Yes, this. It won’t happen on CNN. MSNOW personnel might argue for doing it, but whether they’d have the courage to actually do it is questionable.
It WOULD be more damaging to Trump----if any Americans became aware that it had happened.
Again, the major media outlets would likely refrain from showing anything like that. They prefer to show things that won’t put a White House bullseye on them. CNN will always devote every on-air minute to ‘people speculating about where Maduro is likely sleeping inside the MDC’ rather than showing something like Venezuelans perp-walking Americans to mirror what happened to Maduro.
My offense meter is constantly being recalibrated as my government keeps finding new ways to be offensive, no apologies are needed, unless you are employed by Trump, in which case no apologies would be enough.
They absolutely would. Again I don’t trust the media to hold Trump to any kind of accountability. But a nice blond blue eyed all american boy (or even maybe a young pretty white woman, I’m sure it’s not just men that work for Chevron) being perp walked down a corridor in the basement of a Venezuelan prison. It would be on every US News channel all day. Gauranteed.
But bringing it back to the OP did anyone see a single question asked to a Trump official about potential repercussions? Was Chevron warned and given a chance to withdraw US personnel ? These are all questions you would expect a functioning free press to ask in the aftermath of something like this FFS.
Not directly related to OP but I don’t consider YouTube to be mass media. Possibly that’s just me being old and curmudgeonly Though I don’t think any one YouTube channel has close the viewing figure of the big cable news shows yet? And if it does it’s probably some arsehole like Joe Rogan who makes regular TV news journalists look like daring and principled upholders of the public good in comparison
Apparently, yes, the oil companies (including Chevron) were given a heads-up about the US military coming onto Venezuelan soil. Something NOT done for Congress:
The bigger game is that, even if barely break-even operation, this would ensure that Venezuelan crude is continued to be traded exclusively in USD. And were that to change, that is close to an existential threat to the US way of life. You recall what happened last time somebody tried to sell their oil in Euros?
And why about the innumerable follow up questions that inevitably come to mind from that? Did Chevron warn their Venezuelan employees to leave town before the raid? Did that jeopardize the mission? Did all the US companies with employees in Venezuela have that privilege? If not what other precautions were taken? Did anyone trade on the futures market based on that data? Was a single follow up question asked? FFS
Kind of puts into perspective Donald’s claim that he couldn’t inform Congress (according to existing law) because there might be “leaks.” Not that we know for sure there were leaks from the oil people, but it stand to reason that some of the possibilities you mention did occur—and they are all leak-related.
I’m not hearing many sources talking about the theory that Maduro was given up by members of his inner circle. Which is strange, because it would make sense of a lot of what’s happened:
How quickly and effectively Maduro was seized. Why the Trump admin has been quick to reject the idea of Machado being interim leader, and not much mention of the possibility of elections in fact. And why they have instead kept the regime exactly as it was – even though it contains cronies that have US and international arrest warrants more significant than what Maduro is going down for.
Heck, when Rubio was asked about said cronies, he deflected hard, and wouldn’t say a single negative thing about them.
Considering that 30+ of his bodyguards were killed in a firefight and the acting president is demanding his release, it doesn’t seem likely.
Trump’s senile blather notwithstanding, the US isn’t “running” Venezuela. Presidential succession and the timetable for elections aren’t up to him to decide.
Actually dedicating troops to occupying Venezuela isn’t Trump’s style. He’s extremely averse to the idea of US casualties to the point that when multiple soldiers in Iraq suffered concussions after an Iranian strike, he dismissed it as “some people got a headache”. He prefers to do one quick strike and the proclaim that he’s solved the problem once and for all, circumstances on the ground be damned.
This exposes a construct from which mainstream journalists have struggled to shake loose since Trump’s first term: If the president says something, then it’s assumed true. After all his criminal convictions, civil penalties, an attempt to overthrow the government and a life-long track record of lies and fraud, because he was able to recapture the presidency, the tendency remains to paint him in the positive light possible. For some journalists and news organizations, leaning on that assumption helps create order during a chaotic situation. (It’s not that other presidents never lied to drum up support for war; they all did to varying extents, though typically made clear after the fact.) From a journalist’s perspective, however, it’s much more challenging to figure out how to cover a president who you know is actively lying to you. But it’s a challenge we reject at our own peril.
I also demand the release of Maduro. He’s the mother of my baby!
Or, that is to say, words is cheap. Maduro’s VP could have easily turned him in to the US, seeing an easy path to rulership. Following that, she just needs to stay seemingly-loyal for long enough that she can sniff out anyone who survived the attack that would prefer Maduro over her.
If we see a purge in the coming weeks and Delcy Rodriguez working to set up towers along the border to shoot anyone who’s trying to escape the country to the USA, then that’s probably our traitor.
Though I don’t think any one YouTube channel has close the viewing figure of the big cable news shows yet? And if it does it’s probably some arsehole like Joe Rogan who makes regular TV news journalists look like daring and principled upholders of the public good in comparison 