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FWD: recent postings on the EZLN from Narco News
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Sunkmanitu tanka Isnala Najin
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Sep 13, 2003 06:38 PDT
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September 12, 2003
Please Distribute Widely
Dear Colleague,
Last month's Zapatista gathering in Oventik, Chiapas, was widely
reported on
Narco News. But what kind of reporting did English-language readers of
the
Commercial Press receive?
Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholar Annalena Oeffner files her
first
report today: a thorough and methodical analysis of the coverage by
Reuters,
AP, BBC, AFP, and major English-language dailies of the Zapatista
meeting
and finds much simulation and superficial reporting - as well as
various
instances where reporters got the story dead wrong - despite already
published info to the contrary of their claims, almost always offered
with a
pro-government spin. Oeffner names names and, where possible, links to
the
original reports she critiques:
Getting the Story Wrong: The Press and the Zapatistas
An Analysis of English-Language Media Coverage of Last Month’s EZLN
Gathering
By Annalena Oeffner
Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholar
http://www.narconews.com/
This week, as the Commercial Media similarly botches the coverage of
the
World Trade Organization meeting and protests in Cancún, we remind the
Commercial Correspondents that Narco News is here, not only with eyes
and
ears on the ground in Cancún, but also monitoring how individual
correspondents do (and don't do) their jobs accurately and truthfully.
(Even
in some cases of the "alternative press" - such as Marc Cooper's
ridiculous
and sloppy screed from Cancún this week in The Nation - fact-checkers
are
having a field day.)
(For folks who read Spanish, we are proud to recommend the unique and
accurate Full Coverage offered by our friends at the daily Por Esto! -
http://www.poresto.net/ - the most widely-read daily in the Cancun
region,
which, again, sets the Gold Standard for authentic reporting from a
major
news event.)
ANOTHER NOTE ABOUT CANCUN: If you, or anyone you know, were denied a
visa to
attend the World Trade Organization meeting this week in Mexico, please
contact Luis Gómez at luisg-@narconews.com and give him the details
for
an upcoming report.
From somewhere in a country called América,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
narco-@hotmail.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Colleagues,
In her astute column in today's La Jornada of Mexico City, Raquel
Gutiérrez
Aguilar analyzes the rapid-fire changes underway in Ecuador's political
landscape - now that President Lucio Gutiérrez has sold out to
Washington,
abandoning the social and indigenous movements that brought him to
power -
and points to some possible paths for Ecuador's movement that could be
illuminated... from the Zapatista "caracoles" of the Mexican Southeast:
http://www.narconews.com/
We thought this "think piece" was so important to understand the
unstable
political situation in Ecuador, and its potential solutions, that we've
translated it for our readers in English, along with a link to the
original
column in La Jornada.
The column continues the educational process initiated at last
February's
Narco News School of Authentic Journalism by Gutiérrez Aguilar with a
simple
question that has sparked, and continues to provoke, much overdue
discussion
and thought: "What Is Democracy?"
From somewhere in a country called América,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dear Colleagues,
It is healthy to return, regularly, from where we came.
As longtime Narco News readers know, the Authentic Journalism
renaissance
began, for us, years ago, in the highlands of Mexico's southernmost and
poorest state of Chiapas, where a new way to fight and change history
has
been invented and refined from below... where we have never had
anything to
teach, but everything to learn...
There - coincidentally, in the lands where the oldest form of writing
in
América, if not the earth, was invented - is where it was suggested to
us
that our disillusion with "journalism" (mainstream and "alternative," a
term
that continues to make us want to gag) need not be a barrier, but,
rather,
an opportunity, to reinvent journalism - just as the Zapatistas
reinvented
revolution - by going back to the radical roots of the matter.
We've published plenty over the years about what this has to do with
the
US-imposed "war on drugs" and the burgeoning social movements that now
challenge Washington from the outside-in... Authentic democracy...
authentic
journalism... that is to say: from the bottom, up... from below...
We publish, today, the most recent communiqués, "from somewhere in the
mountains of the Mexican Southeast," for those readers who want to
reach
deeper... for those who want to understand not just what is wrong, not
just
what should be and is condemned by authentic human beings everywhere,
but
especially for those who want to WIN in the fight against impositions
from
above.
The communiqués we publish today provide, we humbly suggest, a roadmap.
So often, the professional cynics say, "Okay, we know what you are
against,
but what is your program? What are you in favor of?"
We, here in the Narco Newsroom - now conducting our Second Session of
the
Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, "from somewhere in a country
called América," with scholars from the various continents
participating -
believe that the indigenous zapatista movement of Mexico has provided
all
social movements with keys to unraveling the current global tyranny,
including, but not limited to, ending the tyrannical "war on drugs."
Yet, it's hard to pull "issues" apart. And this is the bankruptcy of
"single
issue groups." One evil cannot be defeated without dismantling its
underpinnings and foundations. We appreciate that our ever-growing
readership (that's you) has been willing, over such a long tract of
time, to
challenge your (our) own preconceptions and dig, really dig, and look,
with
eyes (and minds) wide open, and assumptions cast by the wayside, at the
reality (a tyranny, really) that we all live, and to seek the effective
methods by which to change it.
Thus, in the coming days, the expanded (!!!!) Narco News Team will be
offering FULL COVERAGE of the immediate history underway from Chiapas,
Mexico.
http://www.narconews.com/
Or, if you prefer, a special page dedicated to this importantísimo news
story:
http://www.narconews.com/docs/zapatistas2003.html
So, okay... In stark contrast from the February session of the Narco
News
School of Authentic Journalism, where we introduced our scholars to you
in
advance, we will introduce you to our auténticos y auténticas AFTER the
news
is reported... because, first, we've got to get through whatever
roadblocks
and impediments Power places in the way to report to you the authentic
news.
The bottom line: School, like rebellion, is now in session.
Stay tuned.
And, please consider, that careful study of the news and communiqués we
publish beginning today - no matter how far or near you consider
yourself to
the revolutionary current underway in Mexico - may be vital to your
effectiveness at whatever cause or struggle you advocate.
These are not times to play around, to be diletantes, to be
desk-warriors,
to seek "funding first," to beg permission before acting, or to take
the
easy paths... This is a time when, if you and me and others do not act
with
precision and strategy, we will invite the annihilation of all that is
worthy and good about human beings and our world, of everything that
authentic human beings believe in.
http://www.narconews.com/
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