I have referred before to the Independent on Sunday abusing the democratically elected Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez. Now the daily paper has been up to the same old trick. Here's my letter of complaint to the paper.
Dear Readers' Editor,
I was really quite astonished to read the caption to the picture of Peruvian Presidential candidate Alan Garcia on p. 22 of Tuesday 6 June's edition of The Independent. This is how it reads, `Alan Garcia is widely regarded as the man who will save Peru from the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.'
`The Venezuelan dictator'??? Come again? How many elections does the man have to win to be regarded by Independent journalists as legitimately elected? My dictionary has two definitions of `dictator':
1) someone who uses force to take and keep power in a country. If your journalists think this applies, they are simply delusional.
2) someone who tells people what to do and refuses to listen to their opinions. This definition could be used against many politicians if a journalist was so-minded. It would certainly apply far more to Tony Blair and George W.Bush than to Chavez.
In case you need reminding, Chavez has not illegally invaded another country on false premises despite being authoritatively warned that this would be counter-productive. He is also not threatening Iran with an illegal use of force for sticking to their treaty rights to develop civil nuclear power.
It seems that rather than providing factual reporting you are supplying propaganda on behalf of the current governments in Washington and London. I would be genuinely interested to hear just how `independent' you think that is, and therefore would appreciate a reply from you about this.
Thank you for your time.
Yours faithfully,
Grouchy.
And, of course, they didn't reply. But at least they published a letter expressing similar sentiments later in the week.
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