‘Ashamed’ of How Media Treat Chile, Sen. Helms Says
Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, who met with President Augusto Pinochet during a private four-day visit to Chile, said some U.S. news media do not report accurately about the Latin American nation.
“I have read a number of things that are totally misrepresentative of the current Chilean situation,” the North Carolina senator told reporters at a news conference Friday. “In fact, I am ashamed of the major media in my country.
“I assured President Pinochet that the major media in the United States has a tendency to be very unfair to anti-communist governments,” said Helms, whose visit ended Saturday.
“I have never seen a socialistic government that the New York Times or the Washington Post did not like.”
Helms said Thursday that Chile is one of two South American nations battling communism. The other one, he said, is Paraguay, which has been ruled by Gen. Alfredo Stroessner since 1954.
Helms arrived in Chile on Wednesday at the invitation of the National Agriculture Society, a conservative organization of landowners, for what he termed a “totally private” visit.
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