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The media’s fake news about Latin America
TIM YOUNG demonstrates how Western coverage of South America is heavily biased against the continent’s progressive leaders, movements and governments
FACT NOT FAKE: Demonstrators protest against pension reforms proposed by the government and holding an cutout of President Michel Temer, 10 days ago

“Fake news” may have shot to prominence in 2017, courtesy of Donald Trump, but the power of the corporate media to mislead, misinform and under-inform for political purposes — usually to protects the interests of those who control the media and their powerful allies — has deeper roots.

And when deployed in Latin America, it has had serious consequences for ordinary citizens, as a look at three countries reveals.    

In Brazil, privately owned news media, including O Globo, the second-largest commercial TV network in the world, supplied wall-to-wall coverage of the anti-government rallies in 2016 against President Dilma Rousseff.

Opposition to privatisation and
greater austerity triggered the Rousseff impeachment process

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