Gowans points to Western corporate media coverage of the life of recently deceased Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwe's struggle to maintain economic independence from the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, as another illustration of how such media corporations and capitalist interests of the Empire (profit & power) reports such efforts. He begins his essay this way:
It seemed almost inevitable six years ago that on the day Western newspapers were filled with encomia [def.] to the recently deceased South African national liberation hero, Nelson Mandela, that another southern African hero of national liberation, Robert Mugabe, would be vilified. “Nearly 90, Mugabe still driving Zimbabwe’s economy into the ground,” complained one Western newspaper. [my link insertion]
Mandela and Mugabe were key figures in the liberation of black southern Africa from white rule. So why did the West overflow with hosannas for Mandela and revile Mugabe? Why was Mandela the ‘good’ national liberation hero and Mugabe the ‘bad’?