In one of my favorite political interviews ever, a Spanish TV journalist (Ana Pastor) confronted Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa with a New York Times editorial that denounced his government. Correa reminded her that he answers to Ecuadorean voters, not the New York Times editors. He then launched into an attack on the idea that profit seeking businesses with zero democratic legitimacy –like the New York Times – should be entrusted with delivering a fundamental democratic right: access to information. Correa has been stressing that point constantly for years. Near the end of another interview a slightly exasperated Ecuadorean journalist asked Correa if he had anything good to say about the press. Correa replied that he owed the press no gratitude for any coverage that is accurate and balanced because that is what it is supposed to be providing all the time. As we watch Jeremy Corbyn – the British Labour Party’s new leader – deal with hostility and ridicule from the entire establishment media, including its liberal faction, it is worth reviewing some lessons from the way Rafael Correa has maintained high levels of popular support without trying to win over the corporate media.

Lesson 1: The power of the media should be neither underestimated nor exaggerated

The general public is not brainwashed by the media. If they were then politicians like Rafael Correa, the late Hugo Chavez or Jeremy Corbyn could never get near a position of political power, never mind retain one for many years. People are perfectly capable of rejecting what the corporate media tries to sell them when it clashes with their own life experience and common sense. Getting people to support wars of aggression thousands of miles from their own borders, for example, is a very hard sell. A “brainwashed” people would not have been subjected to outrageous doses of propaganda to get them to support, or at least accept, the invasion of Iraq in 2003. That said, a 2013 Comres poll of the UK public revealed that 59% believe fewer than 10,000 Iraqis died as a consequence of that war. Scientific studies substantiate estimates of 500,000 to 1 million deaths. Judging by the Comres poll, only about 6% of the UK public was aware of that. Even if it can’t brainwash the public, the media has a huge capacity to totally mislead and misinform because most people do not have time to carry out research projects on numerous issues.

Consider Bernie Sanders, who is portrayed as an example of left “radicalism” in the United States, calling Hugo Chavez a “dead communist dictator”. Who, within the establishment media in the U.S., is going to ridicule Sanders for either telling an outrageous lie or being a total ignoramus? How many U.S. citizens are going to take upon themselves to research the veracity of a view that is conveyed to them by the entire spectrum of opinion that is given any significant hearing?

Correa has not muzzled Ecuador’s private media. Anyone who actually watches it – as I noted here and here – knows that the private media attacks his government relentlessly. The private media has had some success recently in misinforming the public about some tax reforms aimed at the wealthiest two percent in the country. However, Correa has never pulled his punches in responding to private media attacks – even when some of his own advisers have asked him to. The private media’s capacity to misinform cannot be ignored, but it can be confronted successfully.

Lesson 2: Local and regional media can help bypass the “agenda setting” media

Engaging with the media doesn’t have to mean engaging with the elite media. Rafael Correa has given numerous interviews – his most informative – on local and regional outlets. Here is long interview he gave in the province of Esmeraldas, hardly a traditional center of political power in Ecuador. Here is an in-depth interview he gave in the town of Urdaneta in the province of Los Rios. Though Jeremy Corbyn is not Prime Minister he should, as the leader of major political party, be able to make very effective use of this approach.

Lesson 3: Speak directly to the public without intermediaries

Applying a tactic pioneered by Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa has a weekly TV show which has become extremely popular. Contrary to some outrageous lies that have been spread online, it does not pre-empt all other programming when it is on. The show is sometimes hosted by Jorge Glas, the vice president. It is a roundup of Correa’s activities during the week. It typically runs about three and a half hours and debunks the lies and distortions of the private media. Correa’s government has also expanded public media in other ways. For example, the state owned newspaper El Telegrafo is another counterweight to the big private newspapers that have always dominated public debate.

In Jeremy Cobyn’s case, he is not (yet) in a position to reform the UK’s public media. However, he has already produced online messages and given interviews to international outlets like Telesur. Hopefully he will do much more of that. Why not produce an online show similar to Russell Brand’s TREWS but in Corbyn’s own style?

Lesson 4: The level of debate can be raised without over prioritizing civility

Jeremy Corbyn has been adamant that he will not engage in personal abuse, but there is always a trade-off between civility and honesty. David Cameron’s assault on the poor in Britain reveals that he has terrible values as a person. Should that not be said? Worse, for the sake of avoiding any hint of incivility, should criticism of vicious policies be toned down? Voters can easily be misled, but that’s not a credible excuse for policy makers in many cases.

Rafael Correa does not mince words with his opponents (and vice versa) but that does not stop him from raising the level of public debate in Ecuador. On his show, and in numerous interviews, the level of detail he goes into regarding policy and his command of the issues go a long way towards explaining his success. There is plenty to learn from watching him even if his response to critics is sometimes overly aggressive.

Both Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa were kidnapped while in office. Notwithstanding threats made against Jeremy Corbyn by an anonymous general, such threats do not begin to compare to what progressive politicians in Latin America must confront. Corbyn can afford to be less aggressive and confrontational than Correa, but Corbyn should be under no illusions. His political enemies in parliament and in the media need to be fought, not appeased. All genuinely progressive politicians who achieve any level of success must remember that.

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