FOURTH ESTATE / FIFTH COLUMN DEPT.
Seems the Associated Press is not the only big wire service to go Big Brother with Cold War propaganda; that is, they are not the only wire service to suddenly emerge on your news feed peddling full-out disembodied mis-informative Truthiness, emotionally cued to deceive you into supporting a right-wing political line that you don’t really support. All the corporations, lately, seem to have learned this from Trump: that citizens don’t know what the rules are; they only believe what the winners are shouting at them RIGHT NOW. Thus, goes the logic now playing out, just declare yourself the winner and then make your own reality. Anyway, now it’s Reuters who is guilty of the following puff-piece for Cold War Latin American banana fascism:
https://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-opposition-concludes-popular-consultation-222116187.html
Remember Juan Guiado, the hand-picked U.S./U.K./OAS neoliberal corporatist wannabe-puppet dictator of Venezuela? He has actually gone through with his own suave idea; no, promise; no, threat; to hold a…rally? opinion poll? telethon? Anyway it’s his “alternative to democracy,” and it was today. He needed an alternative since he’s lost the last several elections and boycotted the most recent one. Guaido can’t very well call himself the Presidente For Life of Venezuela without SOME kind of popular support.The article doesn’t mention the actual results of the — poll? straw count? market survey? I can’t wait to see who wins!
Does this glossy, in-group consultation even count? NO. But this Reuters article make Guaido’s lackeys sound calm and patient, spinning their cool lies as inevitabilities. Nobody bothered to interview any members of the actual, elected, already working, Covid-strapped socialist government of Maduro. Do journalists “forget” to interview government sources on questions of state? NO. So, is this Reuters article even journalism? NO. So why is it on Yahoo’s newsfeed?
Actually the article DOES tell you, somewhere in there, that this is all a meaningless show, implying therefore that the entire premise of their article is meaningless. But this is only after you’ve had to pass several juicy click-bait ads. Truth or lie, they make money. This is not Shinola, it’s shit — and it is all happening worldwide. Trump and Covid somehow enabled the complete journalistic coup of faceless algorithmic aggregators owned by faceless algorithmic billionaire investors. It’s done, accompli. Who can claim to be well-informed today? How is that even to be a virtue anymore? Are there to be virtues anymore?
I annoy my Patient Readership with this only because…well, dammit, America and the World are fucked if we surrender to the corporate news algorithm.
