Danger! WaPo op-ed! Stay back at least 100 ft.!

most of the time, when i read crap like this, i intuitively and unconsciously factor in the spin... i skim through and, once i've gotten the gist, i move on... however, i think every once in a while it's both important and useful to be a bit more thorough and, paragraph-by-paragraph, word-by-word, and phrase-by-phrase, dissect just exactly how the writer is choosing to get his or her point across...

this op-ed in today's wapo, excoriating the democrats for being cool toward colombia's president, provides a perfect opportunity to see how our media can toy with our collective heads...

first, they set the stage by introducing the Star of the Show...

Colombian President Álvaro Uribe may be the most popular democratic leader in the world. Last week, as he visited Washington, a poll showed his approval rating at 80.4 percent -- extraordinary for a politician who has been in office nearly five years.

then they paint him as an unassailable Good Guy...

In a region where populist demagogues are on the offensive, Mr. Uribe stands out as a defender of liberal democracy, not to mention a staunch ally of the United States.

then we meet the Bad Guys, and get treated to some examples of their exceptionally Bad Behavior...

After a meeting with the Democratic congressional leadership, Mr. Uribe was publicly scolded by House Majority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose statement made no mention of the "friendship" she recently offered Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Human Rights Watch, which has joined the Democratic campaign against Mr. Uribe, claimed that "today Colombia presents the worst human rights and humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere" -- never mind Venezuela or Cuba or Haiti. Former vice president Al Gore, who has advocated direct U.S. negotiations with the regimes of Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, recently canceled a meeting with Mr. Uribe because, Mr. Gore said, he found the Colombian's record "deeply troubling."

next comes the Righteous Astonishment that anyone could treat a Hero of Latin American Democracy so poorly...

In fact this has been well-known for years; what's new is that investigations by Colombia's Supreme Court and attorney general have resulted in the jailing and prosecution of politicians and security officials. Many of those implicated come from Mr. Uribe's Conservative Party, and his former intelligence chief is under investigation. But the president himself has not been charged with wrongdoing. On the contrary: His initiative to demobilize 30,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters last year paved the way for the current investigations, which he and his government have supported and funded.

naturally, the motives of the Bad Guys are called into question...

• Some, like Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), reflexively resist U.S. military aid to Latin America.

• Some, like Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), are eager to torpedo Colombia's pending free-trade agreement with the United States [and] have seized on the supposed human rights "crisis" as a pretext to blackball Colombia.

• Perhaps Mr. Uribe is being punished by Democrats, too, because he has remained an ally of George W. Bush even as his neighbor, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, portrays the U.S. president as "the devil."

and, of course, as a conclusion, we have a dire prediction of the Horrible Scenario that will ensue if the Bad Guys are allowed to prevail...

If the Democrats succeed in wounding Mr. Uribe or thwarting his attempt to consolidate a democracy that builds its economy through free trade, the United States may have to live without any Latin American allies.

with the story line in place, let's focus on the spin, or, as jeffrey feldman would no doubt say, the "frame..." it doesn't take a lot of analysis, let me tell you... from the top... (note: not all of these are contained in the excerpts above but are included in the full article...)

• most popular democratic leader in the world
• extraordinary for a politician
• rescued their country from near-failed-state status
• murder rate has dropped by nearly half
• the free-market economy is booming
• a defender of liberal democracy
• a staunch ally of the United States
• populist demagogues
  
• publicly scolded
• joined the Democratic campaign against Mr. Uribe
• found the Colombian's record "deeply troubling"
• backlash
• opposed him all along
• reflexively resist
• eager to torpedo
• protectionist hard-liners
• blackball
• punished
• ally of George W. Bush
• badly misguided
• consolidate a democracy that builds its economy through free trade

yes, i realize that this is an op-ed, and it's meant to express a point of view, but, wow...! a lengthier list of value and connotation-packed, ideology-loaded, and, yes, manipulative words would be hard to come by... the casual reader, breezing through this screed, articulate and polished though it is, could only come away thinking that the democrats are fiercely determined to, as the wapo puts it, "torpedo" the one good thing that's happening for the u.s. vis a vis latin america, and, morever, stomp on everything that's good and right with our country... it's truly a masterpiece of spin and framing, one that undoubtedly takes many, many years of experience and hard work to be able to write...

in a subsequent post, let me give a bit of context on what's REALLY going on in colombia...

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