Editor's Comment: At Axis of Logic, we have always held that there is no such thing as "value free" or "neutral" media the corporate media claims to be. All human behavior including the work of journalists rises out of a set of presuppositions and values held by individuals and organizations. Nowheree can this be more clearly seen in news conglomerates like Reuters, Associated Press, McClatchy, Bloomberg News and their news outlets like the NYT, WP, LAT, et. al. Axis of Logic itself is written and published with underlying values steeped in socialism and anti-imperialism. AVN president Freddy Fernandez has it right when he states:
“Let it be clearly understood that there is no journalism without ideology. It is stupid to believe that someone practices journalism from an impartial point of view.”
The false image of neutrality and value-free journalism perpetrated by the corporate media is only meant to deceive the reader. The difference between media like Axis of Logic and AVN - and - the capitalist media is that we admit our set of assumptions. They do not.
- Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic
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Freddy Fernandez, President of Venezuela News Agency (AVN) |
Caracas, 21 Jun. AVN.- Venezuela"s News Agency (AVN, Spanish abbreviation), which replaces the Bolivarian News Agency, represents the fulfillment of a transformation process in the State News Agency, with the aim to foster a journalism committed with the fight of the Venezuelan people and the world.
The statement was said by AVN president Freddy Fernandez on Monday morning during an interview at the state-run television VTV.
Similarly, he expressed that this is the fulfillment of an effort to create a more modern agency, able to edit and broadcast news items faster and deeper nationwide.
Fernandez affirmed that the denomination “bolivarian” is being preserved for a project of agency with an international transcendence related to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).
In this connection, AVN president expressed that next Saturday will be held a meeting in Venezuela in order to lay the foundations of this initiative, since it already counts with the support of the ALBA member states.
Analyzing the dynamic of mass media in Venezuela, Fernandez expressed: “Let it be clearly understood that there is no journalism without ideology. It is stupid to believe that someone practices journalism from an impartial point of view.”
He explained that the most worrying aspect is that exists “a very dangerous” bloc of unconsciousness in the practice of journalism among a group of dishonest professionals who openly act against the values of the profession. They try to manipulate reality, hide the facts and present just what favors their view, while there is another sector that does not even know what happens or perhaps they do not care about it.
Furthermore, Fernandez reminded that schools of media and communications in Venezuela, since the eighties, train professionals for the market, so most of the graduates have a neoliberal view of reality through which they understand the country"s political reality.
“Journalists have an ethical value that no one can infringe, which is truth,” AVN president emphasized.
Fernandez commented as well that in Venezuela does not exist a debate on public property, even though the value it has in the domestic economy.
Moreover, the commented that AVN is destined precisely to boost that debate, as well as to spread the interests of the Venezuelan people.
Source: Venezuela News Agency (AVN)