{"id":111996,"date":"2018-05-28T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=111996"},"modified":"2018-05-26T14:40:36","modified_gmt":"2018-05-26T13:40:36","slug":"media-delegitimize-venezuelan-elections-amid-complete-unanimity-of-outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/media-delegitimize-venezuelan-elections-amid-complete-unanimity-of-outlook\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Delegitimize Venezuelan Elections amid Complete Unanimity of Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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23 May 2018 – <\/em>Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was successfully re-elected president of Venezuela on Sunday [20 May], receiving 5.8 million of the 8.6 million ballots cast, on a turnout of 46 percent. His nearest challenger, Henri Falcon, received 1.8 million votes. The process was watched over by 150 international observers from over 30 countries, among them former Spanish Prime Minister Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero, who said (Telesur<\/strong>, 5\/20\/18<\/a>): \u201cI do not have any doubt about the voting process. It is an advanced automatic voting system.\u201d<\/p>\n

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NPR (5\/21\/18) was amid many other news outlets that chose a similar headline strategy.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another election observer was former Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa, who announced via Twitter<\/strong> (5\/20\/18<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan elections are developing with absolute normalcy. I\u2019ve attended four polling stations. There is a permanent flow of citizenship, with short waiting and voting times. Very modern system with double control. From what I\u2019ve seen, [it\u2019s] impeccable organization.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, Western media have taken an entirely different outlook to the proceedings, unanimously presenting them as seriously flawed, at best, and at worst a complete sham presided over by a dictator. The New York Times<\/strong> (5\/20\/18<\/a>) presented the election as \u201ca contest that critics said was heavily rigged in his favor,\u201d Huffington Post<\/strong> (5\/21\/18<\/a>) christened it \u201ca vote denounced as a farce cementing autocracy in the crisis-stricken OPEC nation,\u201d while NPR<\/strong> (5\/21\/18<\/a>) stated:<\/p>\n

Nicholas [sic] Maduro has easily won a second term, but his main rivals have refused to accept the results, calling the polling fraudulent\u2014a view shared by the United States and many independent observers.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apart from spelling the president\u2019s name wrong, the only source that could be an \u201cindependent\u201d observer quoted was the Washington-based, State Department\u2013funded<\/a> conservative group Freedom House, a rather questionable example of an \u201cindependent observer.\u201d<\/p>\n

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New York Times (5\/20\/18)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAmid, Amid, Amid\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across media, coverage was eerily similar. Indeed, most media outlets even used the same word choice and structure in their headlines, declaring Maduro the winner while undermining the system\u2019s legitimacy with the helpful preposition \u201camid\u201d:<\/p>\n