Post by mk2015 on Feb 7, 2015 19:41:46 GMT
A few days ago, the Telegraph ran a story on socialist-run Venezuela, featured at the top of its front page;
read the rest at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385294/Venezuelas-socialist-paradise-turns-into-a-nightmare-medical-shortages-claim-lives-as-oil-price-collapses.html
The newspaper also ran another Venezuela story, explaining the country's economic woes: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385055/Seven-charts-showing-why-Venezuelas-economy-is-a-basket-case.html
How does the BBC compare? Here's their frontpage of their Latin America section as of 7PM Feb 7th 2015:
The lead story is about Venezuela, but neither the headline or paragraph below it make any reference to the terrible state of the country's economy. The only clue you have here is the picture of people queuing. It's only until you get to the article itself that the reader learns:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-31178692
There's a video that, when clicked on, also makes reference to the shortages, but the title ("Why Venezuela's condoms cost $755") does not make this obvious to people who don't know anything else about what is going on in Venezuela.
The right-hand column shows that the BBC hasn't devoted any features or analysis stories to Venezuela, while a "fictional Twitter fascist" of Argentina apparently merits one.
At the current time, the Venezuelan story appears under the Latin America heading of the BBC front page. But it hasn't been allocated one of the more prominent spots further up.
I'll continue to monitor the BBC's Venezuela coverage, but I get the feeling that the corporation is trying to dodge the issue, especially in comparison to right-wing media like the Telegraph or the Economist.
For Jose Perez, a Venezuelan taxi driver from Caracas, the hardest part about watching his wife die from heart failure was knowing just how easily she could have been saved.
The surgeons at the Caracas University Hospital were ready to operate on 51-year-old Carmen, but because of the shortages of medicines now ravaging Venezuela, they had no stocks of the prosthetic artery that would have saved her life.
For a day, the family enjoyed a glimmer of hope after a nationwide search uncovered one such device, but Carmen needed two and a second one was nowhere to be found. She died two days later.
It is life-and-death stories like these that illustrate the depth of the economic crisis now confronting Venezuela, a crumbling socialist-run petro-state that looks in danger of being tipped over the edge by the crunch in world oil prices.
For Venezuelans like Mr Perez and tens of thousands more awaiting medical treatment around the country, the magic realism of Hugo Chavez’s great Bolivarian socialist revolution has turned to bitter reality less than two years after the former leader’s death from cancer.
“It’s the government who is responsible for my wife’s death, not the doctors,” Mr Perez, 63, told The Telegraph last week. “Things are very bad in this country, and they are getting worse. I feel that we are in a dictatorship. At the start I believed in Chavez, now I can’t look at him. He is in the best place now.”
Mr Chavez might be dead, but as one of Latin America’s most charismatic political performers, he is far from forgotten.
His placid features still stare out from billboards in Caracas, while Venezuelan television still plays his rambling speeches denouncing America, capitalism and the West.
He promised the people the riches of the revolution, and for a while he was able to deliver, thanks to his country being blessed with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
But now, as the people queue at the pharmacy and the supermarket for basic necessities like baby formula, flour, milk and toilet paper, the promises sound like empty boasts.
Even the middle classes, previously insulated from many of the country’s gathering economic woes, are feeling the pinch as poorer people come from the slums and suburbs in search of restricted goods, forming queues in previously upmarket areas.
(...)
The surgeons at the Caracas University Hospital were ready to operate on 51-year-old Carmen, but because of the shortages of medicines now ravaging Venezuela, they had no stocks of the prosthetic artery that would have saved her life.
For a day, the family enjoyed a glimmer of hope after a nationwide search uncovered one such device, but Carmen needed two and a second one was nowhere to be found. She died two days later.
It is life-and-death stories like these that illustrate the depth of the economic crisis now confronting Venezuela, a crumbling socialist-run petro-state that looks in danger of being tipped over the edge by the crunch in world oil prices.
For Venezuelans like Mr Perez and tens of thousands more awaiting medical treatment around the country, the magic realism of Hugo Chavez’s great Bolivarian socialist revolution has turned to bitter reality less than two years after the former leader’s death from cancer.
“It’s the government who is responsible for my wife’s death, not the doctors,” Mr Perez, 63, told The Telegraph last week. “Things are very bad in this country, and they are getting worse. I feel that we are in a dictatorship. At the start I believed in Chavez, now I can’t look at him. He is in the best place now.”
Mr Chavez might be dead, but as one of Latin America’s most charismatic political performers, he is far from forgotten.
His placid features still stare out from billboards in Caracas, while Venezuelan television still plays his rambling speeches denouncing America, capitalism and the West.
He promised the people the riches of the revolution, and for a while he was able to deliver, thanks to his country being blessed with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
But now, as the people queue at the pharmacy and the supermarket for basic necessities like baby formula, flour, milk and toilet paper, the promises sound like empty boasts.
Even the middle classes, previously insulated from many of the country’s gathering economic woes, are feeling the pinch as poorer people come from the slums and suburbs in search of restricted goods, forming queues in previously upmarket areas.
(...)
The newspaper also ran another Venezuela story, explaining the country's economic woes: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385055/Seven-charts-showing-why-Venezuelas-economy-is-a-basket-case.html
How does the BBC compare? Here's their frontpage of their Latin America section as of 7PM Feb 7th 2015:
The lead story is about Venezuela, but neither the headline or paragraph below it make any reference to the terrible state of the country's economy. The only clue you have here is the picture of people queuing. It's only until you get to the article itself that the reader learns:
The Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has ordered the takeover of a private supermarket chain by the state food agency.
Speaking on television, he accused Dia a Dia of hoarding food during huge shortages in the country.
This week, soldiers and government workers were sent to branches of a large supermarket and pharmacy chain to supervise sales.
Venezuela's economy has been heavily affected by the drop in oil prices.
Speaking on television, he accused Dia a Dia of hoarding food during huge shortages in the country.
This week, soldiers and government workers were sent to branches of a large supermarket and pharmacy chain to supervise sales.
Venezuela's economy has been heavily affected by the drop in oil prices.
There's a video that, when clicked on, also makes reference to the shortages, but the title ("Why Venezuela's condoms cost $755") does not make this obvious to people who don't know anything else about what is going on in Venezuela.
The right-hand column shows that the BBC hasn't devoted any features or analysis stories to Venezuela, while a "fictional Twitter fascist" of Argentina apparently merits one.
At the current time, the Venezuelan story appears under the Latin America heading of the BBC front page. But it hasn't been allocated one of the more prominent spots further up.
I'll continue to monitor the BBC's Venezuela coverage, but I get the feeling that the corporation is trying to dodge the issue, especially in comparison to right-wing media like the Telegraph or the Economist.
