{"id":158736,"date":"2020-04-20T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=158736"},"modified":"2020-04-20T06:51:29","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T05:51:29","slug":"nyt-blames-maduro-for-healthcare-horror-downplays-us-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/04\/nyt-blames-maduro-for-healthcare-horror-downplays-us-role\/","title":{"rendered":"NYT Blames Maduro for Healthcare Horror, Downplays US Role"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

New York Times photo (10 Apr 2020) of a pregnant woman seeking medical help at a Venezuelan hospital.<\/p><\/div>\n

16 Apr 2020 – <\/em>The New York Times <\/b><\/em>(10 Apr 2020<\/a>) published an article describing the horrendous shape of the Venezuelan healthcare system. The human interest story, written by Julie Turkewitz<\/a> and Isayen Herrera<\/a>, followed several women through their nightmarish journey of childbearing in a broken medical system. The piece would be outstanding reporting, had it not fumbled the most important aspect of the story: how and why the system is as bad as it is. In true \u201cmanufacturing consent\u201d fashion, the piece downplayed the US role in destabilizing the Venezuelan economy, and instead pointed to President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s \u201cauthoritarianism\u201d as the primary cause of the crisis.<\/p>\n

\"NYT:<\/p>\n

Online headline for a New York Times<\/strong> report (4\/10\/20<\/a>) on childbirth in Venezuela.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The piece appeared on the Times<\/b>\u2019 front page<\/a> on Saturday. The section of the piece visible on the front page pointed to Maduro as the cause for Venezuela\u2019s healthcare problem, saying the system had been \u201ccrippled by a broken economy overseen by an increasingly authoritarian government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story continued on an inside page, where it finally referenced the US role in creating the desperate conditions. The reporters briefly mentioned that Maduro claimed that US sanctions had some effect, but quickly brushed the claim aside, citing \u201canalysts and critics\u201d who said that Maduro\u2019s charge had \u201conly some weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New York Times<\/strong> image (4\/10\/20<\/a>) of childbirth at a Venezuelan public hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To back this up this dismissal, the authors cited Feliciano Reyna, the founder of a nonprofit known as Action for Solidarity. Reyna blamed the Maduro administration for refusing to accept help from aid organizations. He indicated that despite the sanctions, the country would be able to receive the supplies it needed from those organizations.<\/p>\n

However, a few paragraphs later, the piece stated the government had been attempting to receive help through the Red Cross for nearly a year now, throwing Reyes\u2019 criticism into doubt. The contradiction was not addressed by the reporters, and the doublethink was allowed to go unchallenged, even as the piece acknowledged that the Red Cross has been failing to meet Venezuela\u2019s needs, due to a lack of funds, and quoted Venezuela Red Cross leader Louis Farias, who said that their chapter\u2019s call for help \u201cdidn\u2019t get the backing [they] had hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/b> omitted other statements from the Red Cross organization that shed more light on the role the US has played. Francesco Rocca, president of the International Federation of the Red Cross, stated<\/a> publicly last year that he believed that \u201cpolitical will\u201d was behind the lack of funding for Venezuela. He said that there are some who wanted \u201cto use the civilian population, their desperation, as a tool to destabilize the country.\u201d Rocca pointed out that \u201cit is easier to receive funds for Syria and even for Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the piece, the reporters cited economist Asdr\u00fabal Oliveros, who claimed that \u201cMr. Maduro had simply chosen to prioritize the import of oil and food over medicine.\u201d Oliveros believes the calculus was based on the fact that \u201cpregnant women and sick people don\u2019t protest\u2014but that hungry people do.\u201d No explanation was offered for why it\u2019s Maduro\u2019s fault that his administration has been forced to choose between essential resources for his country.<\/p>\n

The piece merely calls Oliveros \u201cone economist,\u201d failing to disclose that he has been part of the Venezuelan opposition backing would-be president Juan Guaid\u00f3 in an ongoing US-backed coup attempt against Maduro. Oliveros was described by the pro-Guaid\u00f3 publication Americas Quarterly <\/b>(4\/18<\/a>) as one of the \u201c10 People Who Will (One Day) Rebuild Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FRED:<\/p>\n

Infant mortality in Venezuela continued a long-term decline after the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999\u2014<\/b>but began resurging in 2015, the year President Barack Obama first imposed sanctions<\/a> on Venezuela (substantially toughened by Donald Trump in 2017).<\/em><\/p>\n

(Chart: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis<\/a>)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The New York Times<\/b> and other elite media have played an important role<\/a> in mobilizing the US public against the Maduro government. They have highlighted the very real hardships on the ground, while casting blame for them almost exclusively on the \u201cauthoritarian\u201d Maduro government (which, despite media\u2019s constant implications, won an internationally observed election with more than 4 million more votes over the president\u2019s closest rival\u2014FAIR.org<\/b>, 5\/10\/19<\/a>). They consistently downplay the role of US sanctions in contributing to the dire economic situation (FAIR.org<\/b>, 2\/6\/19<\/a>, 6\/26\/19<\/a>, 3\/25\/20<\/a>).<\/p>\n

If the Times <\/b>were concerned about the fate of the women it profiled, and the state of Venezuelan economy, the paper would direct its readers to the sources of instability for which they bear the most responsibility. US sanctions have decimated the Venezuelan economy, as was predicted<\/b><\/a> by analysts when they were first imposed. One 2019 study<\/a> from the Center for Economic Policy Research found that the sanctions had indirectly caused the deaths of 40,000. Portraying Maduro as the sole reason for the country\u2019s crisis is factually incorrect and journalistically irresponsible.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bryce Greene is a student at Indiana University\/Bloomington.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – fair.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times (10 Apr 2020) published an article describing the horrendous shape of the Venezuelan healthcare system. The piece fumbled the most important aspect of the story: how and why the system is as bad as it is. In true \u201cmanufacturing consent\u201d fashion, it downplayed the US role in destabilizing the Venezuelan economy, and instead pointed to President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s \u201cauthoritarianism\u201d as the primary cause of the crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":158737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[867,1126,1050,1678,378,541,559,234,1232,923,99,70,557,126],"class_list":["post-158736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-anglo-america","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-investigative-journalism","tag-journalism","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-maduro","tag-media","tag-new-york-times","tag-sanctions","tag-structural-violence","tag-usa","tag-venezuela","tag-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}