Jonathan Rugman

Jonathan Rugman, 6 July 2007, photo: Kristoffer Larsson

Jonathan Rugman is Channel 4 News's Diplomatic correspondent, and his "beat includes foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, Europe and the Middle East". Previously he was C4's Washington correspondent covering the US elections and Hurricane Katrina.

Demonizing Venezuela

On 27 March 2006, Jonathan Rugman presented "Hugo to go?" on Channel 4 News wherein he relentlessly smeared Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, in a piece described by John Pilger as "one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen". Media Lens summarized the piece:

Rugman's film [...] showed footage of Chávez with Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and Qadaffi. Rugman's voiceover, strident and dramatic, hammered home the point:

"He supplies 15 per cent of America's oil, yet America's enemies are his friends. Hugo Chávez, in danger of joining a rogue's gallery of dictators and despots - Washington's latest Latin nightmare".

The film repeatedly depicted Chávez as a dictatorial menace, referring to his "personality cult" and to factories run as "Soviet-style collectives". Rugman asked:

"Is Chávez on the way to becoming a dictator?"

[. . .] Rugman interviewed Maria Corina Machado, describing her as a "civil rights activist". In fact she is a leader of Sumate, an extreme right organisation that was deeply involved in a 2002 coup that temporarily ousted Chávez[...] In a March 23 report Rugman again described Machado as a "civil rights activist", citing her as the source for his claim that "government critics" are "fearing another Zimbabwe here".

John Pilger sent a letter to Channel 4 News complaining of Rugman's report:

"This was a piece seemingly written by the US State Department, although Channel 4's Washington correspondent, Jonathan Rugman, appeared on screen. It was one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen, qualifying as crude propaganda. I have been in Venezuela lately and almost nothing in Rugman's rant coincides with reality. Factories are like 'Soviet collectives'; a dictatorship is on the rise; Chávez is like Hitler (Rumsfeld); and the media is under government attack. The inversion of the truth throughout this travesty is demonstrated in the 'coverage' of a cowed media. Venezuela is a country in which 95 per cent of the press and TV and radio are owned by the far-right, who mount unrelenting daily attacks on the government unhindered. The Latin American Murdoch, Cisneros, unfettered, controls much of it. Indeed, it is probably the most concentrated, reactionary media on earth - but that was not worthy of a single word from Rugman."