Generally speaking The New York Times is the avatar/quintessence of on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand journalism. That is to say, that when reporting any conflict wherein one side is perpetrating an obvious injustice on another, they’ll twist themselves into editorial knots in order to create the appearance of disinterest, objectivity and balance. With that in mind, I invite you to read the lead paragraphs of the following article that appeared in that paper yesterday under the title: Honduran Security Forces Accused of Abuse:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Rosamaria Valeriano Flores was returning home from a visit to a public health clinic and found herself in a crowd of people dispersing from a demonstration in support of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. As she crossed the central square of the Honduran capital, a group of soldiers and police officers pushed her to the ground and beat her with their truncheons.
She said the men kicked out most of her top teeth, broke her ribs and split open her head. “A policeman spit in my face and said, ‘You will die,’ ” she said, adding that the attack stopped when a police officer shouted at the men that they would kill her.
Ms. Valeriano, 39, was sitting in the office of a Tegucigalpa human rights group last week, speaking about the assault, which took place on Aug. 12. As she told her story, mumbling to hide her missing teeth, she pointed to a scar on her scalp and to her still-sore left ribs.
Since Mr. Zelaya was removed in a June 28 coup, security forces have tried to halt opposition with beatings and mass arrests, human rights groups say. Eleven people have been killed since the coup, according to the Committee for Families of the Disappeared and Detainees in Honduras, or Cofadeh.
Try as they might, even The Times is having trouble providing “balance” in what is rapidly turning into a hemispheric disgrace. Today arrives a press release from our very own Dudley Do Right, Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent (who’s daring do I’ve discussed in these precincts before), telling us he’s off to a meeting of the OAS in Honduras to set the matter straight.
‘We are hopeful that the mission will help advance the process of national dialogue and reconciliation involving representatives of both parties,’ said Minister of State Kent.
Presumably by “both parties” Kent means, on the one hand, the party getting its teeth kicked in and their heads split open, on the other, the party doing the kicking and the splitting.
