Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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elections. 147 In reporting the Salvadoran election, the Times relied
overwhelmingly on US and Salvadoran officials. The rebels were
occasionally cited, but primarily with regard to their disruption plans.
They were also permitted to describe the election as a “farce,” but never
to expand on the reasons. In dramatic contrast, the opposition in
Nicaragua was cited extensively and given ample opportunity to explain
their objections to the planned elections. US officials and the
Nicaraguan opposition provided over 80% of the direct citations, and
constituted 60% of the sources cited (meaning that there was some
indirect reference to the Sandinistas). In contrast, US and Salvadoran
officials provided virtually all of the direct citations in the case of the
Salvadoran elections (with the exception noted above, which reinforced
the government case) and 80% of total sources (peasants constituted
0.8%).
Choice of topics reflected the same New York Times agenda. The
number of articles referring to freedom of the press, organizational
freedom and limits on opposition candidates was zero in the case of the
Salvadoran elections, whereas in the case of the Nicaraguan elections,
75% of the articles discussed freedom of the press, 50% discussed
organizational freedom, and 62.5% discussed limits on candidates. The
power of the armed forces to coerce was discussed in 37.5% of the
articles on the Nicaraguan election, in 3.6% of the articles on the
Salvadoran election. To fully appreciate this illustration of media servility
to state power, one must bear in mind that abuses of freedom of press,
organizational freedom and candidate opportunities were vastly more
severe in El Salvador, and that the direct role of the armed forces in
coercion was also far greater. There were also falsehoods in press
reporting, but their impact is minor in comparison to the effectiveness of
these more indirect methods of thought control, characteristic of the