Venezuela and the Media: Fact and Fiction
To read and view the U.S. news media over the past week, there is an episode of grand tyranny unfolding, one repugnant to all who cherish democratic freedoms. The Venezuelan government under “strongman” Hugo Chavez refused to renew the 20-year broadcast license for RCTV, because that medium had the temerity to be critical of his regime. It is a familiar story.
And in this case it is wrong.
Regrettably, the US media coverage of Venezuela’s RCTV controversy says more about the deficiencies of our own news media that it does about Venezuela. It demonstrates again, as with the invasion of Iraq, how our news media are far too willing to carry water for Washington than to ascertain and report the truth of the matter.
Here are some of the facts and some of the context that the media have omitted or buried:
1. All nations license radio and TV stations because the airwaves can only accommodate a small number of broadcasters, far fewer than the number who would like to have the privilege to broadcast. In democratic nations the license is given for a specific term, subject to renewal. In the United States it is eight years; in Venezuela it is 20 years.
2. Venezuela is a constitutional republic. Chavez has won landslide victories that would be the envy of almost any elected leader in the world, in internationally monitored elections.
3. The vast majority of Venezuela’s media are not only in private hands, they are constitutionally protected, uncensored, and dominated by the opposition. RCTV’s owners can expand their cable and satellite programming, or take their capital and launch a print empire forthwith. Aggressive unqualified political dissent is alive and well in the Venezuelan mainstream media, in a manner few other democratic nations have ever known, including our own.
Now consider the specific facts of RCTV as it applied to have its broadcast license renewed.
The media here report that President Chavez “accuses RCTV of having supported a coup” against him. This is a common means of distorting the news: a fact is reported as accusation, and then attributed to a source that the press has done everything to discredit. In fact, RCTV - along with other broadcast news outlets - played such a leading role in the April 2002 military coup against Venezuela’s democratically elected government, that it is often described as “the world’s first media coup.”
In the prelude to the coup, RCTV helped mobilize people to the streets against the government, and used false reporting to justify the coup. One of their most infamous and effective falsifications was to mix footage of pro-Chavez people firing pistols from an overpass in Caracas with gory scenes of demonstrators being shot and killed. This created the impression that the pro-Chavez gunmen actually shot these people, when in fact the victims were nowhere near them. These falsified but horrifying images were repeated incessantly, and served as a major justification for the coup.
RCTV then banned any pro-government reporting during the coup. When Chavez returned to office, this too was blacked out of the news. Later the same year, RCTV once again made all-day-long appeals to Venezuelans to help topple the government during a crippling national oil strike.
If RCTV were broadcasting in the United States, its license would have been revoked years ago. In fact its owners would likely have been tried for criminal offenses, including treason.
RCTV’s broadcast frequency has been turned over to a new national public access channel that promises to provide programming from thousands of independent producers. It is an effort to let millions of Venezuelans who have never had a viable chance to participate in the media do so, without government censorship.
The Bush Administration opposes the Chavez government for reasons that have nothing to do with democracy, or else there would be a long list of governments for us to subvert or overthrow before it would get close to targeting Venezuela. Regrettably, our press coverage has done little to shed light on that subject.
Our news media should learn the lesson of Iraq and regard our own government’s claims with the same skepticism they properly apply to foreign leaders. Then Americans might begin to get a more accurate picture of the world, and be able to effectively participate in our foreign policy.
Robert W. McChesney is a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. (www.cepr.net).
Good piece. Right on point, too.
And an interesting bit of synchronicity:
At the beginning of the week, when the protests paid for by the oligarchy began here in VENEZUELA, the Supreme Court of my home country, MEXICO, began debating the constitutionality of a law railroaded through the two houses of congress last summer–commonly referred to as The Televisa Law, because it gave automatic renewal of the Televisa and TV Azteca concessions in perpetuity.
Today the news is out that the Mexican Supreme Court declared automatic renewal of media concessions to be UNCONSTITUTIONAL!
I would be willing to bet that if Chavez had not refused to renew RCTV’s Channel 2 concession here that the Mexican Supreme Court would have caved in to the enormous pressure being exerted on it by the country’s OWNERS.
Thanks, Comandante–for the ripple effect of putting some pants on!
Since I did not have access to the internet these last few days,I found my self watching the corporate new on this issue.
Of course I did not believe what they were saying. “attack on democracy by a dictator” Showing massive demonstrations against the closure of RCTV. I knew that there was alot we, Americans, were not being told. All of the excellent points expressed in this article were not mentioned.
It so disheartning to know that if Americans were given other viewpoints by the media, things would be different in this country. Think about how typical Americans would view Venenzuela and Chavez if they knew that Washington and the Media lead the charge to oust a democratically elected presidency that won by a landside in 2002. And that RCTV was a major player in that goal.
We hold democracy in high esteem in this country, yet when when democracy begins to take seed in other countries, we try to destroy it because heaven forbin, a democratic country might have choices and decide not to get screwed over with our “globalization” and “capitalism” that are nothing more than stealing wealth and resources, not only in this country but abroad, by huge corporations.
PDFee, you sound like someone with a vested interest in ending Chavez’s administration. Are you one of the wealthy elite who seek to overthrow Chavez? How do you explain that the majority of Venezuelans vote for Chavez?
Castro in a business suit? Okay by me. Great health care system there.
PDFee
I am interested in your opinion about the other content in the article.
Do you believe the media in Venezuela is more or less free than US media?
The wages everywhere but Asia are dropping, aren’t they?
How much of Venezuela’s problems are being created by US market pressures designed to topple Chavez? Do you believe the CIA is behind Chavez’s economic woes?
When Washington wants to hurt someone economically, they usually get what they want and Washington wants nothing more than Chavez’s scalp!
Is there any way that we could vote for Chavez in the next presidential election here in the US? I mean, can we write in his name or something? I don’t know how we do that on those electronic voting machines, but there must be a way.
As for Castro in a business suit, that’s even better.
Seriously though, when the corporate controlled media started blurting on about Chavez closing down a TV station I thought that we weren’t getting the truth. Sadly, most Americans get their news from the corporate controlled networks or the cable “news” channels, and so the propaganda and the brainwashing continue unabated. If only we could have a national public access channel which is broadcast free to all that includes material from several independent producers, unencumbered by corporate advertisers. And I don’t mean something like the National Pentagon Radio or the Petroleum Broadcasting Service.
I get my news primarily from Common Dreams, and sometimes the BBC (with a grain of salt) and Deutsche Welle.
Without a free media, the cherished notion of democracy is doomed.
If only we could have a really open, public discourse about EVERYTHING in the mainstream media… ah, wouldn’t that be sweet?
We’ve been looking for some land, somewhere where we can feel “free”- and where it’s affordable, ’cause these rich, retired/retiring baby boomers are already snapping up the land, causing any good acreage to be nearly out of reach for everybody else.
Crazy though true, some of the best places, where notions of democracy, freedom, justice and sustainability seem more of a reality are in some Latin American countries. But, do they want people from the States moving there?
I have my own sense of nationalism about the USA, because of my numerous ancestors that sacrificed a hell of a lot during the Rev. War. The rest of my family has been saying let’s move to “Canada” for years, while I hem and haw, thinking it’s my duty to stay here and struggle on for freedom and democracy; however, I was recently reminded of the fact that those same ancestors were descended from people that came here from somewhere else, escaping perceived tyranny.
Bolivia is looking pretty cool right about now.
Chile, kinda chilly, but in the markets, lotsa chilis…
PDFee,
I worked in Venezuela (Mud Logger on drill rigs) in the early 1980’s. The (state-maintained?) surface infrastructure was poor - highways were lunar surfaces and the country didn’t have a single km of railroad) but the federal government-run parts of the infrastructure were as good as the US - which in those pre-neoliberalism days included the domestic airlines, phone, electricity, water, sewer and trash.
I assume all these services went downhill when they were privatized by Carlos Andres Perez. Before you criticise Chavez, surely you don’t want to go back to those days, and the Caracazo Riots and brutal state repression (up to 3000 killed) that followed?
And, isn’t it cynical of you o be criticising Chavez for lack of progress, or even degradation of infrastructure and the economy, when these problems are likely caused by deliberatle sabotage of the economy by Chavez’s capitalist opponents? The PDVSA bosses “strike” was the most well-known case, but is there any reason to believe that similar acts of economic sabotage are not taking place every day? For example it wouldn’t it be a simple matter for the Capitalist highway and bridge contractors to conspire to deliberately do shoddy work, or no work at all?
We see this sort of capitalist scheming up here in the north. In my city (Pittsburgh) city-run public transportation is being deliberately sabotaged through de-funding by capitalist’s ideologues in the state government - to create the phoney apparance of government incompetence. Privatization then follows.
On a larger scale, a similar plot is underway against Canada’s health care system - they will deliberately destroy it and then tell the public “see how lousy your socialistic health care is? The cynicism is breathtaking. Unfortunately, because of an incredible ability of the the capitalist media to destroy peoples’ memories and sense of historical context such plots are very effective.
MORE FACTS AND LESS FICTION RIGHT FROM VENEZUELA
I’m a Venezuelan citizen writing from Caracas and I have to say that your facts are, at the least, incomplete. I’ll try to be brief and add a couple of additional facts without disputing yours so more informed conclusions can be reached.
1. In Venezuela there are 11 national TV stations: 5 directly owned and operated by the government, 2 privately owned by government officials, 1 exclusively sports channel and 3 general content TV stations out of which only one is openly critical to the government. So, in order to say 80% of media is privately owned you must include every small radio station in the tiniest of the cities. Therefor, you might be statistically correct but practically wrong.
2. Four private TV stations were publicly accused by the government of acting the same way as RCTV did in 2001 and 2002. Two seem to have accepted to shut up and are plagued with government ads (do the math) and two kept their editorial line (RCTV and Globovision). Today one is shut down and the other is being accused of suggesting the president should be assassinated (I won’t elaborate about this since it’s such a bizarre case, but I would if anybody is interested).
3. There is not one single legal process against RCTV, not one. So, let’s assume your facts as true, but where is the legal process? There is none because nobody, no government officials, nobody knew anything about it until the President announced it on TV on Dec 28. Again, no legal process whatsoever.
4. Even more, the rumor had it that the new government station was only going to be seen in two cities even though the government had announced it was going to cover the whole territory but then, 24 hours before the end of the license, the Supreme Court granted the government’s new social and public service station the use and custody of all transmitters and antennas owned by RCTV.
5. And just a last factual observation. TVES, the new government’s station, was announced as the vindicator of Venezuelan culture and people. Would you like to know what comprises most of the programming? Very old looking American and British shows dubbed in Spanish. Yesterday, I so Venezuelanly proud watched a show called Growing Pains.
I must say RCTV was not close to my heart or anything of the sort. I did not like its shows and have nothing to say in their defense in terms of their content, political views aside. The Venezuelan society is rotten in many senses and that includes the practices of private businesses. However, shutting down a mass media the way it was done is an arbitrary, dictatorial and most likely a political sin. You say that in the USA RCTV would have been off the air a long time ago. I can’t say whether you’re right about that or not, but I doubt it could have been done this way, just because the President said so.
I do not own the truth, but I hope I was able to throw some perspective into yours.
José Erre
Caracas-Venezuela
Jose, is your free speech and mine being violated because we don’t each have a tv station?
I do not think so.
Get real, Venezuela is not the other side of the looking glass–not from where I am posting here in La Candelaria.
Whoever mentioned economic woes in regard to Chavez is living in a different universe from the one I live in. With growth for the past 3 and a half years in double digits, one of the very highest in this hemisphere, just about any other countryin the world would love to have those woes!
like, what if some sensible dictator took over in this country and Fox were to be shut down?
would any of us care?
personally I wouldn’t but I never watch it. but I feel sorry for the poor suckers that do.
I don’t think we can meaningfully compare Venezuela to North America. Compared to other Latin American countries, most of which
are terribly poor and plagued by corrupt governments and military, Venezuela is miles ahead.
And while I don’t know the details of the RCTV case, aside from what I’ve read on this and other news sites, I think most of us
would agree that Chavez is generally a positive influence in the world.
No government is perfect.
The Venezuelan right-wing seems to have a rather well-funded and organized response and misinformation team set up for articles like the one by Mr. Weisbrot, above.
This all resembles the well-oiled (no pun intended) slander campaign against the movie “The Revolution Will Not be Televised”.
It also resembles the same sort of slick campaign against the play “My Name is Rachael Corrie” or any criticism of Israel.
Curious, where are you getting your funding?
Found this on a blog: [Link: http://insurreccion.org/index.php?q=node/9745] There’s video with blow by blow translation. See for yourself.
Clip:
“Venezuelan media magnate … Marcel Granier …is the owner of the soon to be defunct RCTV. It is more than a little ironic that he is only gaining international notoriety just as he is about to become a good deal less relevant inside Venezuela.
In spite of his low international profile this man was smack dab in the middle of the turmoil that afflicted Venezuela from 2001 to 2004. From helping overthrow a government, to egging on a devastating oil “strike”, to running 24/7 anti-Chavez propaganda during elections this man has done it all.
Now he is busy making the rounds trying to explain why, from his perspective, it is so unjust that RCTV is losing its broadcast license. Personally, I hope he keeps it up. Every time he opens his mouth to spout yet more lies it gives people outside Venezuela more of a chance to see what the anti-Chavez Venezuelan opposition is like and what Chavez has been dealing with for all these years.”
The CIA is the largest news organization in the world, bigger than Reuters, AP and all others.
Since Mr. Weisbrot was a guest of Samuel Moncada, a known bag man for Hugo Chavez, he became a political operative of the venezuelan regime.He is one of those known as comitted intellectuals. Most of what Mr. Weisbrot writes about venezuela are lies under the veil of a think tank professor. Chavez is a despot of the worst kind but Mr. Weisbrot applies the maxim of unconditional revolutionary solidarity as long as Chavez attacks Bush at least once a day. So much for ethics in academia……..
you don’t have all the information
you don’t know the whole story
because you don’t live here
now, there is only and only one TV media outlet that it is not under the control of the Government:
Globovision
if you go to the TV media you will find no other outlets
you will not know what is happening in Venezuela
you will have only the vision of Chavez
and he controls all, all I mean, the powers: judiciary, legislative and executive and a fiction called Moral Power
we have a lot of problems, insecurity,inflation (the highest in America) bad economy, because our food comes from other countries, unemployment, unique thought (socialism), division in our society, paramilitarysim, radicalism and the menace of totalitarism
now, our Army has to say “Socialismo, Patria O Muerte”
and Chavez wants to be reelected for ever and ever
yes, we have oil and Chavez has plenty of petrodollars for exporting his revolution
but in our neighborhood our people are being killed by the mob
it is very easy to talk about imperialisim and about the problems in the rest of the worl, but, how difficult is to resolve our own problems
what will happpen in our poor rich country when the oil price goes down ??
I would like to see what this revolutionary will do and what the answer of the people of Venezuela will be
and for Common Dreams, I would like to see articles from Venezuelan people in the opposition to Chavez, like Antonio Pasquali, Teodoro Petkoff, Oscar Lucien, Mauricio Bisbal, intelligent people who are not oligarchs, but people compromised with the building of a better Venezuela and a better world
Would you like to know what comprises most of the programming? Very old looking American and British shows dubbed in Spanish. Yesterday, I so Venezuelanly proud watched a show called Growing Pains…
Oh, the horrors! Here in Norte Amerikkka, I would take ancient re-runs of Carter-era shows like “The Waltons” or the wonderfully tongue-in-cheek “El Duqes de Peligro” (as it’s Spanish dubbed version in in Venezuela was called) any day over vile USAn propaganda like “24″ or “Law and Order (anyone remember when defenders like Perry Mason were heroes?)
Like I wrote earlier, for the sake of argument, even if Venezuela’s economy is in such bad shape, might it not be the fault of the Capitalists for refusing to cooperate with the Bolivarian project, or more likely deliberately sabotaging the Venezuelan economy. And, if Chavez must resort to authoritarian measures, is it not because the Capitalists are waging covert war against Venezuela?
Venezolano, we know your vile capitalist tricks. You sabotage a nation, then when the socialist reform government must take draconian measures to preserve itself, you turn around and accuse it of tyranny! It has worked the same way - in countries big and small, from Iran to to Vietnam, to Chile, to Central America, to Cuba, to the USSR, to Yugoslavia, to Vietnam and many other places where all the poeple wanted was to give Socialism a fair try.
If a god existed, you capitalists would choke to death on your hypocracy!
PDJ has is right….references to TV shows notwithstanding.
We Americans should concentrate our attention upon the legal question of what, exactly, constitutes “treason”, specifically in regard to the conduct of the media. Betraying one’s nation and causing it harm by deliberately participating in false war propaganda strikes me as a classic example of treason. In fact, if this is NOT treasonous conduct, I can’t imagine what might be. Deceiving a nation with the intention of causing mass slaughter of human beings MUST be at the top of the list. So why are we so concerned about Mr. Chavez and the RCTV scandal, which, at worst, is evidence of kicking someone in the teeth who dearly deserved it (though we should never condone kicking anyone in the teeth children!). But we have far far larger fish to fry right here in America. We have a list of media executives, alleged journalists, pundits, and their hired prostitutes, so called “think tank scholars”, who knowingly and deliberately and with malice aforethought spend each day of their working lives lying to the American public and in so doing, causing and perpetuating wars and death and misery all over the world. Let us talk about the unofficial gag orders with which we Americans are contending. When was the last time anyone criticized Israel on television? We must tend to our own garden.
The Western media knows that if a lie is repeated often enough - it becomes ‘the truth’.
The U.S. is fighting a war on terrorism.
The U.S. is a shining example for the rest of the world.
The U.S.A. is the greatest country in the world.
The death of one American is more newsworthy than the death of 100 Arabs.
The USA is a democratic republic.
The USA supports democracy worldwide.
Our leaders want peace on earth.
In the USA, there is liberty and justice for all.
The worst criminals are in jail or on the FBI’s most wanted list.
All the young people who go into military are “heroes”.
Successful people are those with lots of money.
Fidel Castro & Hugo Chavez are tyrants & dictators.
The USA’s national and state political leaders are public servants.
The US department of Defense exists to defend America.
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As pretty much everyone here knows, those are all lies that most people who live under the life sucking influence of the major U.S. networks are led to believe.
========
“One reason that propaganda often works better on the educated than on the uneducated is that educated people read more, so they receive more propaganda. Another is that they have jobs in management, media, and academia and therefore work in some capacity as agents of the propaganda system–and they believe what the system expects them to believe. By and large, they’re part of the privileged elite, and share the interests and perceptions of those in power. ” Noam Chomsky
A good short article:
Propaganda American Style by Noam Chomsky
http://www.zpub.com/un/chomsky.html
================
Hans Blix brought an unpopular message: belittle him and call him names to neutralize the message. Scott Ritter brought an unpopular message: belittle him and call him names to neutralize the message. The list of examples goes on and on as the right wing suppresses all opposition.
Does anyone know that the Venezualians posting above are right wing plants? If not then I here the same spin to neutralized the unwanted message by a majority of the post above.
To “venezolano” and all other Chicken Littles posting in favor of the oligarchy’s position, who asked what will happen when oil prices go down: Oil prices are NEVER going to go down until there is no more oil on the planet.
Stop the fussing and fretting, sweetpea–and start living your life in one of the better places to live it on the planet.
I am in Caracas, why are you, a supposed venezolano, someplace else?
Enter the waterfall from where you are NOW! (A piece of zen wisdom worth more than its weight in gold, diamonds or petroleum.)
Excellent points: FD32, Aum33 and Drex. Reminds me of the right wing making a fuss about suicide bombers blowing up 20 innocent women and children, while–like paying no attention to that dubious man behind the curtain–US military kills hundreds of times that number in “smart bombs.” Lakoff nailed it–it all comes down to who controls the message via that powerful tool called FRAMING.
Independent, How much money are you willing to bet about those oil prices going down?
Lopez Portillo (QDEP) was a fool. His slogan was “Administering Prosperity”. That was also in the middle 70s, when oil prices hit the toilet for a number of geopolitical factors which largely had to do with the US.
This is 30 years later, chum. And the US monkey wrenches have in 100% of the cases, created oil prices to RISE.
Cheer on your buddy Bush–talk him into invading a few more petroleum producing countries. Start with Iran.
Watch oil prices hit 125 bucks a barrel overnight.
Go for it. Just hand me your wallet, credit cards, and the deed to your house first.
I will be sure and take good care of them!
P.S. I watched the welcoming speech to the VIetnam delegation where Chavez indicated that the rightwing folks in the Brazilian assembly made their pathetic little motion against Venezuela.
Who the heck cares?
We are not in grade school recess here, pedant, but in the real world.
Or at least I am.
Sí–haz patria–mata a “independentmind”.
Seriously, how much are you being paid to troll here?
Whoever is paying you is not getting his money’s worth.
There are so many people and so many lies. Many people with good intentions believe the lies and repeat them. Many educated and good Americans honestly believe that the Bush regime is protecting them from danger.
A person who resides in Venezuela saying that Chavez is a dog from hell, is no more credible than a person in the USA who says that Bush is the greatest president ever.
It seems logical to assume that nearly anyone that the US establishment demonizes is a good person, and that nearly anyone that they applaud is an enemy to mankind.
The establishment dogs are very disppointed to learn that they can’t colonize Iran. They will also be very disppointed when they get it through their thick skulls that they can’t colonize Venezuela and their allies in Latin America. Like Evo Morales said., they want partners, not bosses.
Now is the time for good patriot CIA & NSA employees to throw wrenches into the spokes the dark & miserable operations of the corrupt tyrants who seek to control the world and enslave the people. You guys know what to do and how to do it. There’s never been a greater need for true heros than now. For the sake of our country and our planet - go to it!
The time for war and unbridled greed has past. It’s time for peace and democracy. Time for our dysfunctional family to get it together and build a world that is a pleasant place for everyone.
The whole idea of framing the non-renewal of the RCTV broadcast license as a freedom of speech issue is ludicrous. RCTV, like corporate media everywhere, blast forth propaganda with millions of watts of RF power, thwarting any effective voice for other viewpoints on the limited space available on the electromagnetic spectrum.
The loss of RCTV only enhances freedom of speech, just as, in the US free speech would be enhanced if FOX were shut down and it’s licenses given to the currently tiny, radio only, Pacifica network There would still be plenty of space for the corporate viewpoint on CBS,NBC and ABC.
In the Soviet days, would anyone have said that Pravda or Izvestia were exercising “free speech”?
Nobody should even be missing RCTV, to tell the truth. Here in Caracas there is strident Globovision spewing the same pap that RCTV was famous for.
And the newspapers–I bought El Nacional to see what films were playing and the entire first section of it was nothing but anti-Chavez propaganda–lies, distortions, half-truths, the usual dirty war against the truth.
Meanwhile, Avenida Bolivar is packed with a red tide of hundreds of thousands of chavistas marching in support of the government. I just listened to Chavez’ speech to the wildly enthusiastic crowd.
In a real democracy, the majority decides.
When I see Hugo Chavez smile, i can tell it comes from his heart. He is real - unlike the tyrants who rely heavily upon deception and selfish monied interests.
If we could somehow get Dennis Kucinich into the White House as the president, I think a Kucinich regime could turn this horrifically f’d up goliath of a nation (the usa) around.
Amazing… so, Common Dreams & The Nation feels that a president has the right to shut down a media outlet that supported a movement that sought to remove a leader they felt was a despot from office. Hmmmm… amazing.
Would Common Dreams and The Nation feel that they or any other form of media, including a radio or television station be shut down because they spoke about impeaching George W. Bush?
Before the far left contingent here starts their attempts to impune my credibility by labeling me a right wing troll, I am a liberal democrat, used to consider myself a leftist, up until I started noticing the hypocrisies of what passes itself off as the left these days. My concern is for the right of a people to have a free press, one that speaks to the issues and to cover wrongs, shine the light of day on them. Could it be that The Nation and Common Dreams doesn’t have a problem with the suppression of the people and their concerns? That a despoit is acceptable if it’s one of their own kind?
Chavez and his socialist government doesn’t believe that there should exist any media that is allowed to criticize it. He controls all the other media in the country, and you know what that means. Why is it acceptable for Chavez to do this, when you know it’s wrong that Bush gets a pass from a media controlled by his friends. In fact our media was deregulated to faciliate this.
If there is any democracy, the majority chooses it’s representatives, but they do not accept it’s representative seeking to silence and oppress the minority.. you all just would have loved Jim Crow apparently. Do you know the definition of hypocrite?
JPerry:
Impeachment is a legal, constitutional, process. A coup is illegal and unconstitutional. You are comparing unlike things. Your argument is based on a fallacy and so invalid. Sorry ;-).
JPerry:
Folks here are not as dumb as they are on the right wing sites you frequent. Don’t try to slip lies into the mix. As I believe I have mentioned on these threads before–folks are LEFT or RIGHT based on their ACTIONS–not on what they say they are. Your actions show you to be the right wing troll you protested too much about being called. Hoist on your own petard, me bucko.
Chavez did not SHUT DOWN anything. A license was not renewed. No big deal, except for folks who don’t have a life except bitching about it being taken away from them.
When you move to Latin America, maybe some of these issues will affect you. They DO affect me, because I DO live here–and every time I hop on a plane in Mexico City and get off in Venezuela I see how much better things are here than in my home country.
You yankees should examine your views to become aware of the underlying assumptions you have let yourself be mired in.
You seem to believe that a privately-owned press is a good in itself. The founders believed that it would serve the public good by informing the electorate on what their government was up to. This justification has now been proved questionable.
You seem to have bought into the notion that media are to be judged on their “opinions” not on their news. In theory, the opinions in the media are supposed to be labeled and isolated from the news coverage.
You seem untroubled by the fact that major U.S. media outlets from coast-to-coast all told us Chavez had resigned from the presidency. How could all these media have gotten the same false information at the same time? Clearly their information was provided by a central source with an agenda, which agenda was NOT informing the public.
P.S.: Castro frequently wore a business suit, even in University.
Looked terrible on him.
A few things:
1)I lean left, but you Chavez apologists are desperate and starting to make Fox News not look so deranged. When Chavez won the first time, I was encouraged, as coupled with Lulu’s victory in Brazil, it looked like the poor were finally raising up against the powerful rich through the ballot box. But now the guy is just plain looney. For me he is to the “socilaist revolution” what Jesse Ventura was to the third party movement: Started well, but got consumed in one persons meglomania and now the movement is in danger of being consumed by his ego. Stop apologizing for him!!!
2)If he is so wronged by the press and right in his decision to pull RCTV, why:
Has leftist Brazil (and former ally) actually sided with Bush for the first time ever and condemed the act and are considering pulling their Ambassador over the affair?
Has Bachlete in Chile (also center-left) criticized the act?
Has the majority of Latin Amreican press outlets, who fervently defend freedom of press, condemened the act?
The OAS considering drafting an official condenmation of the act?
3)Subsequent elections he has won: yes he has support from the people, but I spoke to one non-Carter foundation, left leaning, election observer and this person told me that the election was ripe with fraud and intimidation, even though it didnt have to be.
4)If Chavez is so great and speaks for the people and is a model for what the whole world should aspire to, then why in the last year has it jumped into second place on the most corrupt governments in Latin America list prompting many in Venezuela to call his revelution the “robo-lution?”
5)How can you support a guy with no respect for proper discourse? Remember the ridiculous UN speech that turned the world against him and lost his almost guarenteed spot on the security council? Or picked a fight with the president of OAS at the last meeting? Or how about his comment yesterday to his critics: “They can all go to hell!” (Que vayan al carajo!). Come on folks! This guy is a nut! STOP APOLOGIZING FOR HIM!!!! If you want a savior for the leftist movement in Latin America from the confort of your posh US living, look to Lulu in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile or Kirschner in Argentina, not to this power-hungry, maniuplative, meglomanic.
Hey Moonraven:
I, too, would be fired up in the red crowd on Bolivar Avenue if I get to see hot Venezuelan Women pole dancing in g-strings, as that is the picture of the pro-Chavez crowd I am seeing in my ABC Color this morning. Just like Rome showed us with the glaidiators, the masses are easy to manipulate, and Chavez (as well as Bush) get this all to well.
Well, Jcochran, I suggest you put your money where your mouth is (drooling over Venezolanas), get on a plane and come down here to see for yourself.
Don’t let the fact that you don’t speak Spanish stop you. It’s about time you learned–before Spanish becomes the national language of the US.
PS: All of the top five places for corruption in Latin America are nailed down by ONE country: sadly, it’s my home country, Mexico.
I’m an European, living in the US who just came back from Latin America. In the US I got amazed that you can find such a biased media as the AM radio talk shows, and some TV channels (including CNN, not the one which is broadcasted internationally but the ones broadcasted in the US). However, the TV channels here in the US, are much more objective and non-biased compared with the ones in Latin America. I have never been in Venezuela, but from what I’ve know about the TV channels and what I’ve seen in many other Latin American countries, I can easily imagine that they’re worse than any piece of propaganda. Everyone understands that all media is controlled by the wealthy conservative, but it is hard to understand until you see it, how nasty the national opposition channels are.
It is hard to accept that a goverment would ban broadcasting some airwaves, but once you see them you can understand the goverment decision. I wish the national conservative channels in Latin America would be less nasty and more partial, so everyone could be a little more happy. Banning some of these airwaves is a good call.
Q, I assume you meant “less partial”–or maybe “more plural”?
I have lived in Latin America for nearly 15 years, and can say without hesitation that in all the countries I have spent time in here, the commercial media operate like POLITICAL PARTIES rather than like responsible media.
I can also say that I have NEVER heard the kinds of MEAN, RACIST; SEDITIOUS comments expressed anywhere else in Latin America that I have heard all over the commercial stations here in Venezuela.
I would be ashamed even to repeat most of the comments I have heard here over the past 5 years of visits. I have personally heard salaried “jourmalists” here call for the murder of the elected president because he is NOT WHITE.
Moonraven, please expound on your corruption comments re Mexico. With Statistics. Is Mexico more or less corrupt than, say, Paraguay? Or Haiti? What is the TREND in Mexico? What is the TREND in Venezuela.
Don’t you think censorship sucks, by the way?
Powerslave:
You must be kidding, kid. Statistics on corruption in the country that has taken over Colombia’s title of Narcostate!!!!!
Where do they get you guys?
But seriously, the trend–whatever that may mean–it to more corruption in Mexico because it is a lifestyle and the leaders buy their elections in order to be able to steal from the petroleum pot. They are both active participants and role models. A famous and now wealthily dead pol, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, once said: Un politico pobre is un pobre politico (not quite as terse in English–but it means a poor politician is one who is not good a being a pol). That is gospel in Mexico.
The trend in Venezuela–from what I have observed over the past 5 years is toward less corruption only because the leader of this country is actively combating it. But it won’t go away because here it is also a lifestyle.
What I think sucks is the following: IGNORANCE. Censorship may create some of that, but from what I have seen it is created by laziness and lack of curiousity about the world we live in.
So, in other words, you do not have statistics. I, on the other hand, do. Transparancy International, a Berlin based anti-corruption group ranks the worlds countries from number 1, or least corrupt (tie between Finland, Iceland, and New Zealand with a score of 9.6 out of 10.) to number 163, or most corrupt (Haiti, 1.8 of ten. Certain Communist and failed states like Cuba, Zimbabwe, or North Korea are not ranked for lack of data.)
Mexico is ranked number 70, with a score of 3.3 of ten. This is terrible. The only thing worse would be to be like VENEZUELA, number 138, with a score of 2.3.
So, as you were saying, WHO is more corrupt?
It is interesting to me that there are many posters here today who I never see on any of the other discussions.
Where did they come from ?
Were they sent here from other forums to boldly do battle ?
Is Chavez so much of a touchstone then ?
The level of expressed knowledge is higher too with these new Hugo hating posters; leading me to suppose that they came heavily prepared.
I do not see a conspiracy around every corner normally but in the case of the Chavez haters here I must say I am smelling an orchestrated campaign
snakebite June 2nd, 2007 12:25 am
“Since Mr. Weisbrot was a guest of Samuel Moncada, a known bag man for Hugo Chavez, he became a political operative of the venezuelan regime.”
Oh oh, from fraternizing with the enemy to agent of a foreign power. Quick, snakebite, get the Patriot Act police on him!
Bagman–what a riot!
Samuel Moncada is a professor at the Central University of Venezuela.
And for the devious little statistics guy, powerslave: the problem with Transparency International is that the TI “branch” in Mexico has been proven to be completely untransparent and corrupt!
Corruption is on a pedestal, just like the Angel of Independence, in Mexico. Alvaro Obregon (president twice and only needed to be assassinated once) said: Nobody says no to a cannon blast of 50,000 pesos. Of course the bigwigs expect more than that–but considering the political parties in my village pay 100 pesos per presidential vote–there are still plenty of folks whose price is low–llike powerslave’s.
I only came across this site today. It is good to see people counteracting the lies of the right-wing media on this. I was watching the Fox News coverage on the web, they really are priceless. Seán Hannity constantly referring to Chavez as a Dictator (now where I come from, journalists are expected to provide evidence for that sort of thing.) and Adam Housley referring to Charles Barron as a ‘Son of a Bitch’ right on air. Comedy value aside, that is plain bad journalism.
As an Irish Socialist, I find the emergence of progressive movements in Latin America, to be an inspiration. The right wing media will continue to spread lies against Chavez, as he threatens their interests. Fortunately, there are fine journalists, such as yourselves and John Pilger, to show the opposing view. I am looking forward to seeing his film ‘War on Democracy’.
http://www.warondemocracy.net/
By who was it proven to be corrupt?
By whoM?
Google it, if you really want to know. We laughed for days over Mexico’s ability to corrupt the corruption monitors! Sort of like this latest caper of sending the fox/army to guard the henhouse/fight narcocrime. (Clue: the cartels get all their enforcers and hitmen from the army.)
How many countries would have allowed a TV station that supported the coup to stay open so long. To wait intil their time was up.
The fact that it was on air for so many years speaks volumes!!!!
The restraint shown by Chevez and his government should be praised not condemned. I like to see that happen in the USA or Europe for that matter.
Good luck to them. Chevez is a light in the darkness today.
Just like our Olof Palme in Sweden was, until they assassinated him in 1986.
Ever since Sweden joined the Clun(EU) she has been silenced.
A tragedy.
Johanna M