The Haiti case demonstrates that media lies prevail

BY ERNESTO CARMONA—Taken from Argenpress—

THANKS to the control of the global village, a run-of-the-mill coup d’état can be sold as a "resignation." And a mafia-esque kidnapping passes for a "voluntary trip," without Marshall MacLuhan taking any blame. There’s nothing to stop barefaced, shameless lies from being recited as though they were nursery tales.

The false "resignation" of Haitian Jean Bertrand Aristide demonstrates how the media deceives the citizen-consumer of news all over the planet, no matter the country. The Arabs, at least, have Al-Jazeera TV, but in Latin America and the rest of the "Third World" there’s no stopping the big monsters of the media.

The world swallowed the story when James Foley, the U.S. ambassador in Haiti, appeared on CNN on Sunday, February 29, to "report" that Aristide had resigned and left the country. The U.S. Marines who had just landed the night before – one day before the UN "agreement" – were just part of the scenery. Nobody asked why an ambassador was speaking and not Bonifacio Alejandro, the future "president," who remained mute on Foley’s right. Those details "live and direct" from Port-au-Prince were seemingly irrelevant in the face of such "news."

Neither was it possible to inform the world that attorney Ira Kurzban in the United States had called for a Congress investigation, or that Gilbert Collard in France brought a lawsuit in Paris against Mr. Thierry Burkard, the French ambassador, as an accomplice to the kidnapping, while Aristide remained incommunicado in the Central African Republic.

It was also concealed that an impartial investigation had been requested by Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and CARICOM, the regional grouping whose members include 15 of the 34 OAS members. No one commented on the bulldozing of the rights and sovereignty of the 53 nations that make up the African Unity grouping.

The problem is, only six corporations control the news in the United States and most of the world, with Australian-U.S.-British Rupert Murdoch in the leading role. In Latin America, Gustavo Cisneros transformed his Venezuelan media empire – as well as his Hispanic broadcasting chain, Univisión – into another political party working to overthrow Hugo Chávez, just like the international Christian Democratic ODCA. Cisneros has already carried out his first coup d’état endorsed by Chile, where he owns the ChileVisión Channel and around 10 radio stations. The corrupt Silvio Berlusoni took power in Italy to establish a fascist government without the necessity of a coup, thanks to his TV empire, which transformed him into a "leader." And in Chile, a certain Mario Conca does, undoes and censures on public television – a copy of the BBC – without anyone having elected him. The resignation of the Faride Zerán board of directors – Teodoro Rivera, Marco Colodro and Bernardo Matte – gave President Ricardo Lagos a free hand to make a decision on TVN. Hopefully, he won’t continue to move to the right, or will at least turn off the signal lights indicating the opposite direction.