20394: Esser: Mainstream media fails on Haiti coverage (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

March 15, 2004

Phillips: Mainstream media fails on Haiti coverage

By Peter Phillips
MinutemanMedia.org

On Sunday, February 29, 2004, U.S. Department of State's Richard
Boucher released a press release claiming that Jean Bertrand Aristide
had resigned as president of Haiti and that the United States
facilitated his safe departure. Within hours the major broadcast news
stations in the United States, including CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, and
National Public Radio, were reporting that Aristide had fled Haiti.
An Associated Press story that evening said, "Aristide resigns, flees
into exile." The next day headlines in the major newspapers across
the country, including the "Washington Post," "USA Today," "The New
York Times," and "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," all announced
"Aristide Flees Haiti." The "Baltimore Sun" reported, "Haiti's first
democratically-elected president was forced to flee his country
yesterday like despots before him."

However, on the afternoon of February 29, Pacific News Network--with
reporters live in Port-au-Prince--claimed that the United States
forced Aristide to resign and leave the Presidential Palace with the
help of U.S. marines. On Monday morning, Amy Goodman of the
"Democracy Now!" news show interviewed Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Rep. Waters said she had received a phone call from Aristide in which
Aristide emphatically denied that he had resigned and said that he
had been kidnapped by U.S. and French forces. Aristide made calls to
others, including TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson, who verified
Congresswoman Waters' report.

Mainstream corporate media were faced with a dilemma. Confirmed
contradictions to headline reports were being openly revealed to
hundreds of thousands of Pacifica listeners nationwide. By Monday
afternoon, mainstream corporate media began to respond. Tom Brokaw on
that evening's "NBC Nightly News," proclaimed, "Haiti in crisis.
Armed rebels sweep into the capital as Aristide claims U.S. troops
kidnapped him; forced him out. The U.S. calls that nonsense." Fox
News Network with Brit Hume reported Colin Powell's comments: "He was
not kidnapped. We did not force him onto the airplane. He went on to
the airplane willingly, and that's the truth." Mort Kondracke,
executive editor of "Roll Call" said, "Aristide was a thug and a
leader of thugs and ran his country into the ground." "The New York
Times" in a story buried on page 10 reported that "President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide asserted Monday that he had been driven from
power in Haiti by the United States in "a coup," an allegation
dismissed by the White House as "complete nonsense."

Mainstream news media had a credibility problem. Their original story
was openly contradicted. The kidnap story could be ignored or
back-paged as was done by many newspapers in the United States. Or it
can be framed within the context of a U.S. denial and dismissed.
Unfortunately, corporate media seem not at all interested in
conducting an investigation, seeking witnesses, or verifying
contradictions. Nor are they asking or answering the question of why
they fully accepted the State Department's version of the coup in the
first place. Corporate media certainly had enough warning to
determine that Aristide was not going to willingly leave the country.
He had been saying exactly that for the past month. Indeed, he was
interviewed on CNN February 26. He explained that the terrorists and
criminal drug dealers were former members of the FRAPH, which had led
the 1991 coup, killing 5,000 people. Aristide believed that they
would kill more people if another coup were allowed to happen. It was
also well known in media circles that the U.S. Undersecretary of
State for Latin America, Roger Noriega, had been a senior aide to
former Senator Jesse Helms, who as chairman of the Senate Foreign
Affairs committee was a longtime backer of Haitian dictator Jean
Claude Duvalier--and an opponent of Aristide. These facts alone
should have been a red flag regarding the State Department's version
of events.

As a former priest and liberation theologian, Jean Bertrand Aristide
stood for grassroots democracy, alleviation of poverty, and God's
love for all human beings. He challenged the neo-liberal
globalization efforts of the Haitian upper class and its U.S.
partners. For this he was targeted by the Bush administration. That
the United States waited until the day after Aristide was gone to
send in troops to stabilize the country proves intent to remove him
from office.

Mainstream media had every reason to question the State Department's
version of the coup in Haiti, but chose instead to report a highly
doubtful cover story. We deserve more from our media; they should be
more than mere stenographers for the government. Weapons of mass
destruction aside, we need media that look for the truth and expose
the contradictions in the fabrications of the powerful.

Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University
and director of Project Censored (www.projectcensored.org), a media
research organization.

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