CARACAS, Venezuela — The first thing I noticed, after we’d swatted through the horde of zealous taxi drivers at the airport and were on the road into town, was the endless stream of political slogans and pro-Chavez campaign posters lining the autopista. Speeding past the mountain-side barrios that surround Caracas late last night, the one that grabbed my attention most read, in Spanish: “Vote Against The Devil. Vote Against Imperialism. Vote For Chavez.” No doubt, the president’s backers are in full campaign mode. That’s why it came as something of a surprise Sunday to learn that Chavez has temporarily suspended [...]
With the advent of a blog-style Web site called “For the Record,” the U.S. Department of Defense has gotten into the business of fact-checking journalists. It’s only the latest example of how the Internet is usurping the monopoly traditional media outlets have on providing information to the public. Governments more and more are attempting to use the Internet to bypass press channels and provide information direct to their constituents. Given the importance of perception and the “battle of ideas” to warfare, it’s not surprising that in the U.S. government, DOD has been a pioneer in this kind of thing. Witness, [...]
World Politics Review International News Editor Guy Taylor embarked on a reporting trip to Venezuela (funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting) this morning. Over the next six weeks, Guy will be writing the occassional post from Venezuela in this space. But unfortunately, this also means he won’t be writing our regular Commentary Week in Review column. Until he returns, we offer a stripped-down version here. So let’s get to it. Perusing our Media Roundup Archives, four main themes emerge from this week’s opinion pages: Iraq, North Korea, Muslim integration in Europe, and Russian foreign and domestic policy. The [...]
