"Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate media is presenting the weekend’s events in Bolivia.

No establishment outlet framed the action as a coup; instead, President Evo Morales “resigned” (ABC News), amid widespread “protests” (CBS News) from an “infuriated population” (New York Times) angry at the “election fraud” (Fox News) of the “full-blown dictatorship” (Miami Herald). When the word “coup” is used at all, it comes only as an accusation from Morales or another official from his government, which corporate media has been demonizing since his election in 2006.

The New York Times did not hide its approval at the events, presenting Morales as a power-hungry despot who had finally “lost his grip on power,” claiming he was “besieged by protests” and “abandoned by allies” like the security services. His authoritarian tendencies, the news article claimed, “worried critics and many supporters for years,” and allowed one source to claim that his overthrow marked “the end of tyranny” for Bolivia. With an apparent nod to balance, it did note that Morales “admitted no wrongdoing” and claimed he was a “victim of a coup.” By that point, however, the well had been thoroughly poisoned.

CNN dismissed the results of the recent election, where Bolivia gave Morales another term in office, as beset with “accusations of election fraud,” presenting them as a farce where “Morales declared himself the winner.” Time’s report presented the catalyst for his “resignation” as “protests” and “fraud allegations,” rather than being forced by the military. Meanwhile, CBS News did not even include the word “allegations,” its headline reading, “Bolivian President Evo Morales Resigns After Election Fraud and Protests.”"