To the Left, “power grab” means “reform”
Posted December 2nd, 2007 at 9:27 PM by Jon HamThe changes that were, ahem, “voted in” in Venezuela were termed “reforms” by the lefty headline writers at the BBC. Power Line’s John Hinderaker can’t believe it:
I was startled by this headline on the BBC site: “Voting ends on Venezuela reforms.” At first I thought it was careless usage by a headline writer. But no: the BBC’s second sentence reads:
The raft of reforms would see the end of presidential term limits and the Central Bank’s autonomy removed.
Nor is that all; the BBC calls Hugo Chavez’s grab for unconstrained power a “reform” no fewer than four times, and describes Chavez’s opponents as “anti-reform.”
George Orwell said Newspeak’s goal was to remove from the language words for inconvenient concepts, thus eliminating those concepts. Looks like we’re on our way, with the help of the media, of course.
UPDATE: Those “reforms” have been defeated. Good for the Venezuelan people. Now it will be interesting to see how Hugo reacts. Early stories yesterday predicted a win for Chavez (or at least a close enough result that he could rig the outcome), which is why I used the phrase “voted in” yesterday. Sorry for jumping the gun. TigerHawk thinks King Juan Carlos of Spain may have had a hand in it.
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I think it is probably true of any dishonest regime (especially those of an authoritarian or totalitarian inclination), that it tries to frame the things it wants in terms which sound desirable or at worst harmless, and vice-versa. Here in the US, we have certain groups unashamedly advocating a “strong (or supreme) executive” with “plenary” powers. You wouldn’t think people would fall for this stuff, but I guess Orwell lived in vain. ( Thanks, mainstream media.
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December 2nd, 2007 at 10:25 pm
P.S. a smiley was *not* the emoticon I was going for… it was supposed to be : – P, face with a tongue sticking out.
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Woozle, you completely missed my point and made it at the same time. The “dishonest regime” that termed a blatant power grab as reforms was not Chavez’s, it was the British Broadcasting System’s. But thanks for pointing out their true colors.
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:43 pm
Get ready for a mass exodus of Venezuelans to the US and certain Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, maybe Mexico). The vote today in Venezuela just made it Cuba, version 2.0.
And yeah, anyone who calls a change like removing term limits so that someone can become President-For-Life should never, ever be allowed to report on anything again.
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Should have said anyone who calls a change like that “reform” should never be allowed near a typewriter again.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:13 am
I’m guessing that news of the defeat of the “reforms” in Venezuela will be taken poorly by certain leftist members of the media.
Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of wealthier Venezuelans leave now, before the next vote can be more thoroughly rigged by Chavez. He’s in office until 2012, so plenty of time for him to get it set up.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:23 am
4 comments in a row from me now (geez!):
Regarding King Juan Carlos’ telling Chavez to “just shut up” and whether it had an impact on the Venezuelan electorate: You’re assuming that the Venezuelan state-run media actually offered any coverage of that story. Sure, some Venezuelans no doubt knew about it, but do we really know if the state TV station actually reported that their dear leader had been told to put a sock in it by the King of Spain?
From the TV coverage I saw on this last night, it looks like it really boiled down to the “haves” voting to keep things the way they are, and the “have nots” voting to turn Chavez into a de facto king because he gives away the wealth of the country. A lot of “haves” were willing to vote for Chavez to be President so far, but when it turned into the situation of President-For-Life, they balked.
Until Chavez is out of office in 2012, I’d be wary of another attempt on his part to become the next Fidel Castro. Venezuelans should be particularly wary of this and start taking steps to protect themselves.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
(Belated response; still learning my way around this site…) I’m not sure I missed your point, as I agree with your follow-up (as I understand it, anyway). I see now that you were emphasizing the dishonesty of the *press* in reporting events, rather than the honesty (or dishonesty) of the *regime* causing those events, and I agree that it was rather odd, at best, of the BBC to be giving a neutral-to-positive spin to what you accurately describe as a power-grab. Given that Europe has been having trouble lately with being overly tolerant of intolerant behavior (Islamofascism), as aided and abetted by power-monger politicians calling themselves liberals (or at least spewing out liberal buzzwords as justification), I unfortunately don’t find this very surprising.
My return point about the US still stands, however; our domestic mainstream media are every bit as guilty of putting a positive spin on (or, more often, completely ignoring) similar activities on the part of Our Favorite Decider, at least until quite recently (and they’re only just scratching the surface even now). I suppose it’s more understandable that they might do this, however, being more heavily under the influence of the government in question; BBC’s inability to be objective about a remote *foreign* government is rather more inexplicable.