How solidarity journalism gets Chavez wrong 4
Hugo Chavez has just won the Venezuelan election (again), and I predict tomorrow’s newspapers will be filled with more of the same superficialities used to describe him on both sides of the Chavista divide.
He’s not an angel, and certainly not the devil (Bush holds that title), but you’d think he was the messiah reading most journalists on the Left.
openDemocracy has a fantastic article about the disastrous inaccuracies produced by “solidarity journalism” about Chavez. Read it, in case you’ve ever wondered who to trust.
My own view is tainted by my visit to Caracas during the World Social Forum earlier this year. The cult-mentality surrounding Chavez was overwhelming.
I met people who said he was the reincarnation of Simón Bolívar. And one guy really did suggest he was the messiah.
No politician deserves that kind of blind admiration.
Our job as activists and journalists is to keep politicians on their toes, no matter what colour shirt they wear (red), and how right they are to stick it to Bush at the UN. Solidarity journalism needs to be about solidarity with “the people” not the politicians.
“Chavez is the people,” read the graffitti on the wall… “Chavez is the social movements,” a community radio journalist explained to me in Caracas.
Well OK, that’s very convenient. I’ll just call his press secretary to have that view confirmed.
Marked destinies.It was the pressssssssssss who buzzzzzzed the victory. But Even the Swiss know that abstensionism won these elections. There’s 65% of oposition in Venezuela, but they don’t vote. Why would they? if you’re against Hugo, you might get expropiated. And that ain’t cool. one positive aspect: Venezuela is no longer an american (as in north america) colony. Instead, is a regime, a la Sssssstalin. Shaky times for latin america are ahead. Word.
Dear Solana,
the article “Bolivarian myths and legends” is a wonderful one, and I agree with you that no one deserves a blind trust, like Chavez for leftist journalists.
However, even if I’m more on the left side, I don’t consider Bush as the absolute Evil.
As you surely know, a U.S. President is the incarnation of political and economical pressures, and if not Bush, another John would be sitting on his chair, doing almost the same thing (maybe in a different apparent way).
By the way, I’ve read some of your articles and I like your way of understanding things.
Do you think that in OpenDemocracy there is room for an italian non-journalist to write sometimes?
Good job.
Cheers,
Hi Simone – I said Bush, but that’s just because “American neo-liberal imperialist empire” is such a big mouthful ;-)
Everyone’s welcome to submit stuff to openDemocracy, but it’s not always easy to make the cut. These days, we reject about 30 uncommissioned articles a month.
Best,
Solana
Well, you can call it neocon as well :-)
Thanks for the info, I’ll probably try to write something for OpenDemocracy and see what happens.
Cheers,