The media seem allergic to reporting on the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. On June 12, protesters set fire to the country’s supreme court, after it “voted to reject a motion that would prevent Mr. Maduro from rewriting the country's constitution,” according to The Telegraph. Yet, the morning and evening news shows of ABC, CBS and NBC failed to mention this major incident even once.
In addition to this incident, Reuters reported on June 15 that a prominent opposition leader in Venezuela was arrested, put on a military plane on May 3, and “has not been seen since.” This also has not, as of yet, been reported on by the networks.
This is just the latest in an ongoing pattern for these networks. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has been steadily increasing his grip on the nation, but ABC, CBS and NBC have barely talked about either his abuses of power or the increasing protests by the Venezuelan people. An MRC study released on May 30 found that out of an estimated 50,000 news stories since the death of former-Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, there have been only 25 stories on that country on the broadcast evening news shows. Even worse, only 7 of those even mentioned the word “socialism” – the root cause for much of the rampant poverty Venezuelans are forced to endure.
The motion that the Venezuelan supreme court rejected was filed by the country’s chief prosecutor, formerly a Maduro ally, who now says that her family has been threatened since she voiced her opposition to the government.
