By Yanis Varoufakis
Originally posted at
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/
Over the past 48 hours, as Greek voters are mulling over their
options prior to entering the polling stations, the international media
have indulged in a frenzy of disinformation and scaremongering. Gone is
the nuanced reporting of the BBC, nowhere to be seen the critical
approach to the Euro Crisis that the rest of the international media
have shown over the past few weeks. As if united behind a common cause,
the hordes of international TV and Radio reporters are now peddling a
simple line: Today, the Greek people are choosing between ‘Reason’
(meaning the pro-bailout New Democracy party) and ‘Indulgence’; between
staying in the euro and leaving on a whim. In moment of greater
exuberance, they add that, today, Greeks can deal a decisive blow at the
Eurozone by voting against the European Union’s strategy for dealing
with the Euro Crisis. What utter nonsense!
This is nothing but an Assault on Truth. First, Greeks are NOT
voting on whether they want to stay in the Eurosystem or to leave. They
are voting between two different programs on how to survive within the
Eurozone. On the one hand, there is the discredited ‘establishment’ line
which has it that, to stay in the Eurozone, Greeks should simply do as
they are being told by the troika. On the opposite corner, there is the
Syriza position that doing as we are told is guaranteed to lead to the
wholesale and final collapse of what is left of the Greek social
economy, thus leading us out of the Eurozone by default. Their
recommendation is that Greece should adopt a determined bargaining
stand.
While legitimate questions can be asked as to which of the two
programs of staying in the Eurozone is more apposite, this is not the
way that the BBC and the rest are reporting them. Violating every
journalistic standard and principle known to man or woman, they are
insisting on a portrayal of an electoral tussle between pro-Euro and
anti-Euro parties.
Moreover, a mindboggling inconsistency is running through their
narrative. On the one hand, it is abundantly clear to them (and they
actually let it be known that it is their view too) that the current EU
policies of bailouts-plus-austerity are killing the Eurozone. Witness
the brilliant cover in last week’s Economist (featuring a sinking tanker
with a bubble asking: “Can we switch on the engines now Mrs Merkel?”).
On the other hand, however, in the same breath, they argue that failure
by Greek voters to support this ruinous path may lead to the collapse of
the… Eurozone. So, my message to BBC journalists and other reporters is
simple. Decide folks: Either the present course is ruinous and Europe’s
peoples (including the Greeks) must abandon it. Or it is a decent
policy mix which we ought to consent to. You cannot have it both ways,
unless of course your only concern is how to alarm your audience via
intentional disinformation while treating the Greek people like swine
that need to be beaten into submission.
