Latin America News Coverage: Half the Story is Worse Than None

[Joanne98]

February 1st 2008, by Mark Weisbrot - AlterNet
Barack Obama had a few choice words for Bill and Hillary Clinton after the South Carolina primary, about people who would "say anything and do anything to win an election."

Imagine if the U.S media had reported his remarks without ever reporting what the candidate was responding to. (He was reacting to former president Bill Clinton's comparison -- widely seen as racial politicking -- of Obama's South Carolina victory to Jesse Jackson's in the 1980's; and Hillary Clinton's attack ads).

It would not be considered acceptable journalism in the United States to omit these key facts. But in U.S. coverage of Latin America, the same standards do not apply.

For example, the press has run a number of reports lately on a diplomatic dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, which is important because the two countries share a 1300 mile border that has been plagued for decades by paramilitary and guerrilla violence. The press was quick to report some rather undiplomatic remarks from President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela about President Uribe of Colombia, whom Chavez called "a liar" and "fit to be a Mafia boss" rather than president.

Missing from US and English-language press coverage were the key events to which Chavez was responding, and indeed the main cause of the current dispute. In the days before last New Year's eve, the Venezuelan government had arranged for the release of high-profile hostages held in the Colombian jungle by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla group. A high-level international team of observers were on hand, including former President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina, Brazil's top presidential foreign policy advisor, and representatives from France, Switzerland, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba and the Red Cross.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3119