4
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
53.
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
53.
Manufacturing Consent - Chomsky
5.
The "main opposition" to the fore
As we saw, in El Salvador and Guatemala, the fact that the insurgents were off the ballot did not faze the U. S. media one bit. Neither did Duarte's acknowledgment in 1981 that "the masses were with the guer- rillas" when he joined the junta a year earlier (which would clearly make them a "main opposition"). 99 Nor were the media affected by the army's murder of the opposition leadership in both El Salvador and Guatemala. In ? 1 Salvador, the exclusion of the rebels was part of the U. S. government's electoral plan; they were, therefore, not a "main opposition," and the debarment and even murder of their leaders did not compromise election quality. In the Nicaraguan case, in sharp contrast, the U. S. government worked with a different frame-the exclusion of its sponsored rebels and any other candidates was a serious matter that threatened the quality of the election. The media followed like good little doggies (lap- rather than watch-).
The central dramatic propaganda line for the Nicaraguan election pressed by U. S. officials was the alleged struggle of Arturo Cruz to induce the Sandinistas to create an open system in which he would be able to compete fairly, the failure of the "Marxists-Leninists" to make adequate concessions, Cruz's refusal to compete, and the subsequent "exclusion" of the "main opposition. " Cruz, however, was a "main opposition" only in the propaganda construct of the U. S. government and mass media. A longtime expatriate (who now concedes that he was
126 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
on the CIA payroll), with no mass base in Nicaragua, Cruz would
almost certainly have done poorly in a free election. lOo There is good
reason to believe that Cruz never intended to run, but that he and his
sponsors had held out this possibility precisely to allow the propaganda 1 frame to be used effectively. IOI
The mass media focused on the Cruz drama heavily and uncritically. ' Cruz was given enormous play: he was continually referred to as the . . . "main opposition" or "leading opponent" of the ruling party (without
any supporting evidence), and his candidacy was made "an acid test of
the Sandinistas' democratic intentions" (Time, Oct. 29, 1984). For the Times, the election would be a "sham" without Cruz (editorial, Oct. 7, 1984), and its news columns placed "main opposition" Cruz on center stage, from which vantage point he could regularly denounce the pro- ceedings as a "farce" or sham. l02 The Times did have one good back- page article that provided evidence that Cruz had not intended to run or would not have been allowed to run by his closest Nicaraguan allies and U. S. officials, and that his function was, as we stated, to discredit
the election by pretending to be interested, thus capturing press atten- tion. 103 But this low-keyed article stood alone and did not alter the unremitting focus on the alleged exclusion of this alleged main opposi- tion as the centerpiece of the Nicaraguan election drama.
In focusing on an alleged "main opposition" in Nicaragua, which voluntarily chose not to run, while ignoring a real main opposition in El Salvador, excluded by force and plan, the mass media simply adopted without question the government's propaganda framework. Sources that would speak to the condition of the "main opposition" in El Salvador and the significance ofits exclusion-both Salvadorans and foreign observers-were simply ignored. I04 In the case of the Nicara- guan election, in contrast, Cruz and U. S. government officials were given the floor to present their themes, which were transmitted on a daily basis with no accompanying notice of their possible falsity and manipulative intent, in perfect accord with the expectations of a propa-
ganda model.
The Reagan administration not only dangled Cruz before the media,
it tried hard to induce or bribe other candidates in the Nicaraguan election to withdraw in order to fulfil the prophecy of a meaningless election. The brazenness of this intervention by a great power was remarkable, but the U. S. media gave it minimal attention. They never denounced it as antidemocratic, they failed to link it to Cruz's campaign (with its suggestion of a larger effort to discredit by boycott), and they never suggested that voter "turnout" was more meaningful given the active U. S. campaign to discredit the election. On October 31, 1984,
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEA:>IIl<iGLESS THIRD WORLD ELI! CTIOl<iS 127
Stephen Kinzer noted that senior U. S. officials confirmed accouncs of "regular contacts" with the Nicaraguan parties. Kinzer's article is head- lined "Nicaraguan Parties Cite Sandinista and U. S. Pressure," the headline and article itself equating the government's aid to, and agree- ments with, its own political parties with U. S. intervention to get the Nicaraguan parties to boycott the election! CBS, Newsweek, and Time ignored the U. S. bribe program entirely. Time gave great emphasis to the number of candidates and the withdrawal of several, but it never once mentioned that this was helped along by V. S. connivance, bribes, and pressure. It even quotes without comment the State Department fabrication that "it did not try to influence the outcome of the election" (Nov. 19, 1984). All substantive evidence is placed in the black hole. In the same article, Time asserts that "the V. 5. had pushed hard for elections in which all parties felt free to participate," a fabrication of considerable audacity.
As regards the scope of electoral options in Nicaragua, the Irish delegation noted that "The [political parties] law guarantees participa- tion to political parties of all ideologies," an interesting point validated by a range of political opinion in the contesting parties far wider than that found in ? 1 Salvador and Guatemala (or the United States).
LASA states that "No major political tendency in Nicaragua was denied access to the electoral process in 1984" (p. 18). This, of course, could not be said of ? 1 Salvador and Guatemala. These important features of the Nicaraguan law and practice were not mentioned in the U. S. media or compared with those of the client states.
The Irish delegation stressed two facts about Cruz as the "main opposition. " First,
The delegation found no evidence that these parties [the three small Cruz-related parties that boycotted the election] had wide support within the country. Speaking with many political figures, including representatives of the legitimate opposition parties. it became clear that the intention of Arturo Cruz to stand for elec- tion was dubious from the start. . . . While considerable coverage was given to these parties in the international press, members of the delegation found that their impact among the population was scant and few people supported their policies (p. 7).
Second, the Irish delegation stressed the fact that the populace was free not to vote or to spoil votes, and the low level of both. "despite the abstentionism promoted by" the Cruz parties, deflated their claims to any serious support (p. 7). The LASA report reached similar conclu-
u8 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
sions, based on an extensive review of the evidence, namely: (I) that "circumstantial evidence" indicates the strong probability that Cruz had no intention ofrunning, and (2) that he had no mass base and would have been badly beaten.
In retrospect, Kinzer concedes the fact, although with the customary propaganda twist. He writes that "Ortega's landslide victory was never in doubt," because "the opposition was splintered" (and, as he fails to observe, had no popular base, in contrast to the well-organized San- dinista party), and "because the Sandinistas controlled the electoral machinery. " Neither he nor anyone else has offered a particle of evi- dence that Sandinista control over the electoral machinery made the elections a sham, or to contest the conclusion of the LASA delegation that "the FSLN did little more to take advantage of its incumbency than incumbent parties everywhere (including the United States) rou- tinely do. " A few days earlier, Kinzer had quoted Arturo Cruz as observing that the Sandinistas deserve credit for having overthrown Somoza and "having broken barriers in Nicaragua that had to be bro- ken, and that is irreversible," because "the Sandinistas were working in the catacombs while we in the traditional opposition were out of touch with the rising expectations of the masses. " As Kinzer knows, but will not write, the same was true at the time of the 1984 elections, which is why the Sandinisu victory was never in doubt. This deceitful dismis- sal of the 1984 elections is one of Kinzer's many contributions to the media campaign to contrast the "elected presidents" ofthe four Central American "democracies" with the Sandinista dictator Ortega, not an
elected president by U. S. government imprimatur. The specific context was the massive media campaign to attribute the failures of the Guatemala City peace agreement of August 1987 to the Sandinistas, in accordance with Reagan administration priorities, on the eve of the crucial congressional vote on renewed contra aid. lo~
LASA also stresses the fact that Cruz--effectively representing the contras, a segment of the local business community, and the United States---eould have run in the Nicaraguan electioD, with excellent funding, ample media access, and without fear of being murdered. Even without Cruz the contras had an electoral voice. LASA notes that
We know of no election in Latin America (or elsewhere) in which groups advocating the violent overthrow of an incumbent govern- ment have themselves been incorporated into the electoral pro- cess, particularly when these groups have been openly supported by a foreign power. The contras nevertheless had a voice in the 1984 election campaign. Two of the Coordinadora-affiliated par-
l. EGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGl. ESS tHIRD WORl. D ELECTIONS 129
ties, the PSD and the PLC, supported their inclusion in the elec- tions. And while denying that they represented the conn? as, Arturo Cruz and the Coordinadora seemed to endorse and promote their cause, both within Nicaragua and abroad (p. 18).
LASA also discusses in some detail the U. S. intervention in the elec- tion, noting the terrorizing overflights by U. S. planes during the elec- tion campaign, and considering at some length the U. S. efforts to induce the withdrawal ofcandidates. LASA reported the claims by both Liberal and Conservative party figures that the United States offered specific and large sums of money to get candidates to withdraw from the election.
3. 6. 6. The concern over freedom of the press and assembly
Not only the rights of any and all candidates to run for public office, but other basic conditions that had been off the agenda in EI Salvador and Guatemala were of deep concern to the U. S. government and mass media in reference to Nicaragua. The New York Times, Time, Newswee~ and CBS News all put great stress on the trials and tribulations of La Prensa,106 although during the Salvadoran election none of them had even mentioned the destruction by physical violence and murder ofLa Cr6nica and Ellndependieme, or the toll of murdered journalists. Mob violence allegedly organized by the government, and the threat of the neighborhood defense committees, were featured by Time in Nicara- gua, whereas ORDEN and the death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala it had never mentioned as pertinent to election quality. Basic conditions of a free election were not only back on the media agenda, but there were strong suggestions that Nicaragua was failing to meet these conditioZlS. These suggestions were based almost entirely on quotes from U. S. officials and Cruz and his allies in Nicaragua. The media never gave evidence of having actually looked into these matters for themselves or tapped independent sources of evidence.
Richard Wagner, on CBS News (Nov. 3, 1984), citing as usual Ar- turo Cruz as the "strongest opposition," also mobilizes a single Nica- raguan citizen (no doubt selected at random) who says: "How can this be free elections (sic J when we don't have freedom of speech, free- dom of the press? " Wagner says that "In addition to censorship" there were food shortages, a deteriorated transportation system, an
130 MA:-JUFACTURING CONSENT
unpopular draft, and church opposition, so that "it becomes apparent why a free and open election is not in the cards. " The cynicism in failing to raise the question of why there are food shortages and a deteriorated transportation system in Nicaragua is remarkable. Wag- ner also misses another distinction between Nicaragua and ? 1 Salva- dor; the former has an "unpopular draft," whereas in the terror state of El Salvador there is no draft-instead there is press-ganging of young men into the army from the slums, refugee camps, and rural areas, while the young sons of the wealthy live the high life in San Salvador and Miami (much the same is true in Guatemala and Hon- duras). Wagner's double standard is also remarkable. In ? 1 Salvador in 1982 and 1984 there was far more severe censorship (including out- right murder), food shortages, a deteriorating transport system, and
church opposition-and more pertinent, a complete exclusion of the "main opposition" and massive state terror-but these didn't make it apparent to CBS News that a free and open election was not in the cards in that U. S. -sponsored election. 107
The Irish delegation and LASA, especially the latter, addressed these
issues, gave evidence of having examined them seriously, and came up
with conclusions sharply at odds with the U. S. government-media portrayals. LASA provided an extensive discussion of the Sandinista
defense committees and the scope of the turbo. violence and interfer-
ence with freedom of assembly, concluding that the total number of disruptive incidents reported was "quite small," and that the most
serious occurred before the official campaign began. "In spite of Daniel Ortega's unfortunate statement on these disruptions, there is no evi-
dence that the FSLN had a coherent strategy of stimulating or orches-
trating them" (p. 24). As regards the defense committees, LASA ~ concluded that they did not seem to be functioning as a spying network
and that there was no serious evidence that they were a force making for intimidation (p. 27). LASA makes two additional points ignored by the free press. One is that the electoral commission "placed paid adver- tisements in the press urging citizens to respect the rights of all political parties to hold rallies without interference" (p. 24). The second is that the Cruz rallies that were disrupted were held in violation of the elec- toral law, which requires permits for campaign rallies and promises police protection. "In other words, given their decision not to register, Cruz and the Coordinadora were deliberately campaigning outside of the legal framework of protections which had been created by the electoral law" (p. 25). LASA also compares the violence in the Nicarag- uan election with that elsewhere in the area and in the Nicaraguan context, concluding that "compared to other nations in the region and
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 131
in the face of a war against the contras, such abuses are on a very small scale" (p. 28).
LASA also discussed freedom of the press, which it regards as one of the election's most troublesome features. It considers the imposition of press censorship to have been damaging to the election's quality and credibility, even though the argument ofthe Sandinistas, that a country at war "can't allow a newspaper which is the instrument of the enemy to publish its opinions freely" (Sergio Ramirez), is viewed as not wholly unreasonable. Nevertheless, while the censorship was also somewhat arbitrary and legalistic, LASA concluded that "The opposition could and did get its message out" (p. 26). And the finding overall was that the Nicaraguan election "by Latin American standards was a model of probity and fairness" (p. 32).
The U. S. mass media did not concur, but it is striking how they avoid comparisons and data. The way in which the media can denounce restrictions on freedom of the press in Nicaragua after having totally ignored the question in El Salvador, where restrictions were far more severe, is remarkable. This process ofdichotomization is so internalized that the writers use the double standard within the same article, appar- ently unaware of their own bias. In an article in the New York Times of March 12, 1984, "Clear Choices in Salvador, Murky Plans in Nicara- gua," Hedrick Smith regards the choices as "clear" in El Salvador, whereas in Nicaragua the problem is whether in an election the San- dinistas will "give up significant power and control. " Multiple parties from the fa. r right to the center-right in El Salvador demonstrate clear choices, but a variety of parties from right to far left in Nicaragua didn't cause Smith to perceive real choices there, although he didn't explain why. It apparently never occurs to Smith that there is an issue of whether the army and United States "will give up power and control" (and their determination to fight to victory) by the electoral route in El Salvador.
Are there essential freedoms and absence of coercion in El Salvador that are necessary for a truly free election? Hedrick Smith talks about substantive electoral conditions only in Nicaragua. He provides exten- sive detail on the trials of La Prensa, press censorship, the Sandinista monopoly of power, and limits allegedly imposed on opposition candi- dates in Nicaragua. Not a word, however, on death-squad and army murders of civilians in El Salvador or the Draconian laws of the state of siege. How many journalists have been killed in El Salvador? Papers closed? Radio stations blown up? Union leaders and political figures murdered? These questions are off the agenda in U. S. -staged elections, and Hedrick Smith ignores them. As a de facto spokesman for his
J32 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
government, the Times commentator uses doublethink with as much insouciance as Reagan and Shultz.
3. 7. QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE OF SYSTEMATIC MEDIA BIAS
To demonstrate more rigorously the structural bias in media coverage of Third World elections, tables 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3 compare the topics mentioned in the New York Times in its articles on the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran elections of 1984. The tables are organized according to the U. S. government agenda described earlier. The elements in the upper part of the tables are the approved issues-rebel disruption, personali- ties, election mechanics, etc. -that the government wishes to stress in its sponsored elections. Below the line are the basic conditions and other negative elements that are off the agenda in sponsored elections. Our hypothesis is that the media will follow the agenda, stressing personalities and other elements above the line in sponsored elections and playing down basic conditions, whereas in elections like that in Nicaragua the agenda will be reversed-the stress will be placed on basic conditions.
TABLE 3-1
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage
of the Salvadoran Election
of March 25, 1984*
TOPICS
Those compatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Salvadoran election:
1. Democratic purpose and hopes
2. Rebel disruption
WITH TOPIC
6
WITH TOPIC
21.
4
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
53. 6
LeGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS
'll
TOPICS
WITH TOPIC 7
? I.
I.
5
3
2
0
I
WITH TOPIC
25. 0 32. 1 35. 7
35. 7 17. 9
10. 7 7. 1
?
3. 6
1;.
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
l. Turnout
,. Election mechanics
,. Personalities and political
infighting
6. Official reflections on the
election
7. The army as protector of
the election
Those incompatible with the U. S. government's agenda for the Salvadoran election:
8. The public-rdations purpose
9. U. S. investment in the election
10. Fraud in the 1982 dection II. The existence of free
tlpeech and assembly-
legal state of siege 12. Freedom of the press 13. Organizational freedom I'. Limits on the ability of
candidates to qualify
lmd campaign
I'. Prior state terror and
climate of fear
16. Power of armed forces,
links to candidates and parties, as possible negative factor
17. Legal obligation to vote 18. Legal penalties for
nOllvoring
19. Marking of voters' fingers
20. Stamping identification cards
21. Legal requirement that authorities check within
10 days, that voters
? ?
0
? ?
3 10. 7 1 3. .
? 14. 3 2 7. 1
I 3. . 2 7. 1
? ?
have voted
22. Possible nonlegal threat 0 ?
to nonvoters from death squads and security forces
134 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
TOPICS
23. Use of transparent voting
~
24. Legal right of the security forces to an armed
presence at voting stations
WITH TOPIC
1
o
WITH TOPIC 3. 6
o
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
* Based on a study ofthe 28 articles on the EI Salvador election that appeared in the New York TimeJ between Feb. I and Mar. 30, 1984.
TABLE 3-2
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election Planned for November 4, 1984*
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
TOPICS WITH TOPIC
Those compatible with the u. s. government's agenda for the Nicaraguan election: (Of the 7 items in table 3-1, all are blanks except one. )
I. Election mechanics 3
Those incompatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Nica. raguau election:**
2. The public-relations purpose 3
3. Free speecl1 2 . . 4. Freedom of the press ?
5. Organizational freedom ? >li
WITH TOPIC
315
375 2S. O 75. 0 50. 0
?
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEA~INGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 135
TOPICS
6. Ability of candidates to qualify and run
7. Power of the armed forces, link to state, as negative factor
WITH TOPIC 5
3
WITH TOPIC 62. 5
37. 5
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
* Based on a study of the 8 articles on the forthl;oming Nicaraguan election that appeared in the New York Times between Feb. I and Mar. 30, 1984.
,. . ,. . Many of the topics listed in. Table 3-1 under this subheading are not relevant to the Nicaraguan election-all that are covered in the articles examined are listed here.
TABLE 3-3
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election
of November 4,1984*
TOPICS
Those compatible with the U. S. govemmel1t's agenda for the Nicaraguan election:
L Democratic purpose and ho~s
2. Rebel disruption
3. Turnout
4. Election mechanics
5. Perwnalities and political
infighting
6. Official reflections on the
election
7. The army as protector of
WITH TOPIC
o 5 o 3
3 o
WITH TOPIC
4. 8
o 23. 8 o 143
14. 3 o
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
the election
136 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
TOPICS
Those incompatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Nicaraguan election:
8. The public~relations purpose
9. Sandinista investment in the election
10. Fraud in prior elections 11. Free speech and assembly 12. Freedom of the press
13. Organizational freedom 14. Limits on the ability of
candidates to qualify
and campaign
15. Prior state terror and
climate of fear
16. Control of armed forces by government
17. Legal obligation to vote
18. Legal penalties for nonvoting
19. Marking of voters' fingers 20. Stamping identification
cards
21. Legal requirement to check
voting
22. Nonlegal threat to
nonvoters
23. Use of transparent voting
=.
24. Security force presence at
voting stations
WITH TOPIC
7
2
WITH TOPIC
33. 3
95
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
NA NA
8 38. 1 ? 28? ? 2 9. 5
11 52. 4
3 14. 3
3 14. 3
NA 4. 8 NA NA
1 NA NA NA
NA NA 1 4. 8 NA NA NA NA
* Based on a study of 21 news articles appearing between Sept. 5 and Nov. 6, 1984.
NA = Not Applicable
It can readily be seen in table 3-1 that in the Salvadoran election the Times's news coverage dealt heavily with subjects above the line and neglected the basic conditions that make an election meaningful in
?
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS TH! RD WORLD ELECTIONS 137
advance. We can observe how the Times totally ignores the question of freedom of the press, organizational freedom, and limits on the ability of candidates to run. lOS Table 3-2 shows how the Times treated the forthcoming Nicaraguan election in the same two-month period cov- ered in table 3-1. It is evident that the paper focuses heavily on the fundamental conditions of a free election, i. e. , on topics that it was entirely ignoring while addressing the Salvadoran election. Table 3-3 shows the breakdown of topics covered by the Times during the Nica- raguan election later in the year. Again, although the differences are less marked than the ones in tables 3-1 and 3-2, the substantial attention to basic conditions in the Nicaraguan case is clear, reflecting editorial news choices that follow a patriotic agenda. As the basic conditions for a free election were superior in Nicaragua and the coercive elements less acute, the emphasis on basic conditions only in the Nicaraguan case is even more clearly evidence of systematic bias.
3. 8. THE MIG CRISIS STAGED DURING NICARAGUA'S ELECTION WEEK
As NewSf/)eek pointed out on November 19, 1984, "The story of the freighter [to Nicaragua, allegedly carrying MIGs] first broke during the election-night coverage," but at no point does NewSf/)eek (or Time, the Times, or CBS News) suggest that the timing was deliberate. The Times, in its extensive coverage of the MIGs that weren't there, at one point quotes a Nicaraguan official who suggests that the crisis was purely a public-relations operation, but that exhausts the Times's exploration of this point. Although the MIGs weren't there, and the timing was per- fect for diverting attention from a successful election that the Reagan adminstration had been attempting to discredit, the elite media asked no questions, even in retrospect. The administration claimed that when the freighter was loaded, satellite observation was blocked so that the cargo was unknown. The mass media presented this as fact, making no effort to evaluate the claim.
What the media chose to focus on was administration assessments of what it might do If MIGs were in fact being delivered. This allowed the whole frame of discourse to shift to the assumption that the Nica- raguans had done something (and something intolerable, to boot). Newsweek, in a retrospective article entitled "The MIGs That Weren't There," had a lead head: "To bring in high-performance craft indicates
138 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
that they are contemplating being a threat to their neighbors. " The fact that the MIGs weren't brought in, as stared in the article's very rirle- that this was a concoction of U. s. officials-doesn't interfere with imputing an intention to the Nicaraguans based on a nonexistent fact. The assertion that they were contemplating being a threat, as opposed to defending themselves against a proxy invasion, is also a patriotic editorial judgment. Newsweek also says in the text that "All sides ap- peared to be playing a very clumsy and very dangerous game. " This is an intriguing form of evenhandedness. A person who, admittedly, had been falsely accused of robbery by an assailant is alleged to be "playing a dangerous game," along with the attacker who is also the bearer of false witness. 109
In the middle of an article on the Nicaraguan election, Time inserts the government claim that a ship carrying crates of the type used to transport MIG-2Is was due at a Nicaraguan port. Time never questions a government propaganda ploy, no matter how blatant, and it offers a retrospective only when the government tacitly concedes it had deliber- ately deceived. Like Newsweek and the Times, Time allows the govern- ment to set the agenda with a public-relations statement: If the Nicaraguans did this, it would be a challenge to the United States. How then would we react, what are our policy options, etc. The truth of the claim and the likelihood that this is a manipulative ploy to help remove the unwanted elections from attention are not discussed; and, naturally, the fact that this is part of a policy of aggression against a tiny victim is never raised.
The only credits in the media coverage of the MIG crisis go to CBS News. On November 6, Dan Rather gave the straight administration "news" that MIGs might be on their way and that a strategic option to destroy them was under consideration. On November 7 and 8, how- ever, perhaps out of a recognition that it had once again been "used," CBS gave substantial coverage to Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto's rebuttal, which allowed him to point out the absurdity of the Nicaraguan "threat," the tie-in of the MIG claims to the Nicarag- uan election, and the U. S. refusal to go along with the Contadora peace proposals.
The MIG ploy was, nevertheless, entirely successful. A tone of crisis was manufactured, and "options" against the hypothetical Sandinista "threat" were placed at the center of public attention. The Nicaraguan ejection was nor discussed. LASA points out that "The final results of Nicaragua's election were not even reported by most of the interna- tional media. They were literally buried under an avalanche of alarmist news reports" (p. 31). LASA concludes that the Nicaraguan electoral
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 139
process was manipulated, as the U. S. government claims, but by the U. S. government itself in its efforts to discredit an election that it did not want to take place. The Salvadoran and Guatemalan elections successfully legitimized the U. S. -backed regimes, at least for American elite opinion. The far more honest Nicaraguan election failed to accom- plish this, thanks to the loyal service of the media.
3. 9. THE ROLE OF OFFICIAL "OBSERVERS" IN REINFORCING A PROPAGANDA LINE
Official observers provide a perfect example of the use of government- controlled "experts" and "pseudo-events" to attract media attention and channel it in the direction of the propaganda line. And they regu- larly succeed in doing this in demonstration elections, no matter how brief their stay and foolish their comments (see appendix I). The media take it for granted that official observers are newsworthy: they are notables, their selection by the government from "reputable" institu- tions adds to their credibility, and their observations will have effects on opinion and policy. This rationale is in the nature of a self-fulfilling prophecy; they have effects only because the media accord them atten- tion. As the official observers reliably commend the elections as fair without the slightest attention to basic conditions, the media's regular use of these observers for comments on election quality violates norms of substantive objectivity in the same manner as the use of any straight government handout by the Times or Pravda. llO
The Nicaraguan election was remarkable for the number of foreign observers and observer teams. We pointed out earlier that Time men- tioned 450 foreign observers, but the magazine failed to cite anyone of them (rdying instead, and characteristically, on State Department handouts). As we saw, the State Department was able to get the media to follow its agenda, even though this involved them in a blatant rever- sal of the criteria they had employed the same year in EI Salvador and Guatemala. It was also able to induce the media to disregard the out- come of the Nicaraguan election, with the help of the diversionary MIG ploy.
As we saw, in El Salvador and Guatemala, the fact that the insurgents were off the ballot did not faze the U. S. media one bit. Neither did Duarte's acknowledgment in 1981 that "the masses were with the guer- rillas" when he joined the junta a year earlier (which would clearly make them a "main opposition"). 99 Nor were the media affected by the army's murder of the opposition leadership in both El Salvador and Guatemala. In ? 1 Salvador, the exclusion of the rebels was part of the U. S. government's electoral plan; they were, therefore, not a "main opposition," and the debarment and even murder of their leaders did not compromise election quality. In the Nicaraguan case, in sharp contrast, the U. S. government worked with a different frame-the exclusion of its sponsored rebels and any other candidates was a serious matter that threatened the quality of the election. The media followed like good little doggies (lap- rather than watch-).
The central dramatic propaganda line for the Nicaraguan election pressed by U. S. officials was the alleged struggle of Arturo Cruz to induce the Sandinistas to create an open system in which he would be able to compete fairly, the failure of the "Marxists-Leninists" to make adequate concessions, Cruz's refusal to compete, and the subsequent "exclusion" of the "main opposition. " Cruz, however, was a "main opposition" only in the propaganda construct of the U. S. government and mass media. A longtime expatriate (who now concedes that he was
126 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
on the CIA payroll), with no mass base in Nicaragua, Cruz would
almost certainly have done poorly in a free election. lOo There is good
reason to believe that Cruz never intended to run, but that he and his
sponsors had held out this possibility precisely to allow the propaganda 1 frame to be used effectively. IOI
The mass media focused on the Cruz drama heavily and uncritically. ' Cruz was given enormous play: he was continually referred to as the . . . "main opposition" or "leading opponent" of the ruling party (without
any supporting evidence), and his candidacy was made "an acid test of
the Sandinistas' democratic intentions" (Time, Oct. 29, 1984). For the Times, the election would be a "sham" without Cruz (editorial, Oct. 7, 1984), and its news columns placed "main opposition" Cruz on center stage, from which vantage point he could regularly denounce the pro- ceedings as a "farce" or sham. l02 The Times did have one good back- page article that provided evidence that Cruz had not intended to run or would not have been allowed to run by his closest Nicaraguan allies and U. S. officials, and that his function was, as we stated, to discredit
the election by pretending to be interested, thus capturing press atten- tion. 103 But this low-keyed article stood alone and did not alter the unremitting focus on the alleged exclusion of this alleged main opposi- tion as the centerpiece of the Nicaraguan election drama.
In focusing on an alleged "main opposition" in Nicaragua, which voluntarily chose not to run, while ignoring a real main opposition in El Salvador, excluded by force and plan, the mass media simply adopted without question the government's propaganda framework. Sources that would speak to the condition of the "main opposition" in El Salvador and the significance ofits exclusion-both Salvadorans and foreign observers-were simply ignored. I04 In the case of the Nicara- guan election, in contrast, Cruz and U. S. government officials were given the floor to present their themes, which were transmitted on a daily basis with no accompanying notice of their possible falsity and manipulative intent, in perfect accord with the expectations of a propa-
ganda model.
The Reagan administration not only dangled Cruz before the media,
it tried hard to induce or bribe other candidates in the Nicaraguan election to withdraw in order to fulfil the prophecy of a meaningless election. The brazenness of this intervention by a great power was remarkable, but the U. S. media gave it minimal attention. They never denounced it as antidemocratic, they failed to link it to Cruz's campaign (with its suggestion of a larger effort to discredit by boycott), and they never suggested that voter "turnout" was more meaningful given the active U. S. campaign to discredit the election. On October 31, 1984,
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEA:>IIl<iGLESS THIRD WORLD ELI! CTIOl<iS 127
Stephen Kinzer noted that senior U. S. officials confirmed accouncs of "regular contacts" with the Nicaraguan parties. Kinzer's article is head- lined "Nicaraguan Parties Cite Sandinista and U. S. Pressure," the headline and article itself equating the government's aid to, and agree- ments with, its own political parties with U. S. intervention to get the Nicaraguan parties to boycott the election! CBS, Newsweek, and Time ignored the U. S. bribe program entirely. Time gave great emphasis to the number of candidates and the withdrawal of several, but it never once mentioned that this was helped along by V. S. connivance, bribes, and pressure. It even quotes without comment the State Department fabrication that "it did not try to influence the outcome of the election" (Nov. 19, 1984). All substantive evidence is placed in the black hole. In the same article, Time asserts that "the V. 5. had pushed hard for elections in which all parties felt free to participate," a fabrication of considerable audacity.
As regards the scope of electoral options in Nicaragua, the Irish delegation noted that "The [political parties] law guarantees participa- tion to political parties of all ideologies," an interesting point validated by a range of political opinion in the contesting parties far wider than that found in ? 1 Salvador and Guatemala (or the United States).
LASA states that "No major political tendency in Nicaragua was denied access to the electoral process in 1984" (p. 18). This, of course, could not be said of ? 1 Salvador and Guatemala. These important features of the Nicaraguan law and practice were not mentioned in the U. S. media or compared with those of the client states.
The Irish delegation stressed two facts about Cruz as the "main opposition. " First,
The delegation found no evidence that these parties [the three small Cruz-related parties that boycotted the election] had wide support within the country. Speaking with many political figures, including representatives of the legitimate opposition parties. it became clear that the intention of Arturo Cruz to stand for elec- tion was dubious from the start. . . . While considerable coverage was given to these parties in the international press, members of the delegation found that their impact among the population was scant and few people supported their policies (p. 7).
Second, the Irish delegation stressed the fact that the populace was free not to vote or to spoil votes, and the low level of both. "despite the abstentionism promoted by" the Cruz parties, deflated their claims to any serious support (p. 7). The LASA report reached similar conclu-
u8 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
sions, based on an extensive review of the evidence, namely: (I) that "circumstantial evidence" indicates the strong probability that Cruz had no intention ofrunning, and (2) that he had no mass base and would have been badly beaten.
In retrospect, Kinzer concedes the fact, although with the customary propaganda twist. He writes that "Ortega's landslide victory was never in doubt," because "the opposition was splintered" (and, as he fails to observe, had no popular base, in contrast to the well-organized San- dinista party), and "because the Sandinistas controlled the electoral machinery. " Neither he nor anyone else has offered a particle of evi- dence that Sandinista control over the electoral machinery made the elections a sham, or to contest the conclusion of the LASA delegation that "the FSLN did little more to take advantage of its incumbency than incumbent parties everywhere (including the United States) rou- tinely do. " A few days earlier, Kinzer had quoted Arturo Cruz as observing that the Sandinistas deserve credit for having overthrown Somoza and "having broken barriers in Nicaragua that had to be bro- ken, and that is irreversible," because "the Sandinistas were working in the catacombs while we in the traditional opposition were out of touch with the rising expectations of the masses. " As Kinzer knows, but will not write, the same was true at the time of the 1984 elections, which is why the Sandinisu victory was never in doubt. This deceitful dismis- sal of the 1984 elections is one of Kinzer's many contributions to the media campaign to contrast the "elected presidents" ofthe four Central American "democracies" with the Sandinista dictator Ortega, not an
elected president by U. S. government imprimatur. The specific context was the massive media campaign to attribute the failures of the Guatemala City peace agreement of August 1987 to the Sandinistas, in accordance with Reagan administration priorities, on the eve of the crucial congressional vote on renewed contra aid. lo~
LASA also stresses the fact that Cruz--effectively representing the contras, a segment of the local business community, and the United States---eould have run in the Nicaraguan electioD, with excellent funding, ample media access, and without fear of being murdered. Even without Cruz the contras had an electoral voice. LASA notes that
We know of no election in Latin America (or elsewhere) in which groups advocating the violent overthrow of an incumbent govern- ment have themselves been incorporated into the electoral pro- cess, particularly when these groups have been openly supported by a foreign power. The contras nevertheless had a voice in the 1984 election campaign. Two of the Coordinadora-affiliated par-
l. EGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGl. ESS tHIRD WORl. D ELECTIONS 129
ties, the PSD and the PLC, supported their inclusion in the elec- tions. And while denying that they represented the conn? as, Arturo Cruz and the Coordinadora seemed to endorse and promote their cause, both within Nicaragua and abroad (p. 18).
LASA also discusses in some detail the U. S. intervention in the elec- tion, noting the terrorizing overflights by U. S. planes during the elec- tion campaign, and considering at some length the U. S. efforts to induce the withdrawal ofcandidates. LASA reported the claims by both Liberal and Conservative party figures that the United States offered specific and large sums of money to get candidates to withdraw from the election.
3. 6. 6. The concern over freedom of the press and assembly
Not only the rights of any and all candidates to run for public office, but other basic conditions that had been off the agenda in EI Salvador and Guatemala were of deep concern to the U. S. government and mass media in reference to Nicaragua. The New York Times, Time, Newswee~ and CBS News all put great stress on the trials and tribulations of La Prensa,106 although during the Salvadoran election none of them had even mentioned the destruction by physical violence and murder ofLa Cr6nica and Ellndependieme, or the toll of murdered journalists. Mob violence allegedly organized by the government, and the threat of the neighborhood defense committees, were featured by Time in Nicara- gua, whereas ORDEN and the death squads in El Salvador and Guatemala it had never mentioned as pertinent to election quality. Basic conditions of a free election were not only back on the media agenda, but there were strong suggestions that Nicaragua was failing to meet these conditioZlS. These suggestions were based almost entirely on quotes from U. S. officials and Cruz and his allies in Nicaragua. The media never gave evidence of having actually looked into these matters for themselves or tapped independent sources of evidence.
Richard Wagner, on CBS News (Nov. 3, 1984), citing as usual Ar- turo Cruz as the "strongest opposition," also mobilizes a single Nica- raguan citizen (no doubt selected at random) who says: "How can this be free elections (sic J when we don't have freedom of speech, free- dom of the press? " Wagner says that "In addition to censorship" there were food shortages, a deteriorated transportation system, an
130 MA:-JUFACTURING CONSENT
unpopular draft, and church opposition, so that "it becomes apparent why a free and open election is not in the cards. " The cynicism in failing to raise the question of why there are food shortages and a deteriorated transportation system in Nicaragua is remarkable. Wag- ner also misses another distinction between Nicaragua and ? 1 Salva- dor; the former has an "unpopular draft," whereas in the terror state of El Salvador there is no draft-instead there is press-ganging of young men into the army from the slums, refugee camps, and rural areas, while the young sons of the wealthy live the high life in San Salvador and Miami (much the same is true in Guatemala and Hon- duras). Wagner's double standard is also remarkable. In ? 1 Salvador in 1982 and 1984 there was far more severe censorship (including out- right murder), food shortages, a deteriorating transport system, and
church opposition-and more pertinent, a complete exclusion of the "main opposition" and massive state terror-but these didn't make it apparent to CBS News that a free and open election was not in the cards in that U. S. -sponsored election. 107
The Irish delegation and LASA, especially the latter, addressed these
issues, gave evidence of having examined them seriously, and came up
with conclusions sharply at odds with the U. S. government-media portrayals. LASA provided an extensive discussion of the Sandinista
defense committees and the scope of the turbo. violence and interfer-
ence with freedom of assembly, concluding that the total number of disruptive incidents reported was "quite small," and that the most
serious occurred before the official campaign began. "In spite of Daniel Ortega's unfortunate statement on these disruptions, there is no evi-
dence that the FSLN had a coherent strategy of stimulating or orches-
trating them" (p. 24). As regards the defense committees, LASA ~ concluded that they did not seem to be functioning as a spying network
and that there was no serious evidence that they were a force making for intimidation (p. 27). LASA makes two additional points ignored by the free press. One is that the electoral commission "placed paid adver- tisements in the press urging citizens to respect the rights of all political parties to hold rallies without interference" (p. 24). The second is that the Cruz rallies that were disrupted were held in violation of the elec- toral law, which requires permits for campaign rallies and promises police protection. "In other words, given their decision not to register, Cruz and the Coordinadora were deliberately campaigning outside of the legal framework of protections which had been created by the electoral law" (p. 25). LASA also compares the violence in the Nicarag- uan election with that elsewhere in the area and in the Nicaraguan context, concluding that "compared to other nations in the region and
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 131
in the face of a war against the contras, such abuses are on a very small scale" (p. 28).
LASA also discussed freedom of the press, which it regards as one of the election's most troublesome features. It considers the imposition of press censorship to have been damaging to the election's quality and credibility, even though the argument ofthe Sandinistas, that a country at war "can't allow a newspaper which is the instrument of the enemy to publish its opinions freely" (Sergio Ramirez), is viewed as not wholly unreasonable. Nevertheless, while the censorship was also somewhat arbitrary and legalistic, LASA concluded that "The opposition could and did get its message out" (p. 26). And the finding overall was that the Nicaraguan election "by Latin American standards was a model of probity and fairness" (p. 32).
The U. S. mass media did not concur, but it is striking how they avoid comparisons and data. The way in which the media can denounce restrictions on freedom of the press in Nicaragua after having totally ignored the question in El Salvador, where restrictions were far more severe, is remarkable. This process ofdichotomization is so internalized that the writers use the double standard within the same article, appar- ently unaware of their own bias. In an article in the New York Times of March 12, 1984, "Clear Choices in Salvador, Murky Plans in Nicara- gua," Hedrick Smith regards the choices as "clear" in El Salvador, whereas in Nicaragua the problem is whether in an election the San- dinistas will "give up significant power and control. " Multiple parties from the fa. r right to the center-right in El Salvador demonstrate clear choices, but a variety of parties from right to far left in Nicaragua didn't cause Smith to perceive real choices there, although he didn't explain why. It apparently never occurs to Smith that there is an issue of whether the army and United States "will give up power and control" (and their determination to fight to victory) by the electoral route in El Salvador.
Are there essential freedoms and absence of coercion in El Salvador that are necessary for a truly free election? Hedrick Smith talks about substantive electoral conditions only in Nicaragua. He provides exten- sive detail on the trials of La Prensa, press censorship, the Sandinista monopoly of power, and limits allegedly imposed on opposition candi- dates in Nicaragua. Not a word, however, on death-squad and army murders of civilians in El Salvador or the Draconian laws of the state of siege. How many journalists have been killed in El Salvador? Papers closed? Radio stations blown up? Union leaders and political figures murdered? These questions are off the agenda in U. S. -staged elections, and Hedrick Smith ignores them. As a de facto spokesman for his
J32 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
government, the Times commentator uses doublethink with as much insouciance as Reagan and Shultz.
3. 7. QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE OF SYSTEMATIC MEDIA BIAS
To demonstrate more rigorously the structural bias in media coverage of Third World elections, tables 3-1, 3-2, and 3-3 compare the topics mentioned in the New York Times in its articles on the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran elections of 1984. The tables are organized according to the U. S. government agenda described earlier. The elements in the upper part of the tables are the approved issues-rebel disruption, personali- ties, election mechanics, etc. -that the government wishes to stress in its sponsored elections. Below the line are the basic conditions and other negative elements that are off the agenda in sponsored elections. Our hypothesis is that the media will follow the agenda, stressing personalities and other elements above the line in sponsored elections and playing down basic conditions, whereas in elections like that in Nicaragua the agenda will be reversed-the stress will be placed on basic conditions.
TABLE 3-1
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage
of the Salvadoran Election
of March 25, 1984*
TOPICS
Those compatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Salvadoran election:
1. Democratic purpose and hopes
2. Rebel disruption
WITH TOPIC
6
WITH TOPIC
21.
4
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
53. 6
LeGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS
'll
TOPICS
WITH TOPIC 7
? I.
I.
5
3
2
0
I
WITH TOPIC
25. 0 32. 1 35. 7
35. 7 17. 9
10. 7 7. 1
?
3. 6
1;.
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
l. Turnout
,. Election mechanics
,. Personalities and political
infighting
6. Official reflections on the
election
7. The army as protector of
the election
Those incompatible with the U. S. government's agenda for the Salvadoran election:
8. The public-rdations purpose
9. U. S. investment in the election
10. Fraud in the 1982 dection II. The existence of free
tlpeech and assembly-
legal state of siege 12. Freedom of the press 13. Organizational freedom I'. Limits on the ability of
candidates to qualify
lmd campaign
I'. Prior state terror and
climate of fear
16. Power of armed forces,
links to candidates and parties, as possible negative factor
17. Legal obligation to vote 18. Legal penalties for
nOllvoring
19. Marking of voters' fingers
20. Stamping identification cards
21. Legal requirement that authorities check within
10 days, that voters
? ?
0
? ?
3 10. 7 1 3. .
? 14. 3 2 7. 1
I 3. . 2 7. 1
? ?
have voted
22. Possible nonlegal threat 0 ?
to nonvoters from death squads and security forces
134 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
TOPICS
23. Use of transparent voting
~
24. Legal right of the security forces to an armed
presence at voting stations
WITH TOPIC
1
o
WITH TOPIC 3. 6
o
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
* Based on a study ofthe 28 articles on the EI Salvador election that appeared in the New York TimeJ between Feb. I and Mar. 30, 1984.
TABLE 3-2
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election Planned for November 4, 1984*
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
TOPICS WITH TOPIC
Those compatible with the u. s. government's agenda for the Nicaraguan election: (Of the 7 items in table 3-1, all are blanks except one. )
I. Election mechanics 3
Those incompatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Nica. raguau election:**
2. The public-relations purpose 3
3. Free speecl1 2 . . 4. Freedom of the press ?
5. Organizational freedom ? >li
WITH TOPIC
315
375 2S. O 75. 0 50. 0
?
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEA~INGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 135
TOPICS
6. Ability of candidates to qualify and run
7. Power of the armed forces, link to state, as negative factor
WITH TOPIC 5
3
WITH TOPIC 62. 5
37. 5
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
* Based on a study of the 8 articles on the forthl;oming Nicaraguan election that appeared in the New York Times between Feb. I and Mar. 30, 1984.
,. . ,. . Many of the topics listed in. Table 3-1 under this subheading are not relevant to the Nicaraguan election-all that are covered in the articles examined are listed here.
TABLE 3-3
Topics Included and Excluded in the New York Times's Coverage of the Nicaraguan Election
of November 4,1984*
TOPICS
Those compatible with the U. S. govemmel1t's agenda for the Nicaraguan election:
L Democratic purpose and ho~s
2. Rebel disruption
3. Turnout
4. Election mechanics
5. Perwnalities and political
infighting
6. Official reflections on the
election
7. The army as protector of
WITH TOPIC
o 5 o 3
3 o
WITH TOPIC
4. 8
o 23. 8 o 143
14. 3 o
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
the election
136 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
TOPICS
Those incompatible with the U. s. government's agenda for the Nicaraguan election:
8. The public~relations purpose
9. Sandinista investment in the election
10. Fraud in prior elections 11. Free speech and assembly 12. Freedom of the press
13. Organizational freedom 14. Limits on the ability of
candidates to qualify
and campaign
15. Prior state terror and
climate of fear
16. Control of armed forces by government
17. Legal obligation to vote
18. Legal penalties for nonvoting
19. Marking of voters' fingers 20. Stamping identification
cards
21. Legal requirement to check
voting
22. Nonlegal threat to
nonvoters
23. Use of transparent voting
=.
24. Security force presence at
voting stations
WITH TOPIC
7
2
WITH TOPIC
33. 3
95
NUMBER OF PERCENTAGE OF ARTICLES DEALING ARTICLES DEALING
NA NA
8 38. 1 ? 28? ? 2 9. 5
11 52. 4
3 14. 3
3 14. 3
NA 4. 8 NA NA
1 NA NA NA
NA NA 1 4. 8 NA NA NA NA
* Based on a study of 21 news articles appearing between Sept. 5 and Nov. 6, 1984.
NA = Not Applicable
It can readily be seen in table 3-1 that in the Salvadoran election the Times's news coverage dealt heavily with subjects above the line and neglected the basic conditions that make an election meaningful in
?
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS TH! RD WORLD ELECTIONS 137
advance. We can observe how the Times totally ignores the question of freedom of the press, organizational freedom, and limits on the ability of candidates to run. lOS Table 3-2 shows how the Times treated the forthcoming Nicaraguan election in the same two-month period cov- ered in table 3-1. It is evident that the paper focuses heavily on the fundamental conditions of a free election, i. e. , on topics that it was entirely ignoring while addressing the Salvadoran election. Table 3-3 shows the breakdown of topics covered by the Times during the Nica- raguan election later in the year. Again, although the differences are less marked than the ones in tables 3-1 and 3-2, the substantial attention to basic conditions in the Nicaraguan case is clear, reflecting editorial news choices that follow a patriotic agenda. As the basic conditions for a free election were superior in Nicaragua and the coercive elements less acute, the emphasis on basic conditions only in the Nicaraguan case is even more clearly evidence of systematic bias.
3. 8. THE MIG CRISIS STAGED DURING NICARAGUA'S ELECTION WEEK
As NewSf/)eek pointed out on November 19, 1984, "The story of the freighter [to Nicaragua, allegedly carrying MIGs] first broke during the election-night coverage," but at no point does NewSf/)eek (or Time, the Times, or CBS News) suggest that the timing was deliberate. The Times, in its extensive coverage of the MIGs that weren't there, at one point quotes a Nicaraguan official who suggests that the crisis was purely a public-relations operation, but that exhausts the Times's exploration of this point. Although the MIGs weren't there, and the timing was per- fect for diverting attention from a successful election that the Reagan adminstration had been attempting to discredit, the elite media asked no questions, even in retrospect. The administration claimed that when the freighter was loaded, satellite observation was blocked so that the cargo was unknown. The mass media presented this as fact, making no effort to evaluate the claim.
What the media chose to focus on was administration assessments of what it might do If MIGs were in fact being delivered. This allowed the whole frame of discourse to shift to the assumption that the Nica- raguans had done something (and something intolerable, to boot). Newsweek, in a retrospective article entitled "The MIGs That Weren't There," had a lead head: "To bring in high-performance craft indicates
138 MANUFACTURING CONSENT
that they are contemplating being a threat to their neighbors. " The fact that the MIGs weren't brought in, as stared in the article's very rirle- that this was a concoction of U. s. officials-doesn't interfere with imputing an intention to the Nicaraguans based on a nonexistent fact. The assertion that they were contemplating being a threat, as opposed to defending themselves against a proxy invasion, is also a patriotic editorial judgment. Newsweek also says in the text that "All sides ap- peared to be playing a very clumsy and very dangerous game. " This is an intriguing form of evenhandedness. A person who, admittedly, had been falsely accused of robbery by an assailant is alleged to be "playing a dangerous game," along with the attacker who is also the bearer of false witness. 109
In the middle of an article on the Nicaraguan election, Time inserts the government claim that a ship carrying crates of the type used to transport MIG-2Is was due at a Nicaraguan port. Time never questions a government propaganda ploy, no matter how blatant, and it offers a retrospective only when the government tacitly concedes it had deliber- ately deceived. Like Newsweek and the Times, Time allows the govern- ment to set the agenda with a public-relations statement: If the Nicaraguans did this, it would be a challenge to the United States. How then would we react, what are our policy options, etc. The truth of the claim and the likelihood that this is a manipulative ploy to help remove the unwanted elections from attention are not discussed; and, naturally, the fact that this is part of a policy of aggression against a tiny victim is never raised.
The only credits in the media coverage of the MIG crisis go to CBS News. On November 6, Dan Rather gave the straight administration "news" that MIGs might be on their way and that a strategic option to destroy them was under consideration. On November 7 and 8, how- ever, perhaps out of a recognition that it had once again been "used," CBS gave substantial coverage to Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel D'Escoto's rebuttal, which allowed him to point out the absurdity of the Nicaraguan "threat," the tie-in of the MIG claims to the Nicarag- uan election, and the U. S. refusal to go along with the Contadora peace proposals.
The MIG ploy was, nevertheless, entirely successful. A tone of crisis was manufactured, and "options" against the hypothetical Sandinista "threat" were placed at the center of public attention. The Nicaraguan ejection was nor discussed. LASA points out that "The final results of Nicaragua's election were not even reported by most of the interna- tional media. They were literally buried under an avalanche of alarmist news reports" (p. 31). LASA concludes that the Nicaraguan electoral
LEGITIMIZING VERSUS MEANINGLESS THIRD WORLD ELECTIONS 139
process was manipulated, as the U. S. government claims, but by the U. S. government itself in its efforts to discredit an election that it did not want to take place. The Salvadoran and Guatemalan elections successfully legitimized the U. S. -backed regimes, at least for American elite opinion. The far more honest Nicaraguan election failed to accom- plish this, thanks to the loyal service of the media.
3. 9. THE ROLE OF OFFICIAL "OBSERVERS" IN REINFORCING A PROPAGANDA LINE
Official observers provide a perfect example of the use of government- controlled "experts" and "pseudo-events" to attract media attention and channel it in the direction of the propaganda line. And they regu- larly succeed in doing this in demonstration elections, no matter how brief their stay and foolish their comments (see appendix I). The media take it for granted that official observers are newsworthy: they are notables, their selection by the government from "reputable" institu- tions adds to their credibility, and their observations will have effects on opinion and policy. This rationale is in the nature of a self-fulfilling prophecy; they have effects only because the media accord them atten- tion. As the official observers reliably commend the elections as fair without the slightest attention to basic conditions, the media's regular use of these observers for comments on election quality violates norms of substantive objectivity in the same manner as the use of any straight government handout by the Times or Pravda. llO
The Nicaraguan election was remarkable for the number of foreign observers and observer teams. We pointed out earlier that Time men- tioned 450 foreign observers, but the magazine failed to cite anyone of them (rdying instead, and characteristically, on State Department handouts). As we saw, the State Department was able to get the media to follow its agenda, even though this involved them in a blatant rever- sal of the criteria they had employed the same year in EI Salvador and Guatemala. It was also able to induce the media to disregard the out- come of the Nicaraguan election, with the help of the diversionary MIG ploy.
