Honduras' PR Coup

[Judi Lynn]

Honduras' PR Coup
Submitted by Brendan Fischer on December 20, 2010 - 8:03pm

Wikileaks has recently published documents suggesting that PR spin helped determine the final outcome of the June 2009 Honduran coup. At the same time that a July 2009 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras to top government officials confirmed that the Honduran president’s removal was illegal, professional lobbyists and political communicators were beginning a PR blitz, eventually managing to manipulate America into believing the coup was a constitutional act.

On June 28, 2009, the Honduran military deposed Manual Zelaya, their country’s elected president since 2006, taking him at gunpoint from his home and sending him to Costa Rica. The international community quickly condemned the act as a coup, and the Organization of American States (OAS) issued an immediate and unanimous call for Zelaya’s return to office. President Obama stated that “we believe the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the President of Honduras, but he and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stopped short of formally declaring the actions of the military to be a “military coup.”

~snip~
In the end, the power of spin helped coup supporters achieve victory. Zelaya was never fully returned to office, and despite protests by most of the international community, the November 2009 elections went forward and the U.S. recognized the right-wing candidate Porfirio Lobo Sosa as president. Despite the elections’ questionable legitimacy-- Zelaya supporters boycotted the vote, and the vote took place in what was called a “political environment contaminated by repression, violence, and fear,” with groups such as Amnesty International and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights deploring human rights violations—American support for the electoral outcome was decisive.

American acquiescence to the coup regime lent implicit support to the de facto government’s violent suppression of political opponents and opposition media. The outcome of the November 2009 vote was greatly influenced by the conduct and statements of American officials in the months leading up to the election. And that conduct and those statements were largely determined by a small group of talented PR practitioners and lobbyists. As the next article in this series will show, Honduras 2009 is not the first time that PR spin helped topple a Latin American regime.

More:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/9806

[Judi Lynn]

1. Media Distortions Legitimize Honduras Regime

Media Distortions Legitimize Honduras Regime
Wednesday 24 November 2010
by: Michael Corcoran, t r u t h o u t | News Analysis

Honduras held elections on November 29, 2009, that were deemed illegitimate by most of the international community and resulted in the presidency of Porfirio Lobo, a conservative politician and agricultural landowner. The election occurred just months after the illegal coup overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya and, as a result of a significant boycott, only included candidates who supported the coup.

At the time of the elections, the US mainstream media had an atrocious record of reporting on the coup itself, as well as on the elections that followed, helping to legitimize a startling attack on Honduran democracy. Despite the illegal nature of the coup and numerous accounts of human rights abuses against supporters of Manuel Zelaya - including violence against protesters, mass arrests and crackdowns on press freedom - the US media portrayed the events in a way that painted Zelaya as a villainous follower of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and legitimized those who ousted him, in part by ignoring their many crimes and abuses.

Unfortunately, in the year that has followed these two troubling events, little has changed: the Lobo regime has continued the human rights abuses that have plagued the country for more than a year, while the media has downplayed, distorted or ignored the crimes of his regime. The press also continues to amplify calls for the international acceptance of the new leadership, despite continuing reports of abuse. As a result, the US media remains an active participant in an attack on Honduran democracy that has continued for almost a year and a half.

Ignoring the Documentary Record

Since the June 2009 coup and throughout Lobo's tenure, widespread human rights abuses such as the targeted killings of journalists, the removal of opposition judges, mass arrests, beatings and torture have been thoroughly documented by human rights organizations. Amnesty International's finding indicated the extent and brutality of abuses against opposition forces in the country:

More:
http://www.truth-out.org/media-distortions-legitimize-honduras-regime65395

[Peace Patriot]

2. Sometimes I wonder why our Corporate Rulers bother to propagandize us...

"Wikileaks has recently published documents suggesting that PR spin helped determine the final outcome of the June 2009 Honduran coup. At the same time that a July 2009 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Ambassador in Honduras to top government officials confirmed that the Honduran president’s removal was illegal, professional lobbyists and political communicators were beginning a PR blitz, eventually managing to manipulate America into believing the coup was a constitutional act."--from the OP

-------------------

Say there had been one foot headlines all over the country--"COUP D'ETAT IN HONDURAS!"--with corporate TV covering all the community meetings and labor union meetings in Honduras, live, and accompanying the marches, and giving the repression and the death squad murders appropriate prominence, and asking penetrating questions, like, "What were the U.S. commanders at the U.S. military base in Honduras DOING while the plane carrying the elected president of Honduras out of the country, at gunpoint, stopped at their air base for refueling?"

Say we had a free press. Would our Multinational Corporate/War Profiteer rulers have done anything differently?

It's my guess that they would not have, that they are so impervious to public opinion--so insulated from it--that, even if we did not have five rightwing billionaires controlling all news and opinion--they would be running the same Forever War and doing the same dirty deeds in Latin America that they have done with a controlled propaganda machine. They would just blow off a free press. They might have more of a problem with street protests here, but, hey, they've got the fire power and the police state to crush any serious rebellion. It would mean more overt repression here, that's all.

Furthermore, they have the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, to just keep putting tools of the Corporate State in power, no matter what "the People" want. Now there they might have a serious problem--if we had a free press. The People can't do anything about the war machine, for the moment--it operates independently of us--but we CAN do something about the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines (throw them into 'Boston Harbor,' so to speak). These diabolical machines reside in our precincts, counties and states. Our county registrar--who chooses voting systems and made these corrupt decisions--may live right down the street from us. The voting system is still a local matter.

If we had one foot headlines throughout the land--"ARE U.S. ELECTIONS RIGGED? // With 'trade secret' code, how can we know?" --we might have mobs of outraged Americans besieging LOCAL officials to get this changed--to restore transparent vote counting--pronto.

They don't need a controlled press for the war machine any more, but they DO need it to maintain the illusion of democracy--which spares them the inconvenience of murdering protestors here, as their lackeys are doing in Honduras (and Colombia). This is a BIG country to control. It has many cultures and many parts sprawled over a huge landscape. The only way TO control it--without the expense and aggravation of an all-out nazi system--IS direct control of the voting results. This way, people may be puzzled as to why they vote against war or for social justice, time and again, and nothing changes. But they can't pinpoint the problem--'TRADE SECRET' control of the actual mechanism of power--the ultimate mechanism for overriding the "will of the People."

Difficult "chicken vs egg" problem here.

The "PR blitz," in the sentence above--"...a PR blitz, eventually managing to manipulate America into believing the coup was a constitutional act"--would not have been possible with a free press, which would have resisted being manipulated by high-flying Washington P.R. firms.

So, IS that the problem--the most serious anti-democratic force in the U.S.? The UN-free press? Or is it ES&S/Diebold's 'trade secret' code voting machines, which can--and HAS--put Multinational Corporate/War Profiteer tools in power?

The third problem is the filthy Corporate campaign contribution system. All work together to create a Corporate State with a powerless population of peons and cannon fodder. But, thinking strategically--what is possible, what we CAN do something about--the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines present a LOCAL target--if local communities can get activated--that could begin crumpling the Corporate State's power from below. If we could get even half the states, or even a third of the states, to restore transparent vote counting, and start electing kickass office holders, the democracy movement would snowball. Most Americans want their country back but can't see the way to do it. This would be one way.

It is appalling what the U.S. government did in Honduras--both the Bush Junta government that set it up, and the Obama government that assisted it. But it wasn't just the UN-free press caving to a "PR blitz" that is responsible for the coup d'etat's success. It was Jim DeMint (SC-Diebold) bullying and blackmailing Clinton and Obama and basically running U.S. foreign policy on this matter. It was ES&S/Diebold permitting Obama to be elected. (I think he really was elected but was also PERMITTED to be elected). It was Corporate/War Profiteer interests controlling the policy by who they put in power with their 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines, and what our (s)elected officials OWE those Corporate/War Profiteer interests, as a result.

With a free press, we would have known about the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines sooner. But it is not too late--and, indeed, it is never too late--to restore our right to vote. It is the one thing we CAN do, and it is DOABLE.

[Demeter]

3. Post this independently so I can Rec It!

marvelous summary. The world needs to see it.

As to why bother? Probably a combination of nepotism, disinformation, and keeping in practice. Keep the nephew employed, keep the sheeple baffled, and hone one's propaganda skills. Plus, needed some kind of official response for the real world press...couldn't just admit to war crimes, now, could they?

[Peace Patriot]

4. Thanks for the praise! I may do that. I'll let you know if I do.

I'm not sure what you mean in the second part of your comment. Who is your rhetorical question "why bother?" addressed to?

Oh, I just GOT IT. You are asking why the Corporate State bothers to propagandize us! Natch! The corpo-fascist press is, among other things, a multi-trillion dollar business--which, not incidentally, rakes in billions directly from campaign coffers. They have to do SOMETHING. They can't do real reporting. So..."keep the nephew employed, keep the sheeple baffled, etc." Yeah, you're right.

I probably shouldn't downplay the power and importance of this corpo-fascist media machine, however. It is the NO. 2 problem with our democracy. The 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines are NO. 1, in my opinion--control of the actual mechanism of power. And ES&S/Diebold and the corpo-fascist media, of course, work together to oppress us all. But this is the thing: Latin America ALSO has a very bad corpo-fascist press, in some ways worse than ours, yet they've elected leftist governments in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries. They've done this despite the corpo-fascist press. How? I looked very closely at Venezuela's vote counting system, in particular, and have learned that Venezuelans and other Latin Americans have done great civic work, for several decades, to insure honest, transparent elections. That is the difference. While our vote counting system has fallen prey to corporate control, theirs is still in the PUBLIC VENUE. They have honest vote counting systems. We don't.

With an honest vote counting system, the People, the majority, the grass roots organizers, have a chance. "We the People" can overcome any obstacle--in 2004, for instance, we matched the Bush/Cheney money machine dollar for dollar, in the Kerry campaign. We have more people, we can work harder, we can get the word out, we can get the vote out--if we try hard enough. What we CANNOT overcome is invisibly riggable voting machines. That is WHY this system was fast-tracked into place, during the 2002 to 2004 period, with a $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress--to begin directly controlling election results.

And that is why I say that it is WORSE than the corpo-fascist media. But I don't mean that the corpo-fascist media is irrelevant or NOT a problem. Dismantling these media corporations, and restoring "the Fairness Doctrine," should be item no. 1 on the Peoples' agenda, after we get rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines. But that particular, desperately needed reform is not doable--nor is any serious reform--until we have public vote counting once again and can start putting better people into public office with the ability to hold them to account. That's what our vote does--reins them in, makes them accountable, pressures them to put the interests of the people first. It can have that effect, even without campaign $$$ reform and even without media reform--because we can vote them OUT. Right now, we really can't--except maybe in some venue where we could get, say, an 80% majority vote (which would make the rigging of the code too obvious). (By "they," I mean both Pukes and Blue Dogs. Rigging is going on in the primaries as well--who gets to run in the general election.)

[Demeter]

5. One or the Other Has Got to Go to Make Change

but if we could take both down at once....a girl can dream!