NACLA Update: Media Activism on Venezuela Coverage

Dear NACLA friends,

Thanks to readers’ responses following Keane Bhatt’s recent NACLA posts on The New Yorker’s coverage of Venezuela, the magazine has amended two errors in two separate articles. Keane’s first story exposed Jon Lee Anderson’s inaccurate assertion that  “Venezuela leads Latin America in homicides.” The New Yorker later corrected the error in an addendum, which correctly pointed out that both Honduras and El Salvador have higher homicide rates than Venezuela.

Another Jon Lee Anderson story, Slumlord: What has Hugo Chávez wrought in Venezuela, that appeared in the New Yorker on January 28, asserted that Chavez came to power through a coup, instead of describing the factually correct way he became president—through a democratic election. Following Keane’s coverage of this inconsistency, the New Yorker released a correction on April 1.

However, despite Keane’s most recent post and personal correspondence with fact checkers and editors at The New Yorker, the magazine has refused to correct yet another one of Jon Lee Anderson’s misrepresentations of Venezuela, which he calls “one of the world’s most oil-rich but socially unequal countries.” To find out more about this error, read Keane's latest piece.

Keane’s chronicling of these errors has garnered attention on social media from such people as Damien Cave, The New York Times correspondent on Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

It has also been covered throughout the blogosphere, from news outlets like Counterspin, and has reached tens of thousands of readers through NACLA's website alone.

Keane encourages readers to contact The New Yorker editors online, by email, or on Twitter. Such media activism plays a crucial role in engendering more careful portrayals of countries like Venezuela, which has long been the target of cartoonishly hostile, slanted, and outright false media coverage.  More importantly, the magazine now faces a real political cost to publishing sloppy reporting, as well as a powerful deterrent to running reckless news and commentary during a politically significant transitional moment for Venezuela.
 

NACLA is looking for interns!

Archival/Administrative Intern
Assist the director and administrative staff with organization of NACLA's archival materials and other day-to-day administrative duties. Tasks include: sorting through archive of NACLA materials (including back issues, photos, documents); cataloguing and organizing materials; organizing our storage space; tagging archival material on our website. Strong organizational skills and a willingness to handle a variety of projects is required.
To apply: Send cover letter and résumé to anila(@)nacla.org. No calls please.

Events Intern
Assist the director and staff to plan NACLA events, including issue launch parties, fundraising campaigns, lectures, etc. Tasks include: researching and booking rental spaces, food vendors, equipment; preparing budgets; outreach to partners to promote events; coordinating list management; working at events to ensure everything goes smoothly. Strong organizational and event planning skills and an ability to multitask is required.
To apply: Send cover letter and résumé to anila(@)nacla.org. No calls please.