Venezualan President Hugo Chavez stirred quite a few journalistic feathers on his recent private visit to London. Media Lens have done an excellent review of the kind of bias that informed almost every article. But I was particularly interested in the Independent on Sunday's editorial (subscription required).
This admitted - seemingly through gritted teeth - that Chavez is a democrat. However, it went on to claim that he was, `using anti-US sentiment to create an external threat', thus revealing his true nature as a `tyrant'. So I wrote to the editor. I do not hold out great hopes (to say the least) of seeing it published. Here it is:
Dear Editor,
Do your editorial writers have any knowledge of history at all? Do you think it would be useful if they did?
Your editorial last Sunday on Hugo Chavez accused him of sinister `use of anti-US sentiment to create an external threat in the classic gambit of the tyrant'. Would this be the same USA that knew in advance of the coup against Chavez and did nothing to discourage it, and proceeded to support it against the democratically expressed wishes of the Venezualan people?
Could it possibly be the same USA that financed and armed the vicious right-wing Contra terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who murdered thousands of innocent people to overthrow a democratically-elected government that was not to US liking? Or the USA that supported Pinochet's murderous suppression of democracy in Chile in 1973? Or the Brazilian generals' coup in 1964? Or the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Guatemala in 1953?
How many examples is it necessary to quote? How about death squads in El Salvador? Perhaps you could explain to your readers just how Chavez is `creating an external threat'. Are you seriously suggesting that the external threat doesn't exist? Only a fool or a simpleton would believe you.
Still, I'm sure you feel it is quite reasonable not to let a few inconvenient facts get in the way of a good story, eh?
Yours faithfully,
Grouchy.
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