What the New York Times Got Wrong on Bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

By endorsing a military coup against a democratically elected government, the Times betrayed its values and its journalists.
By Greg Grandin

When a leader resorts to brazenly abusing the power and institutions put in his care by the electorate, as President Evo Morales did in Bolivia, it is he who sheds his legitimacy, and forcing him out often becomes the only remaining option. That is what the Bolivians have done….

— The New York Times editorial board, “Evo Morales Is Gone. Bolivia’s Problems Aren’t,” November 11, 2019

No one who believes in democracy—much less the flagship newspaper of a nation that claims to be the hemisphere’s arbiter of democracy—should ever support a military coup against a democratically elected government. The military coup in Bolivia is a crime, and a serious one. It has already led to considerable repression and violence, and could possibly even lead to civil war.

And while a crime is still a crime even if there are mitigating circumstances, there were no mitigating circumstances here. In fact, Evo Morales had already accepted the demands of his political opposition and to the Organization of American States (OAS), agreeing to hold new elections under new electoral authorities. But the perpetrators of the coup did not accept these concessions and chose instead to overthrow the government.

This coup is an attempt by the rich, non-indigenous elite to take by force what they could not win at the ballot box; to overthrow Bolivia’s first indigenous president in a country that has the largest percentage of indigenous population in the hemisphere.

More:
https://www.thenation.com/article/bolivia-times-morales-coup/

[FiveGoodMen]

1. We can thank them for Iraq as well

Remember Judith Miller?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Never will be able to forget her name. She sold that war to people who don't take time to think.

She also taught anyone who does take time to think that even the biggest sources now have to be tested and never swallowed automatically any longer, if they ever were.

Judith Miller. OMG.

By the way, the NY Times also had 3 reporters on Latin America who simply couldn't be trusted again: Juan Forero, Francisco Toro, Simon Romero. Sad, sad times.