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HOW THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) GUTTED ITS VENEZUELAN COUP D'ETAT SCOOP By
Jared Israel
[Posted 25 April 2002]
=======================================
Does the Western media deliberately distort the news to serve the
interests of the foreign policy establishments of the NATO countries,
especially the US?
Based on much research, Emperor's Clothes says: yes, but not entirely.
Journalists sometimes - perhaps often - write accurate pieces. However,
when the issues are important, foreign policy stories get edited or
replaced, with the end result supporting a slant which is so consistently
in tune with the long-term goals of the US foreign policy elite that it
is possible, by analyzing news stories, to predict positions which will
be adopted by the US government.
That is partly how we made the predictions in the article, "Why Does
Washington Want Afghanistan?" Alas, those predictions have proven true.
(1)
Every day we test the above-stated thesis using the excellent Lexis
search engine. It enables us to scan millions of newspaper articles and
TV news transcripts in seconds. We can focus on particular dates or
periods of time. We can check for the presence or absence of certain
words or phrases. In this way, we can fashion an hypothesis and test it -
see if we are right about the line being taken by most or all the media.
Or we can just "go fishing" and see what we find.
On April 13th, the Associated Press published what is by far the best -
indeed, from what I've seen, the only - mainstream article reporting the
massive police terror against pro-Chavez Venezuelans after the recent
coup d'etat. It was a scoop.
Below I have posted this dispatch, written by Christopher Toothaker.
Soon after AP released out the Toothaker dispatch, they sent a new piece.
This covered some of the same ground but left out Toothaker's account of
police terror in poor neighborhoods. The new dispatch, by Andrew Selsky,
retained only one thing from the original: the first sentence of an
important paragraph. But while this sentence remained the same, the rest
of the paragraph was rewritten to reverse the meaning. More on that in a
moment.
The key thing is that all the original material in the Toothaker dispatch
had been removed. AP had gutted their scoop.
AP dispatches are sent out to news media "outlets" around the world. Thus
by April 14th, most of the important newspapers and TV stations had
received two very different AP dispatches. The first (Toothaker) was
detailed and refuted the official line on what had happened in Venezuela.
The second (Selsky) was general and supported the official line.
This is as close to a scientific experiment as one could fashion to test
our thesis that key media "outlets" censor themselves to support the US
establishment's agenda.
Below is Toothaker's AP dispatch. It is most informative. Indeed, it is
the only place, outside the pro-Chavez media and Websites critical of US
foreign policy (likes ours) where you will find anything challenging the
official story about what happened in Venezuela.
[START TOOTHAKER DISPATCH]
April 13, 2002, Saturday
BC cycle International News
"Screams of pain, agony, sorrow: the dying and the dead in Caracas
hospitals" By Christopher Toothaker
Associated Press Writer
CARACAS, Venezuela
Edgar Paredes frantically pulled his bloodied brother, Luis, from the
back of the bloodstained family car and cradled him in his arms, begging
for a stretcher at Caracas' Perez Carreno hospital.
His brother was shot Saturday during a protest in which demonstrators
began demanding the release of Venezuela's detained President Hugo Chavez
- one of countless victims of rioting in the Venezuelan capital Saturday.
"We have every right to protest, but they are gunning us down out there"
said Edgar, his clothes soaked in blood as he held his wounded brother.
He didn't know who shot him. Police fired repeatedly at protesters in
various Caracas slums Saturday and hospitals throughout the city's
poorest areas were inundated with victims on Saturday.
Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said there had been nine people killed and
about 40 injured in politically related violence Saturday. Cars and
ambulances delivered victims in a steady stream at Perez Carreno in La
Yaguara, one of Caracas' poorest and most dangerous districts.
"We are at the point of collapse," said nurse Margarita Delgado. "On a
normal day we receive 20 or 30 patients here. Today were are receiving
four or five times that many."
Screams of pain, agony and sorrow filled emergency rooms. Tearful and
frantic family members waited outside, anxious for word of whether their
loved ones were still alive. The casualties ranged from a 12-year boy to
a 70 year-old woman.
In many cases, traffic jams produced by the rioting and looting, or
simply by people fleeing violence, made it difficult, if not impossible,
to get the wounded to hospitals. The interiors of many cars bringing in
victims were stained with blood.
Already angry about Chavez's arrest, victims were further incensed by the
fact that private Venezuelan television and radio stations did not report
Saturday's disturbances - or pro-Chavez protests - in poorer areas such
as the slums of western Caracas.
"The local media aren't showing what is happening here. They complained
about Chavez ... but they are worse," said Hector Flores, 52, a chauffeur
observing the events at Perez Carreno. "This (new) government usurped
power, and now it is repressing the people."
Tens of thousands of Chavez supporters streamed down from the hillside
slums to voice their support for Chavez, gathering in front of the
presidential palace. Announcers did urge viewers to stay calm and not be
provoked by "rumors" of political unrest.
Shortly after he took office in 1999, Chavez issued a decree requiring
all public hospitals to attend to people without insurance. Under
previous governments, the poor often were turned away. For such actions
Chavez was beloved by many.
Earlier Saturday, a pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had
been brought by early Saturday, most with bullet wounds. Chavez tried to
violently suppress demonstration against him before he was ousted by the
military on Friday.
Tears streaming down her face, Juana Chirinos, 50, watched the ambulances
pull in to Pedro Carreno Hospital and muttered repeatedly, "My God. My
God."
"While we bring in our dead one after the other, the rich people in the
east are having drinks and fanning themselves," she said.
[END TOOTHAKER DISPATCH]
In only one paragraph in the dispatch above does Toothaker conform to the
"official" line. That paragraph reads:
"Earlier Saturday, a pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had
been brought by early Saturday, most with bullet wounds. Chavez tried to
violently suppress demonstration against him before he was ousted by the
military on Friday."
The claim that "Chavez tried to violently suppress demonstrations" was
broadcast by virtually the entire Western media as if it were a proven
fact. By putting this claim immediately after the statement that "30
bodies had been brought [into the Caracas morgue] by early Saturday" the
paragraph creates the impression that Chavez caused those 30 deaths.
However, there is a serious problem with the time-line here. The
anti-Chavez demonstrations took place on Thursday. Chavez was detained in
the Presidential Palace late Thursday and taken away Friday morning.
So is it possible that the bodies coming into the morgue early Saturday
could have been those of people that Chavez supposedly tried to suppress
with violence on Thursday?
Is the AP telling us that these 30 people were allowed to decompose in
Venezuela's tropical climate for about two days, after which they were
finally brought to the morgue?
That does not sound plausible.
It seems more likely that an editor tacked the sentence about Chavez
using violence onto what was otherwise a very straightforward article in
order to support the official US line. After all, everything in the
article - except for the sentence about Chavez using violence -
contradicts the official US line concerning recent events in Venezuela.
I discovered the Toothaker dispatch Saturday the 13th in the WORLD NEWS
section of America Online. They post Reuters and AP dispatches as they
come off the wire, so I can sometimes catch these wire services rewriting
dispatches to remove information that contradicts the "correct"
viewpoint.
Some thoughts about Mr. Toothaker's dispatch:
1) It presents a vivid picture of the profound support Chavez enjoys
among impoverished Venezuelans (about 80% of the population).
2) It paints a vivid picture of the police terror Saturday against the
pro-Chavez poor all over Caracas. The terror was so common that
concerning Edgar Paredes Mr. Toothaker comments:
"He didn't know who shot [his brother because] police fired repeatedly at
protesters in various Caracas slums Saturday and hospitals throughout the
city's poorest areas were inundated with victims on Saturday."
3) We've posted two articles on Emperor's Clothes with first hand
accounts of what happened in Venezuela during the attempted coup. One of
the articles, from a Mexican newspaper, includes an interview with
Chavez. The other, from an Irish newspaper, is an interview with an Irish
filmmaker who was in Caracas during the coup. (2)
Both articles assert that it was pro-Chavez demonstrators, not
anti-Chavez demonstrators, who were getting shot on Thursday. Both
suggest that the snipers were provocateurs who shot people to provide a
justification for the coup d'état. (2)
If this is true then the Western media was lying - an "extreme"
accusation, but rendered more believable by the way in which the AP
quickly replaced the Toothaker dispatch with a new one which covered some
of the same ground but without the vivid details about Chavez's support
among the poor and about the massive police terror.
The new dispatch was written by Andrew Selsky. The Selsky dispatch was
issued a half dozen times. We have posted the last version in its
entirety. (See (3) in Further Reading) However, to save time, below we
have extracted the passages concerning how the authorities dealt with the
pro-Chavez protesters Saturday.
[START OF RELEVANT EXCERPTS FROM SELSKY DISPATCH]
Headline: "Interim president resigns in Venezuela after thousands protest
to restore Chavez to power"
BYLINE: By ANDREW SELSKY, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: CARACAS, Venezuela
[The article mainly deals with the return of the Chavez government. We've
cut all that out.]
...
Earlier in the day, police drove back smaller groups of protesters from
the presidential palace with tear gas, and gunfire was heard in the
nearby Catia slum, a Chavez stronghold.
"We want to see Chavez. The Venezuelan people don't buy it that he has
resigned," shouted Maria Brito, a 36-year-old demonstrator.
As a massive crowd of protesters approached the palace at nightfall,
there was no tear gas, and soldiers on a nearby roof urged the
demonstrators on by pumping their fists and waving Venezuelan flags and
their red berets, a symbol of Chávez's rule.
Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena said at least nine people were killed and 40
wounded in various parts of the city Saturday. Police fired at pro-Chavez
protesters in various Caracas slums.
A pathologist at the Caracas morgue said 30 bodies had been brought to
the morgue overnight and into Saturday, most with bullet wounds. How the
people were killed was not immediately clear.
"We have every right to protest, but they are gunning us down out there,"
said Edgar Paredes, his clothes soaked in blood as he brought his wounded
brother to a hospital. He didn't know who shot Luis, and probably never
will. Like most violent demonstrations here, gunfire can erupt from any
side, at any time.
...
In Caracas, downtown shopkeepers hurriedly closed as word of isolated
disruptions spread. At least 20 small disturbances were reported in
Caracas, the new government said. Unrest also was reported in Maracay,
Guarenas, Los Teques and Coro.
About 500 Chavez supporters also marched overnight on the army fort where
Chavez was earlier held, facing off with soldiers and tanks, witnesses
said. Troops fired rubber bullets, injuring some protesters, said Brito,
the demonstrator.
[END OF RELEVANT EXCERPTS FROM SELSKY DISPATCH]
Note two things.
First, we are told "gunfire was heard in the nearby Catia slum, a Chavez
stronghold." If you had not read the Toothaker piece, you wouldn't know
it was the police who were doing the shooting.
Second, according to the Selsky dispatch, "At least 20 small disturbances
were reported in Caracas, the new government said." This creates the
impression that there was a limited popular response to the kidnapping of
Chavez. But as we know from the Toothaker dispatch, people were trying to
hold demonstrations all over Caracas but were attacked with widespread,
virtually random police violence.
Now consider how the Selsky dispatch deals with Edgar Paredes and his
wounded brother.
As originally posted by Toothaker, the relevant paragraph begins:
"'We have every right to protest, but they are gunning us down out
there,' said Edgar, his clothes soaked in blood as he held his wounded
brother."
That part is the same in Selsky. But the second part of the paragraph is
entirely different:
TOOTHAKER DISPATCH: "He didn't know who shot [Luis]. Police fired
repeatedly at protesters in various Caracas slums Saturday and hospitals
throughout the city's poorest areas were inundated with victims on
Saturday."
SELSKY DISPATCH: "He didn't know who shot Luis, and probably never will.
Like most violent demonstrations here, gunfire can erupt from any side,
at any time."
Quite a difference.
1) The Toothaker ending tells us the Caracas police conducted a murderous
campaign of intimidation Saturday. The Selsky story avoids this issue
entirely.
2) The Toothaker ending suggests there was so much random police violence
it would be impossible to figure out *which* cop shot Edgar Paredes
brother.
But the Selsky ending tells us that the residents of poor neighborhoods
get shot because of their own propensity for senseless violence. Their
demonstrations erupt in random violence and confusion because that is the
nature of these Venezuelans: "Like most violent demonstrations *here*,
gunfire can erupt from any side, at any time."
Note that nothing in the original dispatch by Toothaker suggests that the
demonstrations were violent. Quite the contrary, Toothaker reports that
the police launched a virtual reign of terror in poor neighborhoods.
But Selsky takes the violence (which according to Toothaker stems from
the police) and blames it on the victims, who, being naturally violent
Venezuelans (!), produce "violent demonstrations": "Like most violent
demonstrations *here* gunfire can erupt from any side, at any time."
Toothaker quotes three people whose words contradict Selsky's image of
"violence-prone slum dwellers."
First, Edgar Paredes: "We have every right to protest, but they are
gunning us down out there."
This is the statement of a politically aware person trying to exercise
his rights. (Note that in the Selksy dispatch, this is immediately
followed by the claim that, "Like most violent demonstrations here,
gunfire can erupt from any side, at any time." Thus Selsky obscures the
non-violent, politically aware thrust of what Edgar Paredes is saying.)
Second, the nurse, Margarita Delgado:
"'We are at the point of collapse,' said nurse Margarita Delgado. 'On a
normal day we receive 20 or 30 patients here. Today were are receiving
four or five times that many.'"
In other words, the hospital was not used to dealing with massive
violence.
And finally, the remarkable testimony of Juana Chirinos:
"Tears streaming down her face, Juana Chirinos, 50, watched the
ambulances pull in to Pedro Carreno Hospital and muttered repeatedly, 'My
God. My God.'"
"'While we bring in our dead one after the other, the rich people in the
east are having drinks and fanning themselves,' she said."
In other words, the rich people, that is, the anti-Chavez people, were
not getting shot at.
The compelling statements by Ms. Delgado and Ms. Chirinos were simply
removed in the Selsky dispatch.
HOW NEWSPAPERS DEALT WITH THESE CONTRADICTORY DISPATCHES
We did a search of all English speaking newspapers in the world, looking
for the phrase,
"'We are at the point of collapse,' said nurse Margarita Delgado."
Result: Not one newspaper reprinted this phrase from the Toothaker piece.
We searched for ten other phrases from Toothaker.
Nothing.
Finally we tried the sentence, "We have every right to protest, but they
are gunning us down out there." This sentence is found in both Toothaker
and Selsky.
This search yielded six newspapers articles, three from Australia, one
from Canada and two from the USA.
Not one of these newspapers published the Toothaker dispatch.
They all used Selsky.
-- Jared Israel
***
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FURTHER READING
********************************
1) "Why Does Washington Want Afghanistan?" by Jared Israel, Rick Rozoff &
Nico Varkevisser can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/afghan.htm
2) For articles on the Venezuelan coup posted on Emperor's Clothes see:
* "CHÁVEZ COMEBACK EXPOSES U.S. GOVERNMENT & MEDIA LIES"
By D. Baatar, Jared Israel, Nestor Gorojovsky & Nico Varkevisser. Can be
read at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/haste.htm
* "IRISH FILMMAKER'S EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF VENEZUELAN COUP D'ÉTAT" which
can be read at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/witness.htm
* "THIS IS A MEDIA INSURRECTION"
Including an interview with Hugo Chávez. Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/jornada.htm
3) To read the Selsky dispatch in full, click here or go to
http://emperors-clothes.com/archive/selsky.htm
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