Compare Corporate Media’s Reporting on Ferguson as Opposed to Venezuela

CORPORATE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE FERGUSON, MISSOURI PROTESTS: Nothing like its reporting on the alleged violation of human rights in Venezuela in the face of rampant violence including the killing of ten security forces earlier this year.

 Take the tear-jerking article in today’s New York Times (Nov. 28) on a white cop being embraced by an African-American protester, titled “In Ferguson, Officer Defused Eruptions as Crowds Grew Tense.” The article reads:

“A teenage protester whose face had been hidden behind a ski mask lowered his headgear, approached a police commander and gave him a hug.

“Good to see you, man,” the commander, Lt. Jerry Lohr of the St. Louis County Police, said to the teenager, Joshua Williams. ‘How’ve you been? How’s your mom doing? I saw her out here earlier.’”

Nothing about the police repression that Amy Goodman who was present in Ferguson describes in her “Democracy Now” program. According to Goodman, on Monday night after the announcement of the Grand Jury acquittal verdict, police allowed demonstrates to engage in violence including the destruction of property in the African-American sector of Ferguson, while protecting the more affluent predominantly white area. That set the stage for a massive deployment of over 2000 national guardsmen in the St. Louis area on the following days. Nevertheless, as protests spread throughout the U.S., the corporate media on the third day (Thursday), began to play down the news item. Compare that with the continuous reporting of CNN and the rest of the corporate media throughout the three-months of violence in Venezuela beginning in February with the aim of overthrowing the government of Nicolas Maduro. That coverage attempted to demonstrate flagrant violation of human rights which was highly exaggerated, and in some cases concocted. Is this what the corporate media calls “balanced reporting”?