Propaganda in Action: So, who’s going to win the election in Venezuela?

If one were to get one’s information from the media one would think that today’s referendum to reform the constitution in Venezuela wasn’t even a close competition.

Here are all polls on the Venezeuala referendum that were released.

Polling Company:	Date:	Yes side	No side	Source:
IVAD	Sept. 12	40.6	22.5	here
Hinterlaces	Oct. 5	31	41	here
IVAD	Nov. 16	38.8	42.7	here
Data	Nov. 21	30	41	here
Keller & Associates	Nov. 23	31	45	here
Datanálisis	Nov. 24	30.8	44.6	here
Hinterlaces	Nov. 26	38	51	here
Mercanálisis	Nov. 27	37	58	here
Consultants 30.11	Nov. 28	56	40	here
Hinterlaces	Nov. 29	37	58	here

Wow, doesn’t even look close does it?

Let’s take another look at those last two polls again, shall we.

Consultants 30.11	Nov. 28	56	40	here
Hinterlaces	Nov. 29	37	58	here

Those two polls were conducted during the same time period and yet showed almost the exact opposite results.

It’s clear that one of those two polling firms is going to look very very stupid once all the votes are cast in the election. So, with the polling stations now closed and exit polls rolling in, which polling company got shown up to be making results up?

Answer: the anti-Chavez Hinterlaces.

Exit polls have begun rolling in and it looks as though Chavez is headed to a victory in the neighbourhood of 56-58%.

The latest exit polls now show that the Chavez is headed for a narrow defeat in the referendum.

Al-Jazeera English is now giving reports of conflicting exit polls and is listing the election as too close to call.

But, it is still worth asking how the media been spinning this? Well, by re-writing history of course.

Reuters reported that

“Most pre-vote opinion surveys predicted a close vote on the package of constitutional changes that the opposition and even some former longtime allies say is authoritarian.” (source)

Really? Show me the poll up there that pointed to a close vote? I see two groups of polls: Those that were right on the money, and then the bourgeois polls which I think have now more or less been revealed to be complete works of propaganda.

The Daily Telegraph in the UK wrote a short wherein they wrote that

“last-minute opinion polls looked to narrowly favour the No vote.” (source)

So when the capitalist media’s own considerable propaganda proves inaccurate, they can always re-wright history to avoid any embarrassments.

“Day by day, almost minute by minute, the past was brought up to date.”
-George Orwell, 1984

~ Viva La Revolución ~

See Also:

The Propaganda in Action Series

One of these things is not like the others…

More pro-conservative opinion manipulation at Angus-Reid