, civil rights and Watergate."
Bill Clinton is still living, but he's also well treated, aside from his personal peccadillos in office now forgotten. As usual, the media ignores his dark side that caused great harm at home and an overwhelming amount abroad. As the authors observe, it's because demeaning a president is "disrespectful, even irresponsible." So the worst of his record was unreported with plenty of choices to choose from such as eight harsh years of Iraq sanctions that caused around 1.5 million deaths with two-thirds of them children under age five. This and more go unmentioned because the media defer to power, and presidents and prime ministers get "unlimited respect bordering on reverence." Want the truth? Independent journalism provides what's absent in the mainstream everywhere.
Ultimate Change - The Ultimate Media Betrayal
The issue here is the danger that the planet may become uninhabitable because of climate change alone, and the authors cite evidence to show it. In each case, the conclusion is the same - global warming is real, threatening, and serious efforts are urgently needed to remediate it.
Enter the media with the authors saying although they "do report the latest disasters and dramatic warnings, there are few serious attempts to explore the identity and motives of corporate opponents to action" on this vital issue. Why? Because of powerful business opposition that includes the corporate press. The silence is deafening, and the authors state it's "the mother of all silences, because the fossil fuel economy is the mother of all vested interests."
It hardly matters that the London-based Global Commons Institute predicts over two million deaths worldwide in the next 10 years from climate-related disasters, and we see lesser amounts happening now every year. It gets worse with the prestigious journal Nature publishing a four-year research study by scientists from eight countries. They predict over one million species will be extinct by 2050, and they describe their findings as "terrifying."
How does the oil industry respond? According to oil and gas industry consultant, Bob Williams, it must "put the environmental lobby out of business." How does the media respond? Silence in the face of "much of life on earth threatened by mass death...." The authors say "the corporate media occasionally laments the destruction of our world in editorials, but it is not in the business of doing anything about it. In fact, literally the reverse is true." In their advertising and content, they promote a lifestyle of excessive fossil fuel consumption - gas-guzzling cars, air travel and a whole array of other high energy consuming products most of which are unessential and do little to enhance our lives.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
Thank you for pointing the way to a UK site I had not heard about.
For some time I have written articles about the American situation and in the back of my mind was feeling guilty at not doing much on the UK situation, except for looking at George Galloway and the like.
Thanks for giving me a new 'renewal' for taking on, with others, the global corporations stranglehold on the the media, the breathtaking hypocracy of government, government lackeys et al.
P.S. I have read your work for some time and you are one of the ones I 'follow' whenever I see your name on an article. This one is long, comprehensive, informative and devestating. More power to your elbow!
by
ibrahim turner (25 articles, 26 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 170 comments)
on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 1:11:42 PM
All your articles are in my "don't miss" category, but I suspect you know that!!
This issue of getting media complicity on the WAR CRIMES agenda is a tough one to crack. I found this year, I couldn't put the Robert Parry video on my blog, which was the finest statement about the media I could find . it just took too long to load and I had to take it off, sigh.
I live in this kind of mind boggling world ... we sometimes see the war photos up here on the news in Canada (and at least we do see the Afghan war casualties, MOSTLY, we do) while the US is so smothered in patriotic claptrap on a regular basis.
As the war bs (I don't know what else to call it) grinds on from -- give them sanctions, to Gulf War I, to get Al Qaeda, to get Saddam, to create democracy, to the "surge" is working and the media just continues to whitewash and sanitize real human suffering .. it's simply amazing how much the corporate media gets away with, with hardly a peep coming from those who digest huge amounts of the "plug in drug" ..
Contrasting that with the amount you hear or see about impeachment which is virtually nil during the whole bloody fiasco.
As V. Lenin would say "what is to be done ..??"
Fox News interfering in the elections debate is the just the latest outrage. They're not even a US-owned entity and Kucinich is RIGHT.
I've TRIED to "work" with The Real News TV people and I don't see much help from them really either. It's basically a one man with control operation.
The mediums themselves create a lot the problem as the equipment to be "on the airwaves" is very expensive, not something that can be created very quickly.
I think your timing of this review, in light of what is happening, is impeccable.
So many thanks!!
ps - did you notice that ICH is FINALLY running the Michael Hudson podcast this week? about time .. I've left them links about it since August. Maybe Mike is finally "catching" on??
by
ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 392 comments)
on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 1:56:38 PM
