207 The Good, the Bad, and the Benevolent Interventionist U.S. Press and Intellectual Distortions of the Latin American Left by Kevin Young U.S. journalists and commentators have helped popularize the image of two distinct Latin American lefts: a “bad” left that is politically authoritarian and economically erratic and a “good” left that is democratic and committed to free-market economics. This binary image oversimplifies the Latin American left in three ways: by overstating the contrast between the two alleged camps, by ignoring complex realities within each camp, and by exaggerating the failings of the so-called bad-left governments. The distinction makes sense, however, as a strategy for countering the rise of independent left-leaning govern- ments in Latin America. Binary characterizations of subordinate peoples reflect a common discursive response to popular resistance on the part of imperial interests and one with many precedents in the history of U.S.–Latin American relations. Widespread U.S. media adherence to the good-left/bad-left thesis is explicable given this context and given the historic and continuing dependence of the press on state and corporate interests. Periodistas y comentaristas norteamericanos han contribuido a la popularización de la imagen de dos izquierdas en América Latina: una “mala” izquierda, la cual es políticamente autoritaria y económicamente errática, y una “buena” izquierda, la cual es democrática y comprometida con la economía de libre mercado. Esta imagen binaria simplifica demasiado la izquierda latinoamericana en tres formas: exagera el contraste entre lo que se alega sean dos campos; ignora realidades complejas dentro de cada campo; y exagera las fallas de los gobiernos de la llamada mala izquierda. Sin embargo, la distinción tiene sentido vista como una estrategia para contrarrestar la emergencia de gobiernos independientes de izquierda en América Latina. Las caracterizaciones binarias de los pueblos subordinados reflejan una respuesta discursiva común de parte de intereses imperiales a la resistencia popular y uno con muchos precedentes históricos en las relaciones entre los EE.UU. y Latinoamérica. La extensa adhesión de los medios norteamericanos a la tesis de buena-izquierda/mala-izquierda se puede explicar dado este contexto y dada la histórica y continua dependencia de la prensa de los intereses del Estado y las corporaciones. Keywords: United States, Media, Imperialism, Neoliberalism, Propaganda model Since 1998 Latin America has witnessed the election of roughly a dozen left- leaning presidents of varying ideological inclinations, who have been propelled into power by grassroots citizens’ movements and voters’ disillusionment with Kevin Young is a Ph.D. candidate in Latin American history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He thanks Steve Ellner and the three LAP reviewers, especially Rosalind Bresnahan, for helpful feedback. Portions of this article appeared on ZNet on July 17, 2010, under the title “Good Left, Bad Left: Compliance and Defiance in US Press Coverage of Latin America,” available at http://www.zcommunications.org/good-left-bad-left-by-kevin-young. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 190, Vol. 40 No. 3, May 2013 207-225 DOI: 10.1177/0094582X13476672 © 2013 Latin American Perspectives