Steve Fritsch - Publisher stevefritsch@thecincinnatusstandard.com

Justin Jeffre and the Cincinnati Beacon: Anti-American and Pro-Hugo Chavez?

.

The Cincinnati Beacon (www.cincinnatibeacon.com) is one of the few local blogs I check out everyday. The Beacon is definitely a politically left web site, but it often has some interesting stories of what is going on around the Cincinnati area. For all my differences in opinions and beliefs with the Beacon's main contributor, Jason Haap (AKA The Dean of Cincinnati), I have always personally gotten along with Jason and think he is a good person (though he does have a tendency to go overboard sometimes on things... but then again, we all go overboard sometimes).

.

However, despite the Beacon's ability to sometimes break local news before the big media outlets get their hands on it, as well as some interesting interviews and other stories, it is definitely awful in one big aspect: Justin Jeffre.

.

Jeffre, a member of the famous boy-band 98 Degrees, joined forces with Haap during his ill fated run for mayor of Cincinnati in 2005 (Jeffre received only 708 votes in the non-partisan primary, accounting for approximately one and a half percent of the total vote) and has been a key contributor for the Beacon ever since. Despite what his name recognition may or may not do for the site, Jeffre ends up making the Beacon go from "leftist" to "uber-leftist" with his typical stale and outdated liberal talking points and anti-American rhetoric. Jeffre's posts are usually filled with ''historical facts'' backed with opinions from leftist college professors and journalists. The real fact, however, is that Jeffre's ''historical facts'' are often very wrong and the opinions he often cites are generally from individuals who have very little credibility in mainstream history, political science, and journalism circles.

.

One has to assume that Jeffre's blog entries are influenced largely from reading the likes of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and when an individual stoops to this low level of sources then all objectivity and credibility gets thrown out the window. In doing this, Jeffre turns the Beacon from a once respectable, but clearly liberal site, into an anti-American, pro-socialist site that becomes difficult for any moderate American not to read without disdain and utter contempt.

.

In a recent column posted on March 9, 2007, Jeffre continues his nonsensical ways with major historical inaccuracies and a defense of socialist dictator Hugo Chavez. And since yours truly takes history very seriously and absolutely abhors Hugo Chavez, I cannot sit back and let Jeffre easily distort the past and badmouth the United States.

.

So here it is, point for point, a total rebuke of Jeffre's column of supposed ''historical facts'' and ''reality has a bias to the left'' message.

.

.

"Latin Americans may be poor, but they have a much better understanding of US foreign policy than many Americans." -- Justin Jeffre

.

Really? Where is Jeffre's proof that Latin Americans have more knowledge of U.S. foreign policy than many Americans? The simple answer is he doesn't provide any proof and that is because none exists. Sure, Jeffre is somewhat correct that a majority of Americans are apathetic on foreign policy matters, but what he refuses to point out is that, unlike Central and South America, in the United States any citizen has easy access to any document they so desire regarding U.S. foreign policy. The same cannot be said for many of the nations in that part of the world (Communist Cuba, Chavez's closest ally, being one glaring example).

.

.

"Brendan describes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a clown and a dictator, but Chavez has an approval rating in the 70% range versus Bush's 30%. The democratically elected Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2001 in a US backed coup and then restored to power just days later in a popular uprising." -- Justin Jeffre

.

First of all, it is absurd that Jeffre basically stands up and defends Hugo Chavez, a man who is blatantly anti-democratic and who is a friend and supporter of Cuba's mass-murdering dictator Fidel Castro and Iran's Jew-hating, Holocaust denying madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

.

Second of all, Jeffre is flat out wrong to suggest that Chavez is ''popular'' with his people when Chavez controls the media, and pretty much everything else, in Venezuela. (I'll admit Chavez is popular with the majority of poor people in Venezuela, but according to Foreign Policy Magazine, his support by the poor is ''not enough to overwhelm the opposition.'' Foreign Policy also adds that, ''Chavez's populism is grandiose, but selective. His supporters receive unimaginable favors while detractors are paid in insults.") Additionally, for Jeffre to try and compare President Bush and Hugo Chavez by using the latest ''approval'' ratings only ''exemplifies the arrogance of ignorance'' that Jeffre talks about in his criticisms of blogger Brendan Cronin of Spacetropic.com. (This is especially amusing considering that Cronin is more intelligent than Jeffre could ever hope to be).

.

Regarding Chavez, let's take a look at what others (some of which come from moderate and liberal sources) have said about him, as well as recent news stories involving Venezuela.

.

.

Foreign Policy Magazine (January/February 2006) -- ''(Chavez) has concentrated power, harassed opponents, punished reporters, persecuted civic organizations, and increased state control of the economy'' and has ''fashioned authoritarianism for a democratic age.''

.

PBS's Online NewsHour (December 28, 2006)

Venezuela's Media Wrestles with Stigmas, New Rules

Freedom House, a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization, ranks Venezuela second only to Cuba in terms of suppressing press freedom in the Americas, citing specific laws recently enacted that have "deteriorated" the legal environment for the press... Despite their continuing work, activists say Venezuela's private media is nothing short of repressed?

.

ASSOCIATED PRESS (March 9, 2007) Chavez's policies drive his people out

By Laura Wides-Munoz

As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tightens control of the South American country's economy, wealthy Venezuelans who once thought they could live with his socialist edicts are turning to their backup plan -- flight to the United States, particularly Florida.

.

Finally, regarding Jeffre's assertion that "Chavez was briefly overthrown in 2001 in a US backed coup," it also lacks proof.

.

According to CNN, "In July (2002), the U.S. State Department found that the United States did not play a role in the coup attempt." In addition, "The (Bush) administration did not deny reports that senior members of the administration had met several times with leaders of the group that had toppled Chavez, but denied it gave any approval to coup planners."

.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that the CIA may have given some assistance to those Venezuelans who opposed Chavez, but there is no proof that they did. (In fact, I highly doubt the CIA did give assistance. The coup lasted for only three days! If the CIA was really behind the coup Chavez would either be dead now or sitting in a prison rotting somewhere waiting for the infernal regions to call him home.) Adding to the fact that CNN, who would love to report that they had credible information that the U.S. was behind the coup, reported no link between the U.S. government and Chavez's political opponents goes to show that no proof has ever been found to support Jeffre's claim.

.

"There is a long list of US backed coups and death squads in Latin America." -- Justin Jeffre

.

.

Once again, it appears as if Jeffre had just gotten finished reading the lies of Noam Chomsky (a man who is not just repudiated by conservatives, but from moderates and liberals as well. Respected attorney and politically center-left Alan Dershowitz has said, "Chomsky simply cannot be trusted.") Moreover, even though Jeffre is technically correct that the U.S. government, through the CIA, supported certain coups in Central and South America in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and funded and trained members of right-wing paramilitary squads that were to take on their Marxist counterparts (some of which did go on to form "death squads" which butchered and killed innocent people *), the story is much more complicated then that.

.

(* In Bob Woodward's book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, Woodward writes how Ronald Reagan's CIA director Bill Casey issued a "stern, personal warning" to El Salvador's acting president Alvaro Magana in 1983 that there was a "real problem with the death squads" and that there would be a "suspension of all payments and subsidies" if the groups did not end their human-rights abuses.)

.

Furthermore, one of the most important books to read in trying to understand U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America during the Cold War is Christopher Andrew's book,The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. Based on information from former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin, Andrew details how the Soviet Union attempted to influence (''bully'' is probably the most appropriate word) every government in Central and South America to conform to its demands. And the best way to make this happen for the Soviets was to put communists in government positions, especially in top positions like president. This is exactly what they did with Chile's Salvador Allende, whom Jeffre also mentions in his column.

.

In an attempt to keep this writing from going on longer than it already is, I advise all people to read pages 69-86 in The World Was Going Our Way to learn about how the Soviets ultimately succeeded in putting Allende into power, as opposed to Jeffre's claims that Allende was innocently and freely ''elected.'' In fact, Allende won with only 36 percent of the vote and finished just 39,000 votes ahead of the second place finisher.

.

In regards to Jeffre's claims that the U.S. was solely responsible for Allende's removal from office in 1973, Allende, according to Andrew, most likely killed himself after realizing that the military coup led by his rival Augusto Pinochet was eventually going to oust him. (In fact, it was Fidel Castro who spearheaded the false notion that the U.S.-backed coup had assassinated Allende, in order for Castro to make a Marxist martyr out of him.) Going one step further, the primary reason Allende was victim of a coup in the first place was for the fact that he had won only 36 percent of the vote in 1970 and that he was never able to solidify power in his country, even with assistance from the KGB. (Allende had previously ran for president of Chile numerous times before winning in 1970 and each time was beaten soundly; the reason Allende won in 1970 was due to a split between the majority anti-Marxist coalitions).

.

I will end on this point. The Cold War presented many challenges to the United States and the free world. The Soviet Union and its proxies were steadfastly determined to turn every country in the world into a communist state. The World Was Going Our Way provides plenty of proof for this statement of mine. Now, this doesn't mean that every decision made by the U.S. during that time was the correct one, or even the moral one. A lot of bad things happened in the Cold War. But it was a "war," and the U.S. and its allies needed to defeat Soviet expansionism to secure peace and freedom in the world. This does not imply that I'm giving a free pass for every covert operation that ever took place, but I will certainly always take the side of my country over its enemies, especially one that was as evil and perverse as the Soviet Union was.

.

That Justin Jeffre doesn't do the same is truly saddening and disturbing.

.

But even after all this nonsense of Jeffre's, he saves the most ridiculous and ignorant statement for last. Take a deep breath and prepare yourself for this one.

.

According to Jeffre, "Unlike our controversial elections in 2000 and 2004, Venezuela has international election observers overseeing their elections."

.

.

This statement of Jeffre's is not only naive and stupid, but to actually think that Jeffre believes it is more troubling. Either Jeffre only reads leftist propoganda and truly does believe this false premise, or he is one of the laziest and most incompetent ''citizen-journalist-activists'' in the entire country.

.

Let's go slow here and break down this incredibly stupid statement.

.

According to Foreign Policy Magazine (FP), with each subsequent election victory Chavez has "achieved absolute control of all state institutions that might check his power. In 1999, he engineered a new constitution that did away with the Senate, thereby reducing from two to one the number of chambers with which he must negotiate. Because Chavez only has a limited majority in this unicameral legislature, he revised the rules of congress so that major legislation can pass with only a simple, rather than a two-thirds, majority."

.

Regarding elections, FP adds that "Chavez has taken advantage of his increasing power to commanding the institute that supervises the elections" themselves.

.

Also according to FP, the Chavez-controlled election body "ensures that voting irregularities committed by the state are overlooked." Furthermore, "the Chavez-controlled oil industry allows the state to spend at will, which comes in handy during election season."

.

But let's not stop there.

.

As if that were not enough, a Venezuelan media law, put in place by Chavez, "allows the state to imprison any citizen for showing 'disrespect' towards government officials. The state watches and punishes citizens for political actions it disapproves of rather than the other way around." Sounds like a democratic paradise full of individual liberty, doesn't it?

.

In conclusion, I have to assume that Justin Jeffre is a true believer in American values and liberties. Where else can an individual make hundreds of thousands of dollars traveling the world singing bad songs to teeny boppers and then run for political office all the while insulting the very government he wants to be a part of? As Don King famously said, "Only in America."

.

But to be serious, I'll be interested to see how Jeffre replies to this damning critique of his ''historical facts,'' his defense of dictators, and all his other illogical opinions. I'm sure he'll avoid facts all together and just bash me personally (which is what liberals do when they know they cannot win an argument).

.

However, in the end, if Justin Jeffre is just a naive and grossly misled citizen, then that is pretty harmless overall. But if Justin Jeffre really is a closet Marxist who seriously would rather have Hugo Chavez as his president rather than George W. Bush, then not only is he a dangerous influence on any person who would consider supporting or voting for him, but it also makes the Cincinnati Beacon come across (at least generally) as Marxist and anti-American as well.

.

Because for the Cincinnati Beacon, which publishes Jeffre's nonsense, this goes against everything it supposedly stands for: democracy, the rule of law, and fairness and equality in media and society. Yet these are the exact things that Jeffre's assumed hero, Hugo Chavez, takes away from his own people. Does the Cincinnati Beacon actually support Chavez-like procedures here in the United States of America?

.

The jury is currently out on the Cincinnati Beacon. We will simply wait and see if they decide to reply.

Click here to leave a comment about this column