Following Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez´s recent private visit to Britain, British media watchdog, Media Lens, release a media alert arguing that the mainstream media in Britain have been united in depicting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as an extreme, absurd and threatening figure.
MEDIA ALERT: RIDICULING CHAVEZ - THE MEDIA HIT THEIR STRIDE - PART 1
May 16, 2006
Controlling what we think is not solely about controlling what we know - it is also about controlling who we respect and who we find ridiculous.
Thus we find that Western leaders are typically reported without adjectives preceding their names. George Bush is simply "US president George Bush". Condoleeza Rice is "the American secretary of state Condoleeza Rice". Tony Blair is just "the British prime minister".
The leader of Venezuela, by contrast, is "controversial left-wing president Hugo Chavez" for the main BBC TV news. (12:00, May 14, 2006). He is as an "extreme left-winger," while Bolivian president Evo Morales is "a radical socialist", according to Jonathan Charles on BBC Radio 4. (6 O'Clock News, May 12, 2006)
Imagine the BBC introducing the US leader as "controversial right-wing president George Bush", or as an "extreme right-winger". Is Bush - the man who illegally invaded Iraq on utterly fraudulent pretexts - +less+ controversial than Chavez? Is Bush less far to the right of the political spectrum than Chavez is to the left?
(click here to view entire media alert)
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