tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post4071800003209130268..comments2024-02-24T23:00:25.348-08:00Comments on a gringo in the bolivarian republic: Three days since the Change-over (...and counting)--dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11531855311241445023noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post-26175158449620459872007-06-03T17:34:00.000-07:002007-06-03T17:34:00.000-07:00katie!!!!hola mi amor!yeah...fox...fox...fox...the...katie!!!!<BR/>hola mi amor!<BR/>yeah...fox...fox...fox...<BR/>the truth of the matter, to be fair and balanced and whatever, is that there is an emerging 'hegemony' of chavista influence over the media. IF by that you mean that the private media, which has been acting as the footsoldiers of the opposition for the post 8 years or so, is finally being de fanged. some are still quite anti-chavista, but there is a major difference between the justifications of antichavista violence, lying, and coupmongering of the past and being critical of the government, no?<BR/>i mean, even aside from whether or not one belives the Bolivarian project is worth fighting for or not, most folks in the US don't realize the extent to which the private media here really and truly has been THE antigovernment force here for the past while. WITH US funding, WITH little grasp on the truth, WITH all the things that make many of us hate television in the US...<BR/>thing is, Venezuela really makes you chose sides rather quickly. what was it howie zinn used to say? you can't stay neutral on a moving train? <BR/>yeah. that sort of thing.<BR/><BR/>so, it all too often comes down to which side you want to be on at the end of the day: a revolutionary process, with all its pitfalls and imperfections, or the overtly racist and classist folks who want to bring things back to the old order.<BR/><BR/>crazy thing is that i am normally against such dichotomies...but the divisions are so stark here, the situation so polarized and polarizing, that it is hard not to...more on this in a few moments...--dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11531855311241445023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post-19193480832038547902007-06-01T10:42:00.000-07:002007-06-01T10:42:00.000-07:00Hey D -- Your old bocce pal Katie here. I actuall...Hey D -- Your old bocce pal Katie here. I actually didn't know anything about what's going on there until last night, when I climbed out of the prospectus hole I've been in and went over to a friend's house where someone had apparently turned on Fox News and left the room. Rather unsurprisingly, Fox was pitching this whole thing as the catastrophe every right-thinking American knew was going to happen if we sat idly by and let a two-bit would-be dictator like Chavez get his hands on a whole country. They honestly made it sound like he had simultaneously shut down all non-government-controlled media. So, for the fair and balanced report, I come to your blog -- this is a great, really helpful rundown of the situation, especially for someone who's been living under a rock for the past week.katiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17204910910499731059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post-55625080556843590632007-05-31T08:03:00.000-07:002007-05-31T08:03:00.000-07:00i need to write something on 'the opposition' and ...i need to write something on 'the opposition' and have been planning on it for a while...i'll get to it...well...with the spate of marches, demos, and etc this week, i haven't had too much time to actually write much.<BR/>NYT has been horrible. i actually know the 'fixer' (the underpaid sap who actually writes the majority of stories that then appear under the name of the bureau chief) down here...who (the fixer, that is) also writes for FOX news, if that tells you anything.<BR/>venezuelanalysis reprinted this op-ed piece from the LATimes, which is from what i can tell the most realistic rendition of events down here to appear in the US media...<BR/><BR/>Hugo Chavez versus RCTV<BR/>Wednesday, May 30, 2007 <BR/> <BR/> <BR/>By: Bart Jones - Los Angeles Times<BR/><BR/>VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez's refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television might seem to justify fears that Chavez is crushing free speech and eliminating any voices critical of him. <BR/><BR/>Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and members of the European Parliament, the U.S. Senate and even Chile's Congress have denounced the closure of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private television network. Chavez's detractors got more ammunition Tuesday when the president included another opposition network, Globovision, among the "enemies of the homeland." <BR/><BR/>But the case of RCTV — like most things involving Chavez — has been caught up in a web of misinformation. While one side of the story is getting headlines around the world, the other is barely heard.<BR/><BR/>The demise of RCTV is indeed a sad event in some ways for Venezuelans. Founded in 1953, it was an institution in the country, having produced the long-running political satire program "Radio Rochela" and the blisteringly realistic nighttime soap opera "Por Estas Calles." It was RCTV that broadcast the first live-from-satellite images in Venezuela when it showed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969.<BR/><BR/>But after Chavez was elected president in 1998, RCTV shifted to another endeavor: ousting a democratically elected leader from office. Controlled by members of the country's fabulously wealthy oligarchy including RCTV chief Marcel Granier, it saw Chavez and his "Bolivarian Revolution" on behalf of Venezuela's majority poor as a threat.<BR/><BR/>RCTV's most infamous effort to topple Chavez came during the April 11, 2002, coup attempt against him. For two days before the putsch, RCTV preempted regular programming and ran wall-to-wall coverage of a general strike aimed at ousting Chavez. A stream of commentators spewed nonstop vitriolic attacks against him — while permitting no response from the government.<BR/><BR/>Then RCTV ran nonstop ads encouraging people to attend a march on April 11 aimed at toppling Chavez and broadcast blanket coverage of the event. When the march ended in violence, RCTV and Globovision ran manipulated video blaming Chavez supporters for scores of deaths and injuries.<BR/><BR/>After military rebels overthrew Chavez and he disappeared from public view for two days, RCTV's biased coverage edged fully into sedition. Thousands of Chavez supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but none of that appeared on RCTV or other television stations. RCTV News Director Andres Izarra later testified at National Assembly hearings on the coup attempt that he received an order from superiors at the station: "Zero pro-Chavez, nothing related to Chavez or his supporters…. The idea was to create a climate of transition and to start to promote the dawn of a new country." While the streets of Caracas burned with rage, RCTV ran cartoons, soap operas and old movies such as "Pretty Woman." On April 13, 2002, Granier and other media moguls met in the Miraflores palace to pledge support to the country's coup-installed dictator, Pedro Carmona, who had eliminated the Supreme Court, the National Assembly and the Constitution.<BR/><BR/>Would a network that aided and abetted a coup against the government be allowed to operate in the United States? The U.S. government probably would have shut down RCTV within five minutes after a failed coup attempt — and thrown its owners in jail. Chavez's government allowed it to continue operating for five years, and then declined to renew its 20-year license to use the public airwaves. It can still broadcast on cable or via satellite dish.<BR/><BR/>Granier and others should not be seen as free-speech martyrs. Radio, TV and newspapers remain uncensored, unfettered and unthreatened by the government. Most Venezuelan media are still controlled by the old oligarchy and are staunchly anti-Chavez.<BR/><BR/>If Granier had not decided to try to oust the country's president, Venezuelans might still be able to look forward to more broadcasts of "Radio Rochela."<BR/><BR/>Bart Jones, BART JONES spent eight years in Venezuela, mainly as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, and is the author of the forthcoming book "Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story, From Mud Hut to Perpetual--dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11531855311241445023noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post-20239017956977184422007-05-31T06:38:00.000-07:002007-05-31T06:38:00.000-07:00I agree with the above statement, with little to l...I agree with the above statement, with little to look to other than NYT, or (shudder) CNN, etc., it's becoming really annoying to try to keep tabs on the situation, or get any real information of worth...until the D posts...thanks, and keep 'em coming!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14769959714571017122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7446598839792348689.post-57799111700695638202007-05-30T20:45:00.000-07:002007-05-30T20:45:00.000-07:00So tell me about "the Opposition"--who are these p...So tell me about "the Opposition"--who are these people anyway? I mean, I know generally, but not much about them--is this a fairly straightforward divsion along class lines? Are they referred to simply as "the Opposition" in Venezuela? <BR/><BR/>Don't know if you've been reading it (or if you care to read it) but NYT coverage of all of this has been particularly obnoxious. I'm so glad you're there and writing about it.Cristina Lopezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10994215292617686518noreply@blogger.com