The Pew Research Center for People and the Press has published the results of a survey asking people to rate how well the media reported fact (29%) and how well they avoided taking sides in partisan issues (18%). The downward trend suggests that things will continue to get worse, for now.

Lady Liberty

Fretting against the constitution that puts “excessive controls” and “unnecessary checks” on the power of the presidency, Oscar Arias publicly advocated a constitutional assembly to replace the Costa Rican constitution. This occurred on August 26th. While the story was cursorily mentioned by Honduran media, the rest of the world only heard he had succumbed to the Swine Flu a few days before this.

Costa Rican daily, La Republica, quotes him as saying “the evils of democracy were corrected with more democracy, not anymore”, but, regrettably, they have a pay wall, that limits their websites to those who pay for their print edition.

How can someone like this be an impartial mediator in a country that just deposed their president for trying to do exactly what he intends to do?

Image by Alan, used with a Creative Commons license.

This is a sampling of pictures taken September 16, 2009 at the Museum of the Desert and the historical center of Saltillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Cuahuila. Mexicans celebrate independence from Spain starting at midnight between September 15 and 16.