• southerntofu
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    3 years ago

    Did anyone care when the west sponsored a coup in Bolivia, which is mostly Christian? Did they cry blonde blue eyes Yugoslavians when they bombed Yugoslavia? Did they not paint the IRA (Irish Republican Guard) as terrorists for seeking liberation?

    Latin America by western standards is not white and not western, so selective empathy applies here. Also, most Europeans know close to nothing about Latin America (it’s really far away geographically and culturally), only Americans talk about it and the information they get is neo-colonial propaganda from USA. But yes we shed tears for Yugoslavia, had intense media coverage and worldwide demos like we have today (don’t you remember?). Likewise for Ireland, are you saying “Bloody Sunday” never became a thing in the West? Please don’t rewrite history

    If it agrees with Western agenda, then good. If it doesn’t, bad.

    Of course, it’s important to understand that the specific framing imposed by editors will be aligned with their political inclinations (and that of their owners), but it’s not as binary as it sounds. Editors/owners are not a unified ideological block. Which is not to say that censorship or self-censorship don’t exist in the Global North (of course it does), but not all media is controlled by the intelligentsia, and even newspapers owned by big commercial interests can defy the State narrative: that’s how The Intercept was founded with billionaire money, and that’s how today a lot (though a minority) are supportive of Putin.

    Just look at medis coverage on Yemen. That tells you all you need to know.

    It’s quasi-non-existent. But the little i’ve seen in western media, for example when reports surfaced about european weaponry in use over there, was an honest depiction. I don’t doubt there’s a fair share of propaganda on this front too, but if you care to look at actual media instead of how they’re depicted by 3rd parties serving their own narrative, you’ll notice the situation is more nuanced. Just like in western Europe we never hear about the plurality of media in Russia: it’s all presented as a unified block… until the government searches/arrests/murders journalists because they were not aligned with the government.

    There are people fighting for truth and justice beyond borders. I’m not saying the media landscape is fair and balanced (strongly recommend acrimed.org in the French-speaking world), but there’s not exactly an on/off switch where the government dictates what you must say (although there can be legal consequences for not aligning with the government, as in almost any country).