Mack: NY Times report on Honduras is false

Connie Mack, US Congressman
Photo: Wikipedia

I've gotten a lot of email about the July 29 New York Times article by Ginger Thompson entitled "Honduran Leader Backs Return of President". The article surprisingly stated:

The head of Honduras’s de facto government, Roberto Micheletti, has expressed support for a compromise that would allow the ousted president of his country to return to power, according to officials in the de facto government and diplomats from the region.

Later in the article she states:

The officials requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations.

(The emphasis is mine.)

The following is a press release from Congressman Connie Mack declaring that the above New York Times article is false and even goes so far as to say that the story is fabricated:

Congressman Connie Mack's Press Office
Jul 30 2009

Mack: New York Times Report on Honduras is False

Micheletti tells Mack there’s no deal

WASHINGTON – Congressman Connie Mack (FL-14), the Ranking Republican of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, tonight stated strongly that the report in today’s New York Times is utterly untrue, and is deeply concerned that the Obama Administration appears to be siding with Hugo Chavez against the people of Honduras.

Today’s New York Times asserted that Honduran President Roberto Micheletti is working on a deal to bring former President Manuel Zelaya back to power.

Mack said:

“I spoke to President Micheletti today by telephone. The New York Times story is utterly untrue and there is no deal to bring Manuel Zelaya back to power. The people of Honduras do not want and will not accept Zelaya’s return.

“Zelaya was removed from the presidency through a legal process established by the Honduran Constitution. He was voted out of office by the Honduran National Congress. The Honduran Supreme Court ordered Zelaya’s arrest. This was not a coup. This is a matter of Honduran law and sovereignty.

“The ones supporting the ousted President include Hugo Chavez and other leftist dictators in Latin America.

“The Obama Administration’s position is appalling. They are siding with the forces of evil against the forces of freedom. They are involving themselves in the internal politics of a sovereign nation. It is wrong and must be stopped.

“Furthermore, I am outraged that the Obama Administration pulled the visas of Honduran officials who didn’t agree with the Administration’s policies, and threatened to pull more. They are retaliating against Honduran judges and Members of Congress for taking positions against Hugo Chavez and other leftists in Latin America.

“Manuel Zelaya broke the law. The New York Times story is inaccurate and fabricated.”

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Wow! When the New York Times publishes fabricated information, who can you believe? Something interesting is that Ginger Thompson is the same author who was involved in the other false report I wrote about in "Massaging the facts" two days ago. Could it be that this reporter has an agenda, which doesn't necessary include reporting the facts or does she just have a problem understanding Spanish?

Followup: More misreporting from the NY Times

More misreporting from the New York Times

After the last article in which Congressman Connie Mack declared that a New York Times article was fabricated, I looked over author Ginger Thompson's past articles on Honduras. I saw that she also claims that Micheletti's representatives were to blame for the failure of the talks, which is exactly opposite of what happened.

I saw the whole press conference from beginning to end, including Arias' entire speech, Mauricio Villeda's response, and Rixi Moncada's response, all in full, which I'm sure is more than most of you saw in the USA.



I wasn't able to find a video with the complete press conference, which was around an hour in length, but the above video translates part of it. Interestingly, this video did not include Rixi Moncada's concluding comment.

Mauricio Villeda, spokesperson for the government of Honduras, clearly stated that he would respectfully present the proposal to the responsible sectors of the Honduras government, "because in Honduras there is separation of powers, independent and complimentary".

He also pointed out that he takes the talks very seriously and personally because his own father was a president of Honduras who was overthrown by a bloody military coup in which the military did assume the powers of the state, the constitution was thrown out, and in which many people had to live in exile in Costa Rica, a situation which he stated emphatically has not occurred in Honduras in this case.

In contrast, Rixi Moncada, spokesperson for Zelaya's team, clearly and definitely declared the talks "a failure" and called for increased coercive action on the part of the UN and international community.




Here is a 20 second clip from her speech which was not shown in the previous video. The text at the beginning says: "Uncompromising and arrogant". Rixi Moncada states: "In conclusion, the mediation dialogue is exhausted. That for us, the proposal presented now, as the San José proposal, has failed." At the end, the text is translated as, "Honduras continues firm".

Related articles:

Mack: NY Times report on Honduras is false

Massaging the facts

Where does the news come from?

Reader Roy, who I believe is from Venezuela, left this very interesting comment documenting media manipulation and the 'Chávez Media Machine'. It is a perfect example of how you need to you know who wrote your news and where it came from.

Comment from Roy:

Here is another example of media manipulation...

From Yahoo: "CDA to U.S. Policymakers: Don't Ratify Honduras Elections as 'Free and Fair'"

You can find it in this link (currently second from the top) on the Yahoo News search for "Elections Honduras":

Yahoo news search

This article is not "news" in the sense that it is reporting what is happening or has happened in Honduras. What it is reporting is an OPINION issued by an organization called the Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA). Yahoo got this piece from PR Newswire. If you go to this organization's website at

PR Newswire

You will see that their business is not reporting news, but in collecting "news" from other organizations and selling the "feed" to other media sources. Following is a quote from their web page: "Leverage our experienced, Washington, D.C.-based Public Interest editorial team that specializes in handling news copy from nonprofit, government, association, advocacy and other Public Interest newsmakers worldwide."

Now, let us look at the original source of the article from the CDA. Go to:

Democracy in Americas

When you look at and read their website, it is an extremely biased mouthpiece for ALBA, Chavez, and his regional political agenda. Note the following quote: "The Center for Democracy in the Americas has country programs for Cuba, Venezuela, and Chile. But its work embraces issues facing U.S. policy toward the region more broadly.

THIS is the original source of what appears to be a legitimate news article published by Yahoo. This is the power of the Chavez Media Machine. It can utilize the mechanisms of the media business to create such an avalanche of "news" and opinion favorable to his agenda that people read it and simply assume that since "everyone" thinks that way, they should as well. This is a highly advanced version of Goebbels "Big Lie" propaganda tool.

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I know that some may think that we are conspiracy theorists and that the news that they read is 'pure' and that CNN is (as they tell us) the most unbiased place to get your news. I think that most who have been in Honduras or have contacts here on the ground have had their beliefs about the media rocked to core. We've not only seen the bias or spin in major media sources but we've seen outright false information reported as fact.

Part of the misinformation may be laziness and the fact that initially and through much of the past 5 months, most news sources did not have anyone on the ground here in Honduras. CNN (Español) cannot claim that excuse as they did have someone on the ground − interestingly a reporter with Sandista and Daniel Ortega ties. Most of the other Honduran coverage came from Telesur, a Venezuelan television station completely controlled by Hugo Chávez. Telesur was caught staging a video of "military repression". CNN did their share of staging and misrepresenting protests, including not covering the much larger pro-government protests.

People need to know where their news is coming from to understand what is going on. I've looked up some of the AP and Reuters "journalists" and in some cases found that they have written other strongly pro-Chavez articles. I've written articles dissecting Ginger Thompson's NY Times articles and the some of the information that she has written was just false, even if you disregard her personal spin. Let me add that I had nothing against the author or the NY Times. It is just one example of many. It is scary and those who believe that we are conspiracy theorists are naive.