The Foggy Bottom Cuckoo: editions worldwide (Scoop - Toni Solo)

Tuesday, 1 July 2008, 12:37 pm - Scoop - Column: Toni Solo - The US State Department's little known but widely read propaganda sheet, the Foggy Bottom Cuckoo, has editions in the liberal press of most Western Bloc countries. In the US, it usually pokes its beak out of the Washington Post or the New York Times. In Spain, it mostly fools readers into thinking it is El País. In the UK it often gulls unsuspecting readers by mugging itself up as the Guardian or The Observer.

The Cuckoo regurgitates pre-digested US State Department tit-bits and spews them all over its surrogate media's unsuspecting readers. Surprisingly, they seldom seem to notice and seem happy to pay for the propaganda bath as a matter of routine. Recent examples abound, with the Cuckoo regularly throwing up yucky gobbets of pap on Iran, Venezuela and, lately, Nicaragua.

Marcela Sanchez' recent Foggy Bottom Cuckoo piece on Nicaragua originally appeared in the Washington Post, being re-published in Nicaragua media empresario Carlos Fernando Chamorro's web-based news magazine Confidencial" on June 22nd. The very first line of Sanchez' piece repeated the US State Department claim that freedom and democracy are at risk in Nicaragua.

Sanchez cites three examples. First, she notes the cancellation of legal status for the Movimiento Renovador Sandinista and Conservative parties. Secondly, she refers to the postponement of local elections in municipalities of the northern Atlantic Coast region badly affected by Hurricane Felix towards the end of 2007. Finally, she cites the recognition of Eliseo Nuñez (Senior) rather than Eduardo Montealgre as the president of the Alianza Liberal Nicaragüense.

Only people with a special interest in Nicaragua will have a clue about the detail involved in these events and this lack of information is something Sanchez exploits so as to avoid alternative explanations that discredit her argument. In the first case she ignores the failure of the MRS to satisfy simple administrative requirements which the electoral authorities gave them nearly 15 months to satisfy.

For the complete article, go to: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0807/S00004.htm