Michael Deibert

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This page is a candidate for deletion. The given reason is: Page does not seem to fit with the editorial mission of the site --Stuart 13:03, 1 August 2011 (PDT)

This notice should remain for a minimum of 1 week after it was placed on the page. If discussion is still ongoing, it should remain until a consensus is reached, after which the page will either be deleted or this notice removed.

If you disagree with its deletion, please discuss your reasons on this page or on its associated talk page, as applicable.

I strongly disagree with the deletion proposal of this page.
Michael Deibert is relevant to Haiti and its history because he is a (contemporary) writer and journalist that continues to publish articles that are concerned with the history of Haiti. As such his views and by extension that of the main-stream media for which Deibert writes, need to be analyzed in the context of +200 plus years of reporting on Haiti in the aftermath of its revolution which increasingly is viewed as one of the three revolutions that decisively shaped our modern age.
Haiti has been and continues to be misrepresented especially in the U.S. media and numerous commentators and observers have eloquently elaborated on how this has continued to shape the Haitian status quo. A speech by the great orator Frederick Douglass immediately comes to mind (Frederick Douglass lecture on Haiti (1893)). Upon reading this speech, given almost a century after Jean-Jacques Dessalines unparalleled feat of liberating Haiti, one can trace a clear line from pre-revolutionary reporting to 19th century commentary as well as to current media contributions about Haitian history. The way Haiti is (mis-) represented cannot be isolated from past attempts of journalists to both diminish and distort the achievements of Haiti and its people. While it would be of no use to compare Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Toussaint Louverture and his contemporaries, both were maliciously attacked by the press and the North American public was left with rather incomplete and often knowingly wrong reporting that resoundingly shaped the discourse and in the aftermath harmed both Haiti's interests as well as these of U.S. citizens that wished nothing more then to gain information on important world events.
The page has not been controversial. As is plainly evident from the edit history: all edits seemingly come from one person and his or her sock-puppets as all edits deleting content under different user accounts attempted to replace the article with very similar text. [1] Entries on the discussion page claims (again various user names that only edited one article with always the same tenets) libel and copyright infringements without giving any substantiated evidence as to why Mr. Deibert would be harmed in any such way or why it would be incorrect to point out the backlash Deibert's articles have generated. The discussion of contemporary media as it pertains to Haiti is much easier to follow (as current readers will have a better understanding of how media correlates to public opinion and many articles analyzing the medias impact on Haiti are in circulation. [2] Removing voices from this vital discussion is not beneficial. Haiti's past has to be viewed with an understanding of Haiti's present or much of the information presented here will be utterly meaningless.
What exactly then is the editorial mission of this site? If Haiti's history cannot be put under the light of critical scrutiny when it comes to the analysis of how the media from outside its borders has never ceased to attempt to reframe its achievements, I believe the The Louverture Project might not continue to be the valuable source of information it has been. There is content on the pages of this Wiki that I mildly and strongly disagree with, but I would never attempt to censure by deleting or rewriting passages, nor would I ever delete anything outright without intense discussion. I also included material that I personally vehemently disagree with, such as some of Deibert's rebuttals, in order to let the reader come up with her own conclusions. --Doe | talk 17:14, 1 August 2011 (PDT)

This comment has also been posted on this article's discussion page and should be deleted in the near future. --Doe | talk 17:14, 1 August 2011 (PDT)


Michael Deibert (born 1973, Lancaster, Pennsylvania) is a U.S. born journalist and author that has been criticized for what is perceived as his right wing stance in regards to his reporting on Haitian politics as well as factual errors, for example in his book on Haitian politics. Michael Deibert was a Reuters correspondent based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a number of years. He has also extensively written about other countries around the globe. Haiti is one of the main focal points for the writer Deibert (Michael Deibert near Ouarzazate, at 0:34 min.)

Michael Deibert's Haiti journalism

Michael Deibert has beencriticized in media articles such as Kofi Annan's Haiti by Justin Podur, How to Turn a Priest Into a Cannibal: Michael Deibert and U.S. Reporting on the Coup in Haiti by Diana Barahona and Haitian Activist Speaks out Against Deibert's anti-Haiti Propaganda by Patrick Elie. These articles among others, document the frequent criticism Deibert's journalism has received, especially where it pertains to his reporting on Haiti.

Michael Deibert's vociferous critics include Haitian, Canadian and U.S. activists for example the former Haitian government official in several administrations, political activist and writer: Patrick Elie [3], as well other journalists from Haiti and abroad such as the journalist and academic Justin Podur: [see: A Dishonest Case for a Coup.: part of a dialogue with the writer Michael Deibert].

Deibert's journalism has included allegations of child sacrifice: ["The charges culminate with Deibert’s uncritical reiteration of a gang leader’s claim, from his Florida exile, that a baby missing from a Port-au-Prince hospital had been kidnapped by So Anne and murdered in a vodou ritual to strengthen Aristide." (Podur p. 159) by a well known Haitian activist, Annette Auguste a.k.a. Sò Anne. These charges, in spite of their serious nature and implications, were never documented have been regarded by some critics as part of an anti-Haitian propaganda.

Responses to criticism of Michael Deibert

References

  • Amnesty International. (2006) Release political prisoner Annette Auguste - 20 months of arbitrary detention Haiti appeal case: AI Index: AMR 36/003/2006 Accessed on July 10, 2011.
  • Auguste, Anette (2004) Statement of Sò Anne from prison. Pétionville. Archived on haitiaction.net. Accessed July 13, 2011. [4]
  • Barahona, Diane. (2007) How to Turn a Priest Into a Cannibal - U.S. Reporting on the Coup in Haiti. CounterPunch. Accessed July 13, 2011. [5]
  • Deibert, Michael. (2010). Michael Deibert near Ouarzazate. Video by the author posted on youtube.com. [6] Accessed on Jul 17, 2011.
  • Miéville, China. (2009). Multilateralism as terror: International Law, Haiti and imperialism. Finnish Yearbook of International Law 18. London: Birkbeck ePrints. Available at [7] Accessed on July 10, 2011.
  • Podur, Justin. (2006) Kofi Annan's Haiti - Podur on Michael Deibert, Notes from the Last Testament. Untenable defence of Aristide’s overthrow New Left Review. London. Available online: [8] .pdf file: [9] Accessed on July 13, 2011.
  • Taylor, Jeremy. Apocalypse Now - Review of 'Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti', by Michael Deibert. Caribbean Review of Books. Issue No. 8 - May 2006. [10] Accessed on Jul 21, 2011.
  • Wikipedia: Michael Deibert Accessed on July 6, 2011.

External links

The media on Michael Deibert's Haiti Reporting

Book by Michael Deibert

  • Deibert, Michael (2005). Notes from the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti, New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 10 1-58322-697-4
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