Guest blogged by Winter Patriot
In today’s episode, Ruben Navarrette Jr brings a new depth of meaning to the “Op” part of his job as a writer of “Op/Ed” pieces.
Navarette writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune but he’s also a syndicated Op/Ed writer and fortunately I found him in the Seattle Times, where he was saying:
Quite a headline, don’t you think? That’s the hook. Wonder what’s inside? Come along with me!
Don’t bet on it.
The old Bait-and-Switch Gambit … not really a Gambit in the original (true) sense of the word
A voluntary sacrifice of a pawn or a piece in the opening with the idea of gaining the initiative, a lead in development or some other compensating factor.
but it is old! and it’s a “gambit” in these senses:
an opening remark intended to secure an advantage for the speaker
a ploy: a maneuver in a game or conversation
Gambitry or otherwise notwithstanding, it does seem appropriate that the overall tactic seen here, Bait-and-Switch, would quite naturally be abbreviated “BS”.
About 150 equally dramatic legislators in Congress take control of the podium and prevent the sitting president from delivering his final state of the nation address. In the streets, protesters throw rocks and bottles at police and stage sit-ins at makeshift shantytowns.
Who needs a presidential address?
The state of the nation is obvious: Mexico has gone mad.
Presenting a one-sided version of a complex situation and declaring the people in it “mad” …
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A politician comfortable with the people. |
What’s that called, again? …
“Shameful” if you’re a news reporter …
… but if you’re an Op/Ed writer, I suppose you can always say, “Well, that’s just my opinion.”
I was one for two. I was right that Mexico needs a revolution; the poor have had enough of being swindled and preyed upon — first by the rich, and then by the middle class. In fact, the poor are so accustomed to this sort of treatment that it’s easy to see why they have taken to the streets. But I was wrong that a Calderón victory would preserve the status quo. Instead, that victory — and how it came to be — may just send the country into a tailspin.
Which is not to say that López Obrador was the better choice. No way. Just take a look at his loco behavior since the election, and you’ll see: He’s not ready for prime time.
Well … I suppose Ruben Navarette Jr is entitled to his opinion.
He may even be entitled to write so-called Opinion pieces which are almost entirely devoid of fact.
But to many others, surely, certain obvious facts are crystal-clear — among them, the very obvious fact that Obrador is much readier for prime time than any American politician we have seen in a long long time!
Maybe that’s why he’s so dangerous!
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Millions protesting fraud at the first Assembly. |
OOPS!
I probably wasn’t supposed to mention that, was I?
I probably wasn’t even supposed to notice it!
Oh well …
There was nothing wrong with López Obrador asking for a recount. It was a close election.
Wrong was when he went on television before the recount was completed and unilaterally declared himself the president-elect.
Wrong was when he accused his political opponents — including Calderón — of orchestrating a coup d’état and then charged that Mexico’s electoral tribunal had gone along with it.
Wrong was when López Obrador called for democracy and then wiped his feet on the democratic outcome when it didn’t go his way.
Wong?
Wrong is when one candidate’s brother-in-law writes the software that counts the votes.
Wrong is when one candidate starts the election with a deficit of 126 thousand votes.
Wrong is when a 9% recount reveals enough irregularities — all tending in the same direction — to suggest [a] that a full recount would most certainly reverse the announced outcome, and [b] that such a recount would uncover undeniable evidence of massive and deliberate fraud.
Wrong is when certain “reporters” fail to mention any of this. Or any of a number of other things.
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The interaction between leaders and the crowd are common. From the third Assembly. |
Wrong is when they blame a complex situation on a nation going loco instead of trying to understand it.
Wrong is when they do understand it but they lie about it instead of trying to help their readers understand it.
It ain’t the Mexicans who’ve gone loco, Senor Navarette. It’s the Americans.
Loco, Crazy, Psychotic, or Fast Asleep … call it what you will …
But what can you expect when their so-called leaders are Ignorant, Arrogant, Full of Opinions and Rhetoric, Empty of Facts or Knowledge or (God forbid!) Understanding?
And how can the people learn any better when they read so-called reporters who are exactly the same way?
And still writing for a living? Only In America!
It’s a wonderful country! No wonder so many foreigners want to move here!
If you want some reality to counterbalance the stuff Ruben Navarette Jr threw in here today with his pitchfork, then you’ve come to the right place. Read! Learn! Start here, please!
Poor Navarette! What if he ever has to get a real job?
That’s for sure!
That includes those feisty legislators from López Obrador’s Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) who caused the scene last week by preventing Mexican President Vicente Fox from speaking. The lawmakers said they were protesting voter fraud and the theft of an election.
No research skills … a very few oldy-moldy spin-tactics … in what appears to be a small bag of tricks … and no apparent grip on reality … for example:
If this is true then Calderón’s supporters have been guilty of ignoring certain very obvious political realities, haven’t they? Oh, my! And so have certain so-called journalists.
But Ruben Navarette Jr insists that this ignorance is the REASONABLE way to go!
Counting all the votes would have made sense too. Wouldn’t that have been reasonable?
It amazes me to see how many so-called American journalists don’t see free and fair vote-counting as an issue that might be worthy of disrupting the normal daily routine … of a person … of a country … of a civilization that’s already in eight kinds of crisis, anyway …
WHAT COULD BE MORE REASONABLE than wanting all the votes to be counted fairly?
Well … I suppose wanting to keep a cushy gig in the corporate American media machine might seem reasonable too.
To some people.
2006, The San Diego Union-Tribune
Ahem.
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After this fiasco,
Ruben Navarrette’s credibility=ZERO
Ruben Navarrette=mindless JERK
I think I need my chest high waders for this stuff!
Winter-
Thanks again for another excellent job of cutting through the mainstream bullshit and delivering the facts. The more I read about this election in the MSM, including the laughably so-called “liberal” LA Times (which has been printing anti-Obrador propaganda since the beginning), the more I want to get behind this man and his followers. He and his people are obviously willing to stand-up to huge and likely dangerous obstacles to advance a cause they believe in and more and more people are starting to believe in– that the institutions of government (in Mexico and even more so in the US) are wrotten to the core and that the high cost of standing up to and against them is worth bearing. I only wish there was a viable candidate (or candidates) and there were enough willing people in this country to start a similar movement. Unfortunately, that will probably not happen here until we realize that the Democratic Party, as it is currently constituted, is no more likely to produce such a person as the Rethuglican Party.
I think maybe we really should be emailing the living snot out of this guy for spreading this manure across our mindscapes, smudging our eyeprints! There is a road in Northwestern Mexico, with unfinished buildings, potholes and cardboard box houses along it, from which one can see San Diego gleaming across the water. Maybe if Navarrette had to see San Diego from a cardboard shelter along this road, he wouldn’t be so smug, so quick to tell us that lucid adults let election fraud take their rights away. Maybe then he would start using his head and heart instead of his bank account for his opinions.
JUST SICKENING!!! FILTHY!!!
Hello from a Mexican citizen. Not surprised. This has been the attitude of most American newspapers and it all started with a propaganda piece by Dick Morris in the New York Post in which he described Lopez Obrador as “a menace to Mexico”, the slogan bombarded on Mexican television. Enrique Krauze, a mexican historian who hires himself as a publicist published a piece on a “Mexican Messiah” another effort at making a cartoon out of a political option that privileged the poor in a country with gross inequalities. The LA Times has since published several pieces in op-eds of negative propaganda by Calderon campaign members, never ONCE, giving a change to the Obrador side to argue their position. The Washington Post acknowledged they received a call from Calderon asking them not to talk about irregularities soon after July 2. The Post agreed and followed with a smear campaign on its editorials in close resemblance to the negative campaign here in Mexico. A couple of fearmongers: Dallas Morning News and Washington Times. I have found it quite disrespectful the way reasonable doubts have been branded as loco, and the legitimate claim to make resuts transparent as “wild claims”.
Most mexican newspapers are aligned with the PAN and subscribe to the propaganda. Think of it as Fox News being the monopolic television in Mexico. The blogs are doing what they can to inform like Latin America’s most visited blog http://www.elsenderodelpeje.com
The dissent = mental illness gambit is elderly, indeed.
The Stalinists were fond of it.
If you found Navarrete amusing check out this jewel in a Florida newspaper
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/new...3917655.column
“Dictators with new names” The analysis is quite simple and should be taught at all schools in the hemisphere: Latin America has always had dictators, now dictators are populist, some of the new dictators are Hitler-like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Mexico’s Lopez Obrador.
Thanks for that depressing link, Brenda. Makes me crazy how people twist this stuff. WHAT keeps people from acknowledging the need for leaders like Chavez, and like Lopez Obrador? How could the good they do and the hope they inspire be so completely discounted while people run these gambits on us? It is so hard for me to endure.
Yes, thanks Brenda for the posts. It is particularly depressing since this is a rerun of the 2004 (s)election here where we had to listen to this slime over and over again for months. They do not care if they insult us, of course, they enjoy it. Truth is what they say it is. They care nothing about fairness and honesty. We can not expect or hope for that. I go out of my way to avoid reading their papers and watching their Televison. Nothing is going to change until we are strong enough to put them out of business, all of them, in the US and in Mexico. They expect to shut us up and then get Pemex privatized.
Last night you said: “The Washington Post acknowledged they received a call from Calderón asking them not to talk about irregularities soon after July 2.†Can you tell us more about that or where I can get more information. I know a Post reader in DC who loves to engage them and he is very interested in this. Thanks.
(If I keep posting comments here I will change my name as soon as I think of one. I played GeneralScott as a sarcastic response to, what’s his name, Paul in LA the other night. Obviously, I’m not a big fan of Winfield Scott.)
Sure, this is the link:
“I won the election. It’s very important for people to know that,” Calderón said in a recent telephone call to a top Washington Post editor. “The real dilemma is not whether the election was free and fair. The real dilemma is whether Mexico is going to solve these issues through mobilization in the streets or by following our laws and institutions.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/w...2400991_2.html
It was truly wonderful to witness the effect this phonecall had in the Post’s editorial line. The Post did not cover any of the irregularities exposed and followed line by line the negative campaign enacted by the Calderon team to discredit the vote by vote full recount here in Mexico. What Calderon told them, so they did. I was not surprised when a few days later they published this editorial comparting Lopez Obrador with Stalin, ordering him to concede and using the “sore loser” card. It was completely out of balance with public opinion here in Mexico, 72% was asking for a full recount to clarify reasonable doubts. The Post told them, hey you do not need that, you do not need a full recount that would change the results. After that it was all condemnation of Lopez Obrador and the millions in Mexico who are convinced Calderon’s win is fraudulent.
Brenda,
Thanks. I will download the article and editorial.
This sounds like just what the Post said after they stole the election from Kerry. It is still shocking to hear this. Fifteen years ago they would never have published something like that without at least talking to Lopez Obrador first. Major papers in the US are virtually arms of the Propaganda Ministry now.
At least Mexicans are out in the streets. 96% here now say they want the votes to be counted publicly. It’s not going to happen until there are a million people on the mall in DC too. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Thanks Brenda for the links…also #5 for the link for latin american news. Is fascism getting worse or what. It’s their undoing..so desperate to hold on to the power..they are becoming laughable. kkkarl and George making policy while drunk. Chavez and Obrador smart , kind and compassionate. It’s unbelievable the stuff Chavez is doing for his people..Helping farmers..pouring money into infrasrtucture and health care..education. I saw him making a speech a year or so ago on TV. He barters with his latin american neighbors..like oil for concrete. Latin America is passing us so fast. Our lawmakers vote against US. You can call ’em. email and write but money wins out. If I were younger I would move to Venuzuela like Mike Rupert. I wish I had a president half as good as Chavez.
Reuben Navarette?
Bwaaa haaaa haaa haaaa haaaa ha ha ha ha
Oh boy, the San Diego Union Tribune (the FishWrap) just loves him. Nuff said?
Seems like the American people are going to have to eat a little crow and look to Mexico for a template of democracy!
Well, look at it this way. The damn Mexicans never went to the moon!