Venezuela's crisis and the geopolitics of news narratives | The Listening Post (Full)

Summary: On The Listening Post this week: As the speaker of Venezuela's National Assembly proclaims himself 'President', we analyse international coverage of the crisis. Plus, Serbian media under Vucic. Venezuela's crisis and the geopolitics of news narratives When opposition figure Juan Guaido declared himself interim president in Venezuela last week, he was quickly backed by the US and many other governments. The US news media covered the push to remove President Nicolas Maduro, without saying what that attempt, if successful, would amount to - a coup. The coverage also mostly stayed away from the role successive American administrations - through economic sanctions - have played in handicapping the Venezuelan economy. As Iraqis, Iranians, Libyans and others would tell you, this isn't the first time the US has taken a disproportionate interest in the governance of a country loaded with oil. Washington has a playbook for this kind of thing. And so, apparently, do the US media. Contributors Alan McLeod - Author, 'Bad News from Venezuela' Jairo Lugo-Ocando - Professor, Northwestern University in Qatar Oscar Guardiola-Rivera - Lecturer, University of London Abby Martin - Host, 'The Empire Files' Rory Carroll - Former Latin America correspondent, The Guardian & Author, 'Comandante: Hugo Chavez's Venezuela' On our radar Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about Sudan's crackdown on the media following weeks of anti-government protests, and the UK's Daily Telegraph story on Melania Trump that contained not one, but a heap of factual inaccuracies. Protesting Serbia's muzzled media Thousands of protesters marched in Belgrade this past weekend, the ninth straight week of mass anti-government demonstrations. But news outlets that either back or fear President Aleksandar Vucic, and that's the majority of the Serbian media, have either ignored the movement or minimised its news value. For protesters, this doesn't come as a surprise. They have been calling for an end to what they say are Vucic's authoritarian tendencies and his creeping control of the media. The Listening Post's Johanna Hoes reports from Belgrade, on the state of journalism in the Vucic era. Contributors Aleksandar Gajovic - State Secretary, Ministry of Culture and Information Zeljko Bodrozic - Vice President, Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia Filip Svarm - Executive Editor, Vreme Tanja Maksic - Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) More from The Listening Post on: YouTube - http://aje.io/listeningpostYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/AJListeningPost Twitter - http://twitter.com/AJListeningPost Website - http://aljazeera.com/listeningpost - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/