your super and call for the establishment of a transitional government a car bomb has hit the syrian government stronghold of lotsa kiya a second device was defused one civilian was killed and fourteen were injured it's a rare attack in an area seen as the traditional home of the assad family the family of a missing activist in sudan is appealing for u.s. help. has joined sudanese and american citizenship his wife says he was arrested last week as he was preparing to attend an anti-government protest zimbabwe's human rights commission is accusing security forces of systemic torture after recent protests the violence president is promising an investigation the u.s. senate is likely to vote this week on bills that if passed could end the month long partial government shutdown the competing proposals by republicans and democrats would see several federal agencies reopen it's the longest government shutdown in u.s. history those are the headlines i'll be back with more news here after the listening

post do stay with us. russian filmmaker under a necker self continues his journey across his homeland to discover what life is like undo putin during his travels he meets christians and muslims patriots and separatists i told you the locals in the southeast will know when i arrive i don't do something completely different some of them to leave russia but for others the russian passport means hope and the challenge of happened in search of putin's russia on knowledge is zero. zero. zero zero one zero zero zero credit for us. right. now the. pressure.

hello i'm richard burton you're at the listening post here are some of the stories we're covering this week venezuela president maduro begins his second term and the media landscape looks far different than when he began his first the sudanese government faces street protests and turns to an online clampdown that straight out of the strongman playbook the wall street journal hoax and the perils of single source journalism plus had geography and american presidents nothing so becomes their legacy as their passing earlier this month nicolas maduro was sworn in for a second term as venezuela's president the election that got him there was widely condemned as rigged and opposition voices were mostly absent from the airwaves the case against him of doro and his treatment of the media is compelling his critics say that since he first took office in two thousand and thirteen almost one hundred radio and television stations have been censored or shut down as well as thirty three newspapers another fifty journalists have been prosecuted. we've been

following the media story in venezuela for more than a decade now when the duros predecessor and mentor the late hugo chavez came to power he pledged to confront the right wing media outlets that dominated political discourse at the time to democratize the media and give voice to the country's poor however venezuelans now suffer under chronic shortages and not just of food and medicine of information the pendulum has swung the other way and there are signs aplenty that venezuela's bolivarian revolution has lost its way our starting point this week is the capital. infusion from assuming they do you eat their lives don't think in the moment the evolving from close is good as healthy thinking and feeling good. about money. even if you go to see it in equal number you don't. see that.

they. get mass it's more propaganda than information. it's evidence that they're adhering to the guidelines given by the ministry of communications despite the doubts and the controversies that have arisen. the official line tries to justify the existence of the power reality to the one that venezuelans a living on a daily basis the content to sweeten the order to avoid contradicting official reports that's the reality of journalism and that's why the government exercises extreme control especially in broadcast media. for voices on the state of the news media in a country that's as polarized as any on the planet the government. official from

the human rights commission the academic a specialist on political discourse in venezuela and two journalists plying their trade online partly due to a shortage of paper the election held last may was considered a sham by the un the e.u. and the organization of american states and recognized as legitimate by among others china russia and cuba the two main opposition figures were both disqualified from running voter turnout was the lowest ever the millions fleeing the country are now part of the biggest refugee surge in latin american history chased by chronic shortages and inflation the details of which they cannot count on their government and the media it mostly controls to provide a way to proceed by the primary source of information is the venezuelan government but it doesn't actually inform the know details about inflation or what the g.d.p.

is little bit ok when the time a comment on the little sign you think i must say me and the lot of seal into it i meant that. if they see a good economy. carissa we've ignored those essential statistics for years when the state stops informing and instead produces propaganda and uncertainty rules and rumors becomes clear at almost every minute. the minnesota has been subjected to unilateral sanctions illegal measures which is not shown by the media they only show the consequences of those sanctions the crisis that's come as a result is a biased account is demonize the country's image which in turn justifies any subsequent action in the scene see many. venezuelans government does have powerful adversaries starting with a superpower to the north the takes a disproportionate interest in oil rich countries two days after the inauguration

the trumpet ministration said it was looking at all the options on how we influence the outcome in venezuela is going to he's sure to drive a nationwide policy they are already out of washington has imposed three sets of economic sanctions on kind of us and they've had an effect they also provide the doodle government with the convenient there to get us america to fall back on some long seven if i don't. want to be on in that i mean we're going to see i mean it's along. the economic crisis and the resulting shortages don't just affect consumers they affect the news industry last month i'm not sure now a newspaper founded in one thousand forty three published its final edition one of the reasons given was a shortage of newsprint. and that's what i remember you go well national is one of the most important newspapers in venezuela when it was launched it represented

a very innovative moment in journalism it opposed to hugo chavez's government in the nicolas maduro system and as a consequence it's suffered retaliation to a consequence you are going to see what you have. been losing its. original essence for a while it was once one of the most influential newspapers in venezuela with a print run of two hundred thousand copies and by the end it had to crease dramatically to five to six thousand dollars made up of very few pages you know that is going to go out in the. most famous one has a serious problem when it comes to getting certain supplies like paper which is not made here and which we cannot afford to pools so of course the media is going to suffer media still in circulation but online that's just the global reality so it's unfair to suggest that media outlets are being closed down as if they still there but they're on the internet but. this

journalism isn't widespread venezuela has the worst internet in latin america and it's very difficult for people to use their phones in public like in the u.s. and europe there is too much crime and also websites suffer constant attacks we suspect that it's people from the government. there's a context a history to the story of the venezuelan me when hugo chavez was elected in one thousand nine hundred nine the first leftist president in forty years the vast majority of news outlets tilted to the right they were openly hostile to charges is full of aryan revolution in two thousand and two charters was briefly deposed in a coup one that the media didn't just cover they were participants recognized for their efforts by coup leaders. who said they could not have overthrown the democratically elected charges without the help of right wing media outlets like veni vidi on our c.t.v.

and global vision the changes to the media landscape that then began under charges have accelerated under nicolas maduro global vision is just one example having backed the coup in two thousand and two under one set of owners it is now. in the hands of. a promo doro businessman countless other media outlets including major newspapers like el universal and will to mass look to see us have gone the same way what began as a government enforced market correction a defensible response to a media sector that was out of control has since grown into a crackdown. in which i thought they meant that they were not not when chavez was in office he enjoyed popular support most of the time so repression wasn't so necessary by the time a door it came to power a sympathy for the government fell significantly due to the economic situation the social situation and so repression against the media increases that it was going to

remember. is that it's all magical a very babs that's the difference with the past chavez was much more patient despite the fact that the media tried to destroy him and his family and the mother would all have been times when those who run the media should be held to account why because freedom of expression doesn't mean impunity is not just me who says it isn't tried in international treaties as well as our own constitution about the matter and i leave those an awful. lot as well as you are we are the ones telling the truth that's what the government says but for the system to work we need media outlets that have no relationship to the government so they can tell us what's really happening and good government needs to be able to take criticism from its citizens their problem is that the reality is very obvious and there is no way to hide it any longer everyone is.

we're looking at other media stories that are on our radar this week with one of our producers tarek enough tarik security services in sudan have been trying to limit coverage of protests that began there last month this past week close to thirty journalists were rounded up all from the same newspaper why would they target the journalist who working for an outlet called a jedi which is refused to comply with government censorship the newspaper and others have received almost nightly visits from the security services who harass editors and dictate what they're allowed to publish geneva has refused to toe the line and it's clearly paying the price the sunday issue of the paper was banned from publication for the third time in a row and more than ten of its editions of been seized since protests began in mid december when its journalists held a sits in outside the headquarters of the national intelligence and security twenty

eight of them including the editor adelaide these were arrested ok so that's the government trying to control the output of one newspaper what about the online side where censorship can be so much more difficult to enforce so the internet is being thankful to the organization of these protests are brick hashtags like sudan cities revolts have been used to mobilize people then documents and broadcast demonstrations to the world president bush it knows that and he's ordered the internet provider of to block access to proper phones like facebook twitter and what that it's very egypt two thousand and eleven the restrictions haven't really what protesters of use virtual private networks the p.m.'s to get around them and videos like this one a security force that's trying to mow down protesters have been shed extensively on mine. all right. moving on so last week the wall street journal reports that an american conservative activist has been

banned from twitter after complaints by some muslim advocacy group but the story turns out to be some kind of hoax yes and a lab or one of the activist laura linney a far right online personality who was suspended from twitter for a slime a phobic comments a pair of internet prank that came up with a plan to see how easy it would be to convince her that shadowy muslim groups were responsible for getting how bad and so they posed to the disgruntled twitter employee and convince women that twitter theme jack dorsey had met with the council on american islamic relations with kat and they had lobbied for her account to be taken down it was a lie but limit lots it up and part of the hoax is wanted to see if she would take the story to an outlet like in for was so they could expose how the right wing media food chain was instead lehman went to the wall street journal which published her account seemingly without any cooperating evidence or proper fact checking

bottom line a prank designed to expose the far right media bubble inadvertently revealed from very shoddy journalistic standards one of the most widely read newspapers in the u.s. ok thanks dark. turning now to had geography the definition of which is a biography that treats its subject with undue reference journalists occasionally serve up obituaries that are reverential the u.s. news media produced a few of them last year first for the former senator and prisoner of war john mccain then for george h.w. bush the country's president from one thousand nine hundred eighty nine to ninety three who died in november bush's obituary suffered from a syndrome that critics call obit omit focusing on attributes and achievements taking up column inches and television airtime while controversial aspects of his record among them alleged war crimes were omitted such obituaries fail news

consumers see enough of them and you'll find that they reveal more about the journalist producing them and the news outlet involved than they do about the deceased the listening posts daniel to a t. now on the white washing of history in real time. when americans watch the news they have a variety of channels to choose from across the political spectrum but in the wake of a political death it can be hard to spot the difference he was truly one of a kind on the thirtieth of november two thousand and eighteen george h.w. bush the forty first president of the united states died though president bush faced victory and defeat tragedy can triumph with modesty humor and uncommon grace my mind went to heart what a nice gentleman the want to wall coverage was dominated by tributes that range from the admiring to the sentimental the former president remembered for his sense of decency his kindness his commitment to others the coverage of. george bush

sr it is death really emphasized personal qualities at the expense of policy because lot of folks have been asking what's next for sully and even his dog who is . no they got more coverage than any dog since lassie when as we watched the pictures we wondered aloud is suddenly just as sad as the humans who are missing this man so very much every see did this like you know remarkable report by jenna bush bigger to a grandfather it's my turn to write a love letter. i read one could take it as a sort of like nice family tribute but then why are they employ a good journalist to cover her own family what do you want your legacy to be it has a defect of their deeply to sizing bush and making him you know this kind of like you know generic lovable ground there you don't really get a sense of you know this man was president he made decisions that literally were life and death for hundreds of thousands of people who i saw very little coverage

of what he did politically they were constantly talking about him being a new person a ball having class decency honor integrity caring about his children his grandchildren and they have a place and talking about their loved one and him but i think we have a responsibility in the media to go beyond that to have an honest assessment of an absolutely critical period of u.s. history we also have to remember the victims of his policy the thousands of people who died in panama who died in iraq who didn't get a chance to write letters to their grandchildren and their great grandchildren when you look at how the american media covered george h.w. bush and they reflect the kind of outlook that seems to be under siege that is a country first at nineteen he became the youngest navy bomber pilot in world war

two all the memories of george bush's reaching across party lines the fact that he wasn't a hater all that i think accounts for the fact that the coverage was overwhelmingly if not totally positive this morning we were man. his life and his tremendous legacy when the eulogy addressed bush's record they offered a somewhat starry eyed view of his time in the white house what a great man george h.w. bush was and how he guided america in the world through the ending of the cold war how he unified chairman and the president more controversial aspects of bush's legacy were given short shrift his two years as director of the cia were crossed over.