Coup-Supporting US Media
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)
Major US media never met a US war of aggression or state-sponsored coup d’etat attempt against a sovereign independent government they didn’t wholeheartedly endorse.
Operating as mouthpieces for the imperial state and monied interests, their mission is to provide propaganda services - reporting the official narrative, suppressing vital truths, prohibiting what journalism is supposed to be.
Writer Adam Johnson explained a dozen largely successful US coup attempts in Latin and Central America post-WW II the NYT either supported or failed to condemn.
The same goes for virtually all US establishment media, supporting wealth, power, and privilege over rule of law principles and democratic governance, notions they abhor.
Johnson covered two Venezuelan coup attempts, the Bush/Cheney regime’s failed April 2002 aim to crush its social democracy and what’s now ongoing.
He omitted others in the country against Bolivarian rule, including:
- the 2002 - 03 general strike and oil management lockout, causing severe economic disruption and billions of dollars in losses;
- the August 2004 national recall referendum, Hugo Chavez winning overwhelmingly with a 59% majority, thwarting the US-orchestrated attempt to remove him;
- the Obama regime’s responsibility for killing Chavez, by poisoning or infection with deadly cancer causing substances, a coup by other means;
- intermittent violent street protests earlier and now, responsible for scores of deaths and hundreds of injuries, US-orchestrated color revolution attempts for regime change;
- the August 2017 CIA-orchestrated terrorist attack on Fort Paramacay in Carabobo state, another foiled coup attempt; and
- the August 2018 attack on Maduro by drones armed with C-4 explosives, attempt to kill him.
He was rushed from the scene unharmed, seven national guard soldiers reportedly injured. Maduro called the incident “an attack to kill me.”
“They tried to assassinate me…I have no doubt that (fascist narco-terrorist, human rights abuser with close ties to Washington’s imperial agenda, former Colombian president) Juan Manuel Santos (was) behind this attack.”
CIA coup plotters surely orchestrated what assassins were hired to carry out, Langley’s dirty hands were involved in scores of US plots to replace independent governments with ones Washington controls.
Chavez knew he was a marked man. So does Maduro. He’s vulnerable to US efforts to remove him by the ongoing coup attempt or assassination - the NYT and other US major media cheerleading the scheme.
On Saturday, the Times and other US media reported on orchestrated Venezuelan rallies for US-designated puppet interim president Guaido, inflating the crowd size in Caracas, largely ignoring tens of thousands out in force for Maduro.
Headlines are attention-grabbers. Below is a sampling of anti-Maduro Saturday ones:
The NYT: “Venezuelans Opposed to Maduro Pour Into Streets for Day of Protests”
The neocon/CIA-connected Washington Post: “Venezuela’s opposition leader calls movement against Maduro ‘unstoppable’ ”
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal: “Venezuelans Take to the Streets to Protest Maduro”
AP News: “Venezuela’s Guaido urges military defections amid protests”
Reuters: “Mass protests in Venezuela as Maduro flexes political muscle”
Bloomberg News: “Venezuelan General Breaks With Maduro Ahead of Street Protests”
CNN: “Military defection, protests embolden opposition”
Fox News: “Large anti-Maduro protests fill the streets in Venezuela”
NBC News: “Venezuelans take to the streets worldwide calling for an end to Maduro's presidency”
Voice of America reports US propaganda globally. Surprisingly, its February 2 headline was more measured than the above one-sided ones, saying “Rival Throngs Protest in Venezuela as General Defects,” indicating dueling protests occurred on Saturday.
VOA quoted Maduro saying “ ‘I am very ashamed to see this group of opposition coup perpetrators’ take orders from Washington.”
According to RT, Twitter (in cahoots with the Trump regime) deleted about 2,000 Venezuelan accounts - 1,196 for “appear(ing) to be engaged in a state-backed influence campaign targeting domestic audiences.”
Another 764 were taken down, Twitter saying “(w)e are unable to definitively tie the accounts located in Venezuela to information operations of a foreign government against another country.”
Twitter wants accurate information on what’s going on eliminated, backing the Trump regime’s coup attempt against Maduro’s legitimacy and democratic governance, serving as an agent of tyranny.
Russian lower house State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin blasted Facebook (and its Instagram platform) for “playing to the tune of Washington,” saying the social media giant gave the account of coup plotter Guaido “a blue verification badge” of trustworthiness, denying it to President Maduro.
The fate of the Venezuelan nation and its people hang in the balance - to remain free from Washington’s diabolical plot to kill its social democracy or become another US colony.
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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
