The shameful reporting of the Miami Herald
Posted: Thu May 20, 2004 3:57 pm
Has anyone else following the news these past few months been as angered by the Miami Herald as I have? I mean, none of the mainstream media does a good job of covering Haiti, but the MH seems to have a right-wing bias that is above and beyond the others.
This surprises me, because I've always regarded the MH as one of the better newspapers with regards to coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean (not that it takes much to be considered "better" than the rest of the mainstream media).
This report from yesterday about the attacks against the pro-Aristide marchers is a good example:
[quote]Pro-Aristide protesters fight police
Partisans supporting former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide protest in the streets and battle police, who were backed by U.S. Marines.
BY MICHAEL DEIBERT
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Police backed by U.S. Marines on Tuesday clashed with s
upporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as Haitians marked the 201st anniversary of the creation of their national flag.
With helicopters swooping low overhead, several hundred partisans of Aristide, who fled the country Feb. 29 amid an armed rebellion, began their protest in the capital's impoverished Bel Air quarter.
''Without Aristide, there is no Haiti. This new government doesn't work with the Haitian people,'' said Jean Denis Chevalier, a 26-year-old videographer, speaking for the young, mostly male crowd.
The Associated Press reported one young man was shot to death, but that it was unclear who fired the shot. U.S. Marines said they did not fire any shots during the clash.
Aristide was elected to a second term as Haiti's president in December 2000, but his rule grew unpopular due to what critics charged was pervasive corruption and brutality. An interim government, headed by President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, is now in charge
of running the country until new elections, likely in 2005.
Convoys of U.S. Marines rolled through Bel Air's hilly streets as heavily armed Haitian riot police set up cordons to block the protesters.
''This is an illegal demonstration . . . Return to your homes immediately,'' said an announcement broadcast over loudspeakers to the crowd.
U.S. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Colonel Dave Lapan said Marines were there to support the Haitian police and police concluded the demonstration was illegal because the group had no permit.
At one point demonstrators began throwing rocks at passing cars and then ran toward the capital's Champs de Mars plaza, in front of Haiti's National Palace. Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas.[/quote]
1. The demonstrators are described as "partisans." Being pro-democracy is not a "partisan" position. The people that participated in demonstrations were not merely pro-Aristide people. Some of the morons who were duped into su
pporting the Convergence were protesting the occupation as well.
2. Saying they "battled police" makes them sound like they either instigated the violence or the violence was coming from both sides, when in fact the violence was completely one-sided according to every credible report I've read.
3. Aristide "fled" the country; he wasn't taken out by force.
4. The article describes "several hundred" protestors being there, when there were easily over ten thousand.
5. That it was unclear who fired the shot that killed that boy is utter nonsense.
6. More BS charges of "corruption and brutality" repeated without a rebuttal or even a credible source. How do you think the U.S. would react if a newspaper in a foreign country flippantly asserted that the Bush administration was "corrupt and brutal?"
7. The notion that the protestors didn't have permission is another lie that is repeated without a rebuttal.
8. The protestors are again presented as if they instigated
the violence, by throwing stones. This is like the New York Times' coverage of the middle east: Palestinian child throws a stone, therefore the Israeli military is justified in blowing up a neighborhood with rockets.
This surprises me, because I've always regarded the MH as one of the better newspapers with regards to coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean (not that it takes much to be considered "better" than the rest of the mainstream media).
This report from yesterday about the attacks against the pro-Aristide marchers is a good example:
[quote]Pro-Aristide protesters fight police
Partisans supporting former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide protest in the streets and battle police, who were backed by U.S. Marines.
BY MICHAEL DEIBERT
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Police backed by U.S. Marines on Tuesday clashed with s
upporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as Haitians marked the 201st anniversary of the creation of their national flag.
With helicopters swooping low overhead, several hundred partisans of Aristide, who fled the country Feb. 29 amid an armed rebellion, began their protest in the capital's impoverished Bel Air quarter.
''Without Aristide, there is no Haiti. This new government doesn't work with the Haitian people,'' said Jean Denis Chevalier, a 26-year-old videographer, speaking for the young, mostly male crowd.
The Associated Press reported one young man was shot to death, but that it was unclear who fired the shot. U.S. Marines said they did not fire any shots during the clash.
Aristide was elected to a second term as Haiti's president in December 2000, but his rule grew unpopular due to what critics charged was pervasive corruption and brutality. An interim government, headed by President Boniface Alexandre and Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, is now in charge
of running the country until new elections, likely in 2005.
Convoys of U.S. Marines rolled through Bel Air's hilly streets as heavily armed Haitian riot police set up cordons to block the protesters.
''This is an illegal demonstration . . . Return to your homes immediately,'' said an announcement broadcast over loudspeakers to the crowd.
U.S. Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Colonel Dave Lapan said Marines were there to support the Haitian police and police concluded the demonstration was illegal because the group had no permit.
At one point demonstrators began throwing rocks at passing cars and then ran toward the capital's Champs de Mars plaza, in front of Haiti's National Palace. Riot police responded with volleys of tear gas.[/quote]
1. The demonstrators are described as "partisans." Being pro-democracy is not a "partisan" position. The people that participated in demonstrations were not merely pro-Aristide people. Some of the morons who were duped into su
pporting the Convergence were protesting the occupation as well.
2. Saying they "battled police" makes them sound like they either instigated the violence or the violence was coming from both sides, when in fact the violence was completely one-sided according to every credible report I've read.
3. Aristide "fled" the country; he wasn't taken out by force.
4. The article describes "several hundred" protestors being there, when there were easily over ten thousand.
5. That it was unclear who fired the shot that killed that boy is utter nonsense.
6. More BS charges of "corruption and brutality" repeated without a rebuttal or even a credible source. How do you think the U.S. would react if a newspaper in a foreign country flippantly asserted that the Bush administration was "corrupt and brutal?"
7. The notion that the protestors didn't have permission is another lie that is repeated without a rebuttal.
8. The protestors are again presented as if they instigated
the violence, by throwing stones. This is like the New York Times' coverage of the middle east: Palestinian child throws a stone, therefore the Israeli military is justified in blowing up a neighborhood with rockets.