Friday, September 18, 2009

NPR Rediscovers Honduras and Gets a Big, Feisty, Grandfather of a Man

In spite of NPR's magical map of Central America, they do know where Honduras is - and, like Lanny cha-ching Davis, they certainly know how to spread all the coup government's talking points. The report on Wednesday's ATC was purportedly meant to illustrate the economic toll that sanctions against the coup regime are having in Honduras, but after a cursory look at that, NPR's Jason Beaubien features a glowing assessment of the coup president and claims, contrary to fact, that the failure to resolve the crisis in Honduras is the fault of both the coup government and the ousted Zelaya government.

Here's Beaubien introducing Mr. Coup himself, Micheletti:
"The de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, is a big, feisty, grandfather of a man with a crushing handshake."
And here's Beaubien summing up Grandpa's explanation for being a coup tyrant:
"Micheletti insists that this was not a coup because Zelaya had violated the constitution. Micheletti was next in line to the presidency and he was quickly sworn into office. He says Zelaya was being controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was plotting to impose a communist dictatorship in Honduras."
No factual attention is paid to these outright lies - debunked here and here. Instead Beaubien counters them with the standard, lazy "he said - she said" relativism: "Zelaya denies this." In fact that's the extent of the "other side" that NPR gives in this piece. That may be all we hear from opponents of the coup regime, but Beaubien is not about to deprive Grandpa his microphone. Micheletti gets quite a bit of airtime to make these laughable claims:
"The Zelaya people, they are our brother, our sisters, you know. We love them. But we're going to let them to rule this country because they believe in communist and we are not. We are democratic people and we're going to sustain our democracy."
Finally Beaubien just makes up the idea that "both sides" are to blame for the conflict dragging on:
"...the Zelaya and the Micheletti camps. Two groups that appear unable to reach common ground....in every social conflict, eventually the parties come to a point where they sit down and work out their differences. The problem in Honduras...the parties aren't yet ready to do that."
This last claim is simply a lie, since the Zelaya camp agreed to the proposals for resolving the conflict as set out by Arias over the summer. Something NPR conveniently failed to report on back when it happened.

Beaubien's piece may be a mish-mash of distortions and outright lies, but he can take consolation in the fact that Grandpa will be very proud of him.

11 comments:

WarOnWarOff said...

But we're going to let them to rule this country because they believe in communist and we are not.

This reads like self-parody, or perhaps something out of Woody Allen's "Bananas."

"We want to be free, like the birds in the trees!"

Anonymous said...

"The de facto president, Roberto Micheletti, is a big, feisty, grandfather of a man with a crushing handshake."

I'm sure he would have said that about Fidel Castro when he seized power as well.

Recently, NPR's "news' reporting has gone from the ridiculous to the silly to the absurd.

Must be CEO Vivian Schiller's influence.

And I thought "Voice of the Amerika" Kevin Klose was bad.

Porter Melmoth said...

Speaking of Woody's 'Bananas', I wouldn't be surprised if NPR will still be impressed with feisty Gramps when he orders the national language to be changed to Swedish.

larry, dfh said...

Wow, just wow! Alan dulles as Grandpa. Who's the brilliant (c.i.a.) npr writer who came up with that? What's next, berlusconi as a viagra-addled Santa Claus? Talk about
psy-ops!

gopalop said...

I've heard NPR
On both sides now
How true is false
And false is true
From Humpty's walls
I've taken falls
I really don't know NPR at all

Porter Melmoth said...

Gope, that blasphemous, seditious doggerel is enough to get you banned from this blog! We're all good little Googlers now...

b~p~f~b~ said...

Ummm, She-Male 'Bovian'... yer man-crush is showin'

(not that there's anything wrong with that...)

gopi said...

Port -

Seems the great google in the sky has scuttled my official status. They said I had to verify my ID by leaving a cell number to which they could send a special validation number. I don't have a cell, but my daughter does - and then the validation code didn't work...twice. Not that I care much for official status, it just seems a tad more polite than anonymous.

Maybe it's the satanic verses than put me out to pasture.

goet said...

How about another suppliant couplet for the cloying confectionaries in the crowd?

I've heard NPR
On both sides now
How right is right
And left is wrong
...and on and on...

Porter Melmoth said...

goet, et al:

We've got to get Stephen Sondheim on the phone! Your lyrics would make a terrific new Broadway show!

(As I'm sure you're aware, 'gopi' has an illustrious association. The gopis were the admiring maidens who attended/worshiped Lord Krishna.)

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