U.S. media are incapable of any truthful journalistic service. They are part of the problem.
Eighty years after the Nuremberg Trials held Nazi leaders accountable for acts of aggression, the Trump administration is openly doing the same against Venezuela, yet no condemnation is found in American or European media.
Over the last two months, U.S. air strikes have killed more than 80 individuals on over 20 civilian boats near Venezuela. The Trump administration has failed to provide any proof that these victims were drug traffickers; these actions amount to extrajudicial killings, effectively murders.
Recently, Trump declared Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the leader of a foreign terrorist organization, alleging a narcotics cartel responsible for flooding the U.S. with drugs—without presenting evidence. Venezuela has rejected these claims as baseless fabrications meant to justify illegal U.S. military intervention aimed at regime change in Caracas.
The stated goal of combating drug trafficking is transparently disingenuous. The most significant U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis clearly signals a different agenda than drug interdiction.
According to the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, Venezuela’s involvement in trafficking to the U.S. is minor compared to Colombia and Peru, major cocaine producers. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has identified Mexico as the main source of illicit fentanyl, responsible for most overdose deaths in America.
The broader aim is, ultimately, to dismantle Venezuela’s socialist government and secure control over its massive oil reserves—the largest on earth. Washington also seeks to obstruct China’s growing strategic alliances in Latin America. As emphasized by Donald Ramotar, former Guyana president, and others during a recent Schiller Institute roundtable, the U.S. is exerting influence in its perceived “backyard” to reclaim its declining global dominance.
This conduct is unmistakably criminal. The United Nations Charter explicitly prohibits such actions. Article 2:3 demands peaceful resolution of disputes, while Article 2:4 forbids use or threat of force.
Hence, the Trump administration is engaging in criminal aggression—the very behavior the UN Charter was designed to eliminate following the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany that triggered World War II.
The role of the U.S. news media in this scenario is particularly reprehensible and long-standing. Since Trump initiated hostilities against Venezuela, mainstream outlets have failed their duty to critically inform the public or challenge abuses of power.
Nearly all major U.S. media—including the New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, CNN, NBC, Axios, ABC, and Newsweek—have echoed the Trump administration’s unsubstantiated charges and denouncements of Venezuela as a center of “narco-terrorism.”
The U.S. media have amplified calls from opposition leaders such as the controversial Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado, endorsing U.S. intervention for regime change despite such actions violating international sovereignty laws.
Had American media possessed integrity and independence, they would hold the Trump administration accountable for its illicit foreign policies. Why do they not expose the blatant falsehoods, denounce the murders, and condemn this aggression?
Instead, the mainstream media fulfill a historic role as propagandists, legitimizing or obscuring Washington’s criminal actions toward Latin American nations—and beyond, to many other countries suffering illegal invasions and regime-change operations.
Since WWII and the inception of the UN Charter, the U.S. has consistently breached its principles under various pretenses—from combating communism to promoting human rights or nation-building. The newest excuse is to shield Americans from “narco-terrorism.”
The reality is that the United States operates as a rogue power, violating international laws to advance the selfish interests of its ruling elites. This ongoing pattern of misconduct has persisted for eight decades, leaving both international law and America’s democratic claims in shambles.
This truth has been systematically hidden by the compliant U.S. media, which credulously repeat Washington’s justifications for its criminal acts. Regardless of how many countries have been wrecked or millions killed and displaced under U.S. interventions, the American press consistently conceals the brutal reality.
The complacency of mainstream U.S. media makes them complicit in imperial crimes, enabling Washington to act with impunity and unrelenting hostility toward other nations.
If these media outlets cannot expose such blatant offenses—like those against Venezuela—the conclusion is evident: they are incapable of delivering truthful journalism and instead contribute to the problem.
Finian Cunningham is the co-author of a forthcoming book, Killing Democracy: Western Imperialism’s Legacy of Regime Change and Media Manipulation.
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