- She's at it again on the Journal's editorial page in
her June 4 article called "The Young and the Restless," subtitled
"Is this the beginning of the end for Hugo Chavez?" The writer
is self-styled Latin American expert Mary Anastasia O'Grady always getting
top grades in vilification and disinformation but failing ones on regional
knowledge and legitimate journalism.
-
- This time she may have overstepped. Her article wreaks
with disinformation, outright lies, and most disturbing of all - incendiary
commentary straddling the tipping edge of inciting insurrection. She can
get away with it because she represents elitist interests and the Journal's
editorial view supporting the Bush administration's fixation on ousting
Hugo Chavez by any means, including through violence. It doesn't matter
that Chavez was just reelected again in December by a near two to one margin
or that he's admired and loved by the great majority of Venezuelans. They're
unperturbed and/or supportive of his shuttering RCTV's VHF Channel 2 overshadowing
that issue being used as a pretext for suspicious violent street protests,
mainly in Caracas. More on that below.
-
- It's clear O'Grady will fit right in if the Journal's
controlling Bancroft family succumbs to greed selling out to Rupert Murdock's
wooing. That prospect's got Journal employees apoplectic. They're scrambling
through their union seeking an alternate buyer willing to grant what Murdock
never will - journalistic independence and what's left of the paper's tattered
integrity. Those ideas are anathema to how he views journalism, and he's
not shy saying it.
-
- Australian-raised author Bruce Page wrote about him in
his new book, "The Murdock Archipelago," calling him "one
of the world's leading villains (and) global pirates." Murdock is
clear, according to Page. He wants his journalistic empire to be a privatized
"state propaganda service, manipulated without scruple and with no
regard for truth (in return for) vast government favors such as tax breaks,
regulatory relief, and monopoly" market control free as possible from
competitors having too much of what Murdock wants for himself. The problem
is he usually gets his way. Unless Journal employees stop him, the WSJ's
independence and status as a legitimate publication are over. Under Murdock
control, no distinction will be made between real news, editorial opinion
and agitprop, and no views will be tolerated, henceforth, contrary to Mr.
Murdock's. That's how he operates throughout his media empire - take it
or leave and find another line of work.
-
- The way O'Grady writes, she's not on board with other
staffers against the Bancroft family sellout. Murdock will love her views,
may give her more latitude and maybe more space as well. Let's hope she's
disappointed, that Journal employees retain their independence, and Journal
readers keep what they now have free from the venomous claws of the villanous
king of media moguls.
-
- On June 4, O'Grady was warming up for the Murdock era,
but her circuits were crossed, and she's straddling a dangerous line.
Despite her claim or hope, it's not the end of Hugo Chavez in a nation
where two-thirds of the people adore him and all but the "sifrino"
well-off 15 - 20% want no one else as president. They plan keeping him
as long as he wants the job regardless of O'Grady's delusional musings.
She might also try getting her facts straight, hard as that is for her.
-
- She wrote "As tens of thousands of antigovernment
student protestors poured into the streets of Caracas last week and national
guard troops used tear gas and rubber bullets against them, many observers
were asking whether....Chavez had finally met his Waterloo." Sorry
Mary. Your count needs fine-tuning and your commentary an explanation
of what really went on, why, for whose benefit, and who's behind it.
-
- For starters, a moderately large protest march took place
in Caracas May 28 after Radio Caracas Television's (RCTV) VHF Channel 2
went off the air at midnight May 27. A much larger crowd of supporters
dwarfed the opposition, unmentioned in O'Grady's column. A new public TV
station, TVes, went on the air immediately, mandated by the Venezuelan
Constitution to do for all Venezuelans what RCTV never did serving corporate
interests alone.
-
- RCTV lost its operating license because it broke the
law and continued flaunting it openly. It playing a leading role instigating
and supporting the aborted April, 2002 coup against President Chavez mass
public support on the streets helped overturn. At year's end, it conspired
again in the economically devastating main trade union confederation (CTV)
- chamber of commerce (Fedecameras) lockout and industry-wide oil strike.
It cost state oil company PDVSA an estimated $14 billion from lost revenue
and willful sabotage of its facilities. In January and late May, this
writer twice wrote about these events detailing how RCTV flaunted the law,
especially in an article titled "Venezuela's RCTV Acts of Sedition."
-
- No government should tolerate seditious acts, especially
from its broadcasters able to reach and influence large audiences. Chavez,
however, was tolerant letting RCTV's VHF Channel 2 continue on-air until
its license expired. His National Telecommunication Commission (CONATEL)
then, with full justification, refused to renew it. RCTV broke the law
and flaunted the public trust. But it wasn't silenced and is still able
to broadcast through cable and satellite where media like CNN in the US
thrive. It even set up huge public screens in upscale neighborhoods airing
its programming for street viewers there. Shuttering Channel 2 isn't a
free speech issue. It's a public trust and responsibility one. In how
he governs, Chavez respects that as his duty to all Venezuelans. RCTV
consistently failed on all counts. Yet, it got off with a wrist slap.
-
- The protests continued, nonetheless, on Monday with several
thousand students from several universities demonstrating in central Caracas.
Pro-business newspaper El Universal and other reports said violence broke
out between demonstrators and police after students threw rocks at a government
building. The police acted to stop it they as they should, but not as
O'Grady wrote making it sound like a military assault.
-
- About 200 students also burned tires and boxes blocking
traffic at Plaza Brion in the Chacaito neighborhood, then again attacked
a government building. Police were forced to use tear gas and perdigones,
or plastic shrapnel, in response with protestors throwing with rocks and
bottles.
-
- Protests continued for several days with opposition media
channel Globovision falsely reporting demonstrations were peaceful and
police attacked without provocation. It's this kind of reporting, common
on Globovision and other corporate media channels, that made Chavez speak
out on national television May 29 warning Globovision specifically he will
act against it if its violence-inciting reports don't stop. He did what
any responsible leader must to maintain law and order saying he won't tolerate
privately run media or public officials openly inciting violence and chaos
in the country.
-
- What Venezuela's National Assembly did allow is something
unimaginable in the US where democracy is more illusion than fact. It
invited students on both sides of RCTV's shuttering to debate it before
a full session of congress. When they came June 7, it highlighted what's
evident on the streets - the sharp class divide showing students from elitist
families in the protests while the great majority of ordinary Venezuelans,
benefitting from Bolivarianism, opposing them.
-
- The National Assembly forum was held June 7. Each side
showed up with a list of 20 speakers, but things didn't go as planned.
Protesting student representatives came, then left after the first pro-government
speech saying nothing after its leader's comment that protests would continue.
It proved free expression isn't the issue at all as, given the chance to
make their case to congress, student agitators chose not to do it.
-
- When exposed to the truth in a public forum, their hypocrisy
imploded. It can't stand against Chavez's commitment to participatory
democracy at the grassroots, true respect for free and open expression,
and support for free quality education at all levels. His government just
increased access to it further by eliminating university entrance exams
and raising teachers' salaries, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
It's part of an effort to give children of the poor and working class equal
access to what those of the well-off always had.
-
- Made-For-Media Staged Street Protests
-
- We've seen this scheme on the streets play out before.
It preceded the aborted 2002 Venezuelan coup with Washington's dirty hands
all over it. US administrations often pull these stunts as a tactical
way to incite trouble, at times having something more devious in mind like
ousting a sitting government it's become expert doing. Often when it happens
anywhere, you can bet on two things:
-
- -- The ruling government isn't a US client state. That
means it's unwilling to sacrifice its own sovereignty to that of the lord
and master of the universe.
-
- -- Secondly, Washington's dirty hands are all over it,
and no stunt is too underhanded to use, including murder. Unconfirmed
reports indicate seven or more Chavistas have already been killed in the
violence.
-
- Past May Be Prologue
-
- On August 19, 1953, a Washington-orchestrated CIA implemented
coup ousted the democratically elected Mohammed Mossadegh Iranian nationalist
government whose "crime" was challenging US-UK corporate interests.
Masterminding CIA's Operation Ajax was Theodore Roosevelt's grandson Kermit.
It took him two attempts to do it, and key making it work involved bribing
Iranian military officers and engineering street protests like what's ongoing
now in Venezuela, mainly in Caracas. Venezuelans should take note of the
Iranian experience. Following the coup, the US reinstated Shah Reza Pahlavi
to power ushering in his 25 year reign of terror leading to the 1979 revolution
ousting him.
-
- Mossadegh was lucky staying alive. He died in 1967 at
age 82, but lived under house arrest in his hometown of Ahmad Abad. Chavez
won't likely fare as well if a US coup against him succeeds. He won't
be tried in a staged kangaroo court trial like Saddam and then hanged.
Washington won't let him survive that long realizing it erred in 2002
when it had a chance to eliminate him and didn't. This time it will, Chavez
knows it, and possibly we're witnessing the latest US attempt to do it
using RCTV's shuttering as a pretext.
-
- That's how things played out in Chile in 1973 when Nixon,
Kissinger and CIA ousted and murdered democratically elected Salvador Allende
ushering in 16 years of fascist rule under General Augusto Pinochet. It
began with Nixon "making the (Chilean) economy scream" leading
up to CIA-instigated destabilization and bloody military coup on another
September 11. Prior to it, the anti-Allende disinformation campaign championed
"freedom of the press" with CIA money given right wing daily
newspaper El Mercurio for anti-government propaganda. Washington also
orchestrated an international disinformation campaign against the Allende
government smearing his socially democratic administration similar to what's
happening now against Chavez on the same issue of free expression and the
media.
-
- Back to the Present
-
- It wasn't surprising US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice used the June Organization of American States (OAS) general assembly
to lash out at Chavez on the RCTV issue calling on OAS to investigate the
state of freedom of expression in Venezuela. Without a touch of irony,
she championed "Freedom of expression, freedom of association and
freedom of conscience" in a democracy. She neglected to mention her
own government openly defiles democracy saying challenging its policies
is unpatriotic or even treasonous with George Bush stating "Either
you are with us, or you are with the 'terrorists.' "
-
- Bush had more to say in Prague en route to the G-8 summit
in Germany saying "In Venezuela, elected leaders have resorted to
shallow populism to dismantle democratic institutions and tighten their
grip on power." The shameless US Senate agreed passing a resolution
denouncing Chavez and supporting RCTV - another example of how complicit
the Democrat-led Congress is with Bush's imperial agenda.
-
- Various human rights organizations, like Human Rights
Watch, have been co-opted as well joining in this outrageous attack. So
did Reporters Without Borders with a long record ignoring real abuses and
denouncing phony ones all too often. Then there's the notorious (US) National
Endowment of Democracy (NED) that's funded and operated to subvert what
it claims to stand for and has an ugly record doing it. It works with
CIA doing overtly what the spy agency does sub rosa - helping to oust democratically
elected leaders unwilling to be submissive US clients.
-
- Peru's Alan Garcia serves the elite so his lawlessness
was ignored when he pulled the operating licenses of two TV stations and
three radio stations. The likely reason was their support for a strike
Garcia opposes because, unlike Chavez, he's subservient to Washington and
no democrat.
-
- Summing up, what's playing out on Venezuela's streets
is part of a made-in-Washington attempt weaken Hugo Chavez through a phony
trumped up scheme denouncing him for opposing free expression, using RCTV's
shuttering as the pretext. This writer even got one unconfirmed report
elitist university professors ordered their students to the streets in
protest or get failing grades in their courses if they refused. It's likely
true, so many in the protest crowds weren't there for conviction, but fearing
retribution in class if they demurred.
-
- Chavez supporters, however, aren't being quiet although
their actions go unreported in the US and Venezuelan corporate media. Chris
Carlson (from Venezuela) wrote in Venezuela Analysis June 1 that "Organizations,
journalists, students, activists and intellectuals in Venezuela accused
the national and international media of waging a campaign against Venezuela"
as part of destabilization efforts over the past few days...."the
RCTV protests and media coverage of them have a hidden agenda directed
by the United States and their Venezuelan allies to destabilize the country."
-
- Carlson continued saying over 600 social organizations
attended a May 31 press conference in Caracas. They signed a document
rejecting the "imperial interference to destabilize and overthrow
the Bolivarian government" citing interference by CIA. They also supported
Chavez's shuttering of RCTV and revealed evidence from documents obtained
that Washington (through NED) paid RCTV and Globovision journalists to
incite street violence on-air that could result in deaths hoping to discredit
and weaken Chavez. They further claimed RCTV and Globovision systematically
"called for subversion, chaos, fascism, terrorism, and assassination"
acting as "spokespersons for foreign interests" - namely the
Bush administration. Its ultimate objective is to "overthrow and
assassinate President Hugo Chavez," they said.
-
- Pro-Chavez students joined in denouncing the corporate
media smear and violence inciting plan saying "We, the university
students, denounce....the destabilization plan....promoted by the private
media (serving) the national and transnational elite.....We repudiate (lies)
to alter the public order and peace" to create conditions like April,
2002 and the 2002-03 industry lockout and oil strike.
-
- Wall Street Journal O'Grady's Role in Washington's Scheme
to Destabilize Chavez's Government and Oust Him
-
- O'Grady writes a weekly "Americas" column for
the Journal's hard right editorial page at times extreme enough to make
a Nazi blush. Once Murdock arrives, it's hard imagining how much worse
it may get, but he has a way of surprising for the worst. It may not be
long finding out how bad. Imagine Fox News on every WSJ page or more O'Gradys
making them even worse.
-
- In her June 4 column, O'Grady writes: Chavez is "An
avowed Marxist....in the process of destroying his country....he is also
an international menace....using his oil wealth to sow revolution, a la
Fidel Castro, in South and Central America (and) a dear friend of the Iranian
government. Most of Latin America....has his number, and it would be hard
to find a democrat in the Western Hemisphere who wouldn't cheer his retirement
and the return of checks and balances in Venezuelan government."
-
- Space won't allow a proper and thorough denunciation
of this line of vitriolic, hateful rot. Understanding what's really happening
in Venezuela under Chavez and his relations in the region and beyond requires
only flipping this rhetoric on its head to know the truth. Read "Hugo
Chavez's Social Democratic Agenda" by this writer to get the facts
in detail, not O'Grady's agitprop fiction. It explains the Chavez agenda
comparing it to Washington under George Bush who's no democrat, unlike
Chavez who's a model one. And that's the problem as Bush neocons see him
as their greatest of all threats - a good example that's spreading and
must be stopped.
-
- O'Grady continued saying "film footage....featured
unarmed university students....caught in clouds of tear gas, being chased
and beaten by helmeted jackboots, and fired on with water cannons. (They
were spurred) by eight years of property confiscations, the jailing of
government adversaries and the manipulation of voter rolls and elections
(but now) the attack on free speech hit a nerve and sent them to the streets."
The resistance movement "focus(es) on freedom and calls to end the
dictatorship....with polls showing more than 70% of Venezuelans opposed
to the closing of RCTV....(there's) simmering discontent in the economy
as well (with) Venezuelans no better off than....eight years ago (before
Chavez). Food shortages are growing....A perfect storm may be brewing."
-
- Again, turn all this on its head to know the truth -
the exact opposite of what O'Grady writes, and it's shameful she's allowed
to get away with it. Sadly, that's the state of the dominant US media
that's right out of Orwell with war being peace, freedom being slavery,
and ignorance being strength. O'Grady's pathetic writing alone proves
it. Journalism it's not.
-
- She continues saying "Chavez has fallen from grace
and a majority of Venezuelans now want him gone (but he won't likely) go
down without a fight." He has built up support inside the military,
armed a street militia and refined intelligence tactics using Cuban personnel....(He)
no longer feels it necessary to keep up the appearance of a democracy."
No comment needed except to say O'Grady got one thing right. Chavez does
have support in the military also infiltrated with rogue elements opposing
him. She ends her hate piece practically calling for insurrection saying
Chavez won't relinquish power voluntarily as O'Grady practically demands.
But "Given his failing popularity, a showdown, sooner or later, is
more than probable."
-
- O'Grady writes these articles from an elitist perspective.
Her background is from earlier Wall Street and extremist Heritage Foundation
employment before joining the Journal. She's now tasked to write black
propaganda for the imperial government in Washington she pledges fealty
to. No matter it's a near-fascist administration building a military colossus,
waging war on the world, shredding civil liberties at home, and destroying
the social state to pay for it - an agenda O'Grady champions winning awards
writing about it.
-
- Mirror opposite of what O'Grady writes, the great majority
of Venezuelans want none of it. They had it for generations under repressive
rule till Chavez was elected in December, 1998 and took office in February,
1999. Under him, social democracy bloomed, and the great majority of Venezuelans
benefit under it in ways Americans can't imagine. They'd be outraged to
learn they lack essential social benefits (in the richest country in the
world) all Venezuelans have - because of Hugo Chavez's dedication to all
the people, not just the privileged under democracy US-style.
-
- In Venezuela, it's the real thing, although still a work
in progress undoing generations of governments of, by and for the rich
and well-off alone. No longer, and people like O'Grady denounce it because
it works so well shaming the state of things in America she won't reveal.
She can keep railing, but facts, in the end, trump rhetoric, and Venezuelans
have them. They need only cite their daily lives in socially democratic
Venezuela compared to how things were in the past. They're not about to
go quietly into the night letting that be lost. They fought for it once.
If threatened, they'll do it again, sending a message to others - you,
too, can have this. Just go for it, including in America where the need
is greater than ever under George Bush.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
-
- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to The Steve Lendman News and Information Hour on TheMicroEffect.com
Saturdays at noon US central time.
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