"I watched the January 3 rd nightly coverage on CBS and NBC of the U.S. assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and what I witnessed was not journalism but the choreography of propaganda. CBS, in particular, offered thirty uninterrupted minutes of state-sanctioned fantasy, anchored by a fawning interview with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a man implicated in the killing of more than one hundred people at sea without evidence, accountability, or due process."
"Rather than interrogating power, the networks shifted seamlessly into spectacle. At no point did either network raise t he most basic questions of legality, sovereignty, or international law. Instead, both newscasts trafficked in images of people dancing in the streets, staging public jubilation around what was, in fact, a spectacularized violation of both international and domestic law. Repressive imperial power has become visceral and ocular."
Television networks presented the January 3 U.S. special operation in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro as celebratory spectacle instead of interrogating legality or sovereignty. CBS devoted prolonged airtime to uncritical, state-aligned commentary, including a flattering interview with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Networks failed to raise basic questions of international law, domestic legality, or accountability for reports of extrajudicial killings. Broadcasts emphasized images of public jubilation, normalizing and aestheticizing violence. State terrorism became represented as legitimate power through media spectacle, producing a pedagogical effect that trains viewers to accept domination and colonial force as normal.
Read at Truthout
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]