Yesterday, I pointed out that Reuters refers to Honduras’s Roberto Micheletti as a “ruler”; the wire service refers to the totalitarian dictator Fidel Castro as a “leader.” Several readers wrote to say that it’s even worse than I portrayed: Reuters calls Micheletti a “de facto ruler.” A reader points out that “de facto” means “actually existing, esp. when without lawful authority (distinguished from de jure).” He continues,

The press keeps pushing the fiction that there was an unconstitutional coup in Honduras, when the opposite is the case. The Hondurans were defending their constitution against a would-be despot, and the world — with the American president leading the charge — wants to punish them for it.

Stark. Blunt. True? It would appear so.