Honduras: Bloomberg Calls Referendum a Poll?

The reason for the ouster of Honduras president Manuel Zelaya last Sunday was because he was trying to ensure his re-election via referendum despite the fact his country's constitution prohibits it. The only legal way for him to get his wish is through the amendment process.

While otherwise reporting objectively on the story, Bloomberg's word choices are distubring. Instead of calling attention to the primary reason for Zelaya's ouster, Bloomberg has decided to identify the referendum as a "poll" and a "survey".

Instance #1:
Honduras’s institutions remain united in support of Zelaya’s overthrow. The Supreme Court ruled that Zelaya violated the constitution by trying to hold an illegal poll on whether people support his proposal to change the constitution. The court issued an arrest order for the president on June 26.

Instance #2:
Zelaya also ignored a court order that said he couldn’t fire the head of the military for refusing to oversee the survey, and stormed a military base with a mob of civilians to “liberate” the ballots.

Yet, when referring to how Zelaya ally Hugo Chavez did the same thing to ensure that he would retain power in Venezuela, Bloomberg DID use the term.

The Venezuelan president won a referendum to amend the constitution in February that will allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.

Just to illustrate that I'm not splitting hairs here, check out Merriam Webster's definition of referendum.

1 a: the principle or practice of submitting to popular vote a measure passed on or proposed by a legislative body or by popular initiative b: a vote on a measure so submitted

The terms "poll" and "survey" seem to insinuate that what Zelaya was doing was innocuous and without consequence other than to test sentiment. A referendum carries the tone of something that prompts some sort of action. In this case, the action would have been discarding the constitution.

As the United States, the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Mainstream Media has decided to align with Zelaya, word games such as this only serve to further alienate those in Honduras who are defending their country's constitution.

Any and all arguments coming from those in support of Hugo Chavez ally Zelaya have totally avoided the reason for his ouster, a sure sign they have no real defense for it. The spinmeister arguments simply say he was democratically elected and was the victim of an illegal coup.

Kincaid: U.S. and U.N. Aligning with Communists

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy In Media pulls no punches when it comes to his take on the Obama administration's stance on Honduras. Not only does he make the case that Obama has chosen the wrong side of this issue but he refers to Obama's alliance with the United Nations as a "plot" with respect to insisting on Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya be reinstated.


The people of Honduras are pleading for media fairness and understanding of how they saved their democratic system of government from an international conspiracy based in Venezuela and Cuba. In desperate messages to the outside world, Hondurans want America to know they do not want former President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya returned to power through the intervention of the United States and the United Nations.

On Tuesday the leftist governments of Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez sponsored a United Nations resolution that condemned the people of Honduras for resisting the spread of communism by evicting a would-be dictator. Many people in Honduras view "Mel" as a puppet of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who is destroying the democratic system and the opposition in that country.

Read the entire article....

The media bias on this issue just might trump "THE THRILL" that shot up Chris Matthews' leg after hearing Obama speak. The real issue in Honduras relative to Zelaya's ouster is not even being referenced by the "MainStreamMedia".

If Kincaid is right, Obama is not just appeasing communist dictators - he's aligning with them.