Argentina Exposes Conservative Bias of US Media
by Randy Shaw‚ Apr. 17‚ 2007
Imagine a country where activist protests are the lead stories on local and national mainstream media broadcasts. A place where social movements, rather than elected officials, determine what’s news. A land that ignores the father of Anne Nicole-Smith’s baby, but whose news outlets instead prioritize stories that impact people’s lives. Argentina is such a country, and my recent visit showed me how the US media is far more conservative than progressives realize. No corporate owned media outlet in the United States offers the balanced news coverage routinely found in the Argentina media, whose willingness to provide activist and labor viewpoints leaves its US counterparts sounding like Fox News.
In the eighteen days I spent in Argentina, Buenos Aires experienced five mass protests and the equivalent of a general strike. These activist events dominated the television news, which supplemented their pictures with lengthy interviews with activists.
In the United States, even the huge anti-war protests prior to the Iraq war invariably included only 30-second interviews with activists. Some longer interviews were included in the immigration protests of 2006, but no corporate-owned news outlet gave activists five minutes or more to discuss their agenda.
In Argentina, interviews with activists dominate the news. The Argentina media gives social movements the attention they deserve---and its positive coverage promotes progressive causes and encourages collective action.
When I arrived in Buenos Aires on March 24, the headline in the pro-business English language Buenos Aires Herald was “Argentina tells US ‘butt out.’” This was in response to a US State Department staffer criticizing the Argentine government for allowing Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to hold a large anti-Bush rally in Buenos Aires. I saw enough anti-Bush signs and spray-painted slogans in Argentina and Uruguay to conclude that our President is even less popular in those nations than here.
More:
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Argentina_Exposes_Conservative_Bias_of_US_Media_4415.html