NYT’s exposé on the lies about burning aid trucks in Venezuela shows how US government and media spread pro-war propaganda
Every
major U.S. war of the last several decades has begun the same way:
the U.S. government fabricates an inflammatory, emotionally
provocative lie which large U.S. media outlets uncritically treat as
truth while refusing at air questioning or dissent, thus inflaming
primal anger against the country the U.S. wants to attack.
That’s
how we got the Vietnam War (North Vietnam attacks U.S. ships in the
Gulf of Tonkin); the Gulf War (Saddam ripped babies from incubators);
and, of course, the war in Iraq (Saddam had WMDs and formed an
alliance with Al Qaeda).
This was
exactly the tactic used on February 23, when the narrative shifted
radically in favor of those U.S. officials who want regime change
operations in Venezuela. That’s because images were broadcast all
over the world of trucks carrying humanitarian aid burning in
Colombia on the Venezuela border.
U.S.
officials who have been agitating for a regime change war in
Venezuela – Marco Rubio, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, the head of
USAid Mark Green – used Twitter to spread classic Fake News: they
vehemently stated that the trucks were set on fire, on purpose, by
President Nicolas Maduro’s forces.
As it
always does – as it always has done from its inception when Wolf
Blitzer embedded with U.S. troops – CNN led the way in not just
spreading these government lies but independently purporting to vouch
for their truth.
On
February 24, CNN told the world what we all now know is an absolute
lie: that “a CNN team saw incendiary devices from police on the
Venezuelan side of the border ignite the trucks,” though it
generously added that “the network’s journalists are unsure if
the trucks were burned on purpose.”
Other
media outlets endorsed the lie while at least avoiding what CNN did
by personally vouching for it. “Humanitarian aid destined for
Venezuela was set on fire, seemingly by troops loyal to Mr Maduro,”
The Telegraph claimed. The BBC uncritically printed: “There
have also been reports of several aid trucks being burned –
something Mr Guaidó said was a violation of the Geneva Convention.”
That lie
– supported by incredibly powerful video images – changed
everything. Ever since, that Maduro burned trucks filled with
humanitarian aid was repeated over and over as proven fact on U.S.
news outlets. Immediately after it was claimed, politicians who had
been silent on the issue of Venezuela or even reluctant to support
regime change began issuing statements now supportive of it. U.S.
news stars and think tank luminaries who lack even a single critical
brain cell when it comes to war-provoking claims from U.S. officials
took a leading role in beating the war drums without spending even a
single second to ask whether what they were being told were true
[...]
But on
Saturday night, the New York Times published a detailed video
and accompanying article proving that this entire story was a lie.
The humanitarian trucks were not set on fire by Maduro’s forces.
They were set on fire by anti-Maduro protesters who threw a molotov
cocktail that hit one of the trucks. And the NYT’s video traces how
the lie spread: from U.S. officials who baselessly announced that
Maduro burned them to media outlets that mindlessly repeated the lie.
Full
report:
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