Chavez and the Media
Hey Folks -
Most of my life I believed that the goal of journalism was to seek out the truth, to direct light into the darkness so that the people could discover the truth. Maybe that was because in my youth one of the local newspapers was owned by Scripps-Howard whose logo was a lighthouse above - as I remember - a slogan about shedding light on the world.
I don't believe that any more. I doubt that journalism EVER was that. Instead, the logo for all mainstream media should be a projector above the slogan: "Presenting what you're supposed to think." The idea isn't to emulate science, using our senses to discover reality so as to better deal with the world. Rather, it is to emulate religion, dulling our senses to facilitate faith in authority so as to better protect the status quo from reality.
The article below demonstrates this reality. It isn't too lopsided, but it clearly reflects a prejudice against Hugo Chavez. Some of the "negative" reporting involves behavior demonstrated quite often in this country, but here it's ignored, downplayed, or strongly rationalized. Protesters here are seldom interviewed and their grievances aren't given much attention; in the AP article seven paragraphs focus solely on the protest/grievance side of the equasion; five paragraphs (four of which are one sentence long) give opposing views. Two paragraphs address both sides, and one is arguably neutral.
Now, you may be thinking, "That's not too bad - a little lopsided numerically, but not too bad."
Well, if one looks at the issue as one with two sides, yeah, okay. But that isn't a valid way to frame the issue. One side is composed of the wealthy 20% of the populace who for decades have led the good life and want to keep it that way; the other side is made up of the impoverished 80%, who have been deprived for decades and would like that to change. From that perspective, being "a little lopsided" is really being "a lot lopsided." If the class bully wants to take everyone else's lunch money, equal time for the bully's position and the class's position is not equal time (and in the article's case, more than half the time is given to the "bully's" case).
In addition, there are built-in "American" prejudices guaranteed to lobby against Chavez and his program. In this country, protesting university students are assumed to be liberal, but students in Venezuela come from the wealthy 20% and have a personal stake in maintaining the freedom to control speech in their narrow interest. One even gets the feeling that maybe their biggest objection was the loss of their favorite entertainment.
Similarly, the idea that we have free speech here is distorted and false. It supposedly is a given that we not only have it, but that we cherish it (a whole book could be written debunking that). As a result, any charge against a foreign government of restricting free speech immediately stirs up righteous indignation among trusting Americans.
There's not room enough and time for lengthy debate on that point here, but for one illustration of "free speech," give a look at the video link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00BNG4yESt4
Notice also that while the students received a lot of attention (five paragraphs), the article reports that "crowds" of students demonstrated. On the other hand, the article reports "thousands" of government supporters were in the streets; but they got one, two-sentence paragraph.
Germany, a capitaistic system "expressed concern" that a socialist government didn't allow capitalists a chance to take over the TV station's license and hints that not doing so might show a negative attitude toward free speech and pluralism. Well, I don't know Germany, but in America, the capitalist corporations that own the media aren't real big on free speech and pluralism, but I don't hear Germany or the EU expressing concern over that.
Well, I guess that's enough. It should be pretty clear that at best we are the pot calling the kettle black, and before we criticize others, we have a lot of house cleaning to do right here at home.
- Uke Man
Troops fire upon protesters in Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer (late May, 2007)
CARACAS, Venezuela - National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday into a crowd of protesters angry over a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced a critical television station off the air.
University students blocked one lane of a major highway hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight and was replaced with a new state-funded channel. Chavez had refused to renew RCTV's broadcast license, accusing it of "subversive" activities and of backing a 2002 coup against him.
Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas.
The new public channel, TVES, launched its transmissions with artists singing pro-Chavez music, then carried an exercise program and a talk show, interspersed with government ads proclaiming, "Now Venezuela belongs to everyone."
Crowds of students demonstrated across Caracas, saying they fear for the future of free speech.
"I plan to keep protesting because we're Venezuelans and it's our right," said Valentina Ramos, 17, a Metropolitan University student who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and received stitches.
She said the protest was peaceful, but National Guard troops said they acted after students hurled rocks and sticks. Police said 11 officers were injured in separate protests on Sunday that were broken up with water cannon and tear gas.
Thousands of government supporters reveled in the streets as they watched the midnight changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo. Others launched fireworks and danced in the streets.
Inside the studios of RCTV — the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach — disheartened actors and comedians wept and embraced in the final minutes on the air.
They bowed their heads in prayer, and presenter Nelson Bustamante declared: "Long live Venezuela! We will return soon."
The socialist president says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use.
Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, expressed concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license." It said the EU expects that Venezuela will uphold freedom of speech and "support pluralism."
Founded in 1953, RCTV regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs. But Chavez accused the network of helping to incite a failed coup in 2002, violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism. RCTV's managers deny wrongdoing.
The government promises TVES will be more diverse, buying 70 percent of its content from independent Venezuelan producers.
"We've come here to start a new television with the true face of the people, the face that was hidden, the face that they didn't allow us to show," said Roman Chalbaud, a pro-Chavez filmmaker appointed by the government to TVES' board of directors.
TVES received $4 million in startup funds from the government, but officials say it also may seek commercial advertising.
Most Venezuelan news media are in private hands, including many newspapers and radio stations that remain critical of Chavez. But the only major surviving opposition-sided TV channel is Globovision, which is not seen in all parts of the country.
Most of my life I believed that the goal of journalism was to seek out the truth, to direct light into the darkness so that the people could discover the truth. Maybe that was because in my youth one of the local newspapers was owned by Scripps-Howard whose logo was a lighthouse above - as I remember - a slogan about shedding light on the world.
I don't believe that any more. I doubt that journalism EVER was that. Instead, the logo for all mainstream media should be a projector above the slogan: "Presenting what you're supposed to think." The idea isn't to emulate science, using our senses to discover reality so as to better deal with the world. Rather, it is to emulate religion, dulling our senses to facilitate faith in authority so as to better protect the status quo from reality.
The article below demonstrates this reality. It isn't too lopsided, but it clearly reflects a prejudice against Hugo Chavez. Some of the "negative" reporting involves behavior demonstrated quite often in this country, but here it's ignored, downplayed, or strongly rationalized. Protesters here are seldom interviewed and their grievances aren't given much attention; in the AP article seven paragraphs focus solely on the protest/grievance side of the equasion; five paragraphs (four of which are one sentence long) give opposing views. Two paragraphs address both sides, and one is arguably neutral.
Now, you may be thinking, "That's not too bad - a little lopsided numerically, but not too bad."
Well, if one looks at the issue as one with two sides, yeah, okay. But that isn't a valid way to frame the issue. One side is composed of the wealthy 20% of the populace who for decades have led the good life and want to keep it that way; the other side is made up of the impoverished 80%, who have been deprived for decades and would like that to change. From that perspective, being "a little lopsided" is really being "a lot lopsided." If the class bully wants to take everyone else's lunch money, equal time for the bully's position and the class's position is not equal time (and in the article's case, more than half the time is given to the "bully's" case).
In addition, there are built-in "American" prejudices guaranteed to lobby against Chavez and his program. In this country, protesting university students are assumed to be liberal, but students in Venezuela come from the wealthy 20% and have a personal stake in maintaining the freedom to control speech in their narrow interest. One even gets the feeling that maybe their biggest objection was the loss of their favorite entertainment.
Similarly, the idea that we have free speech here is distorted and false. It supposedly is a given that we not only have it, but that we cherish it (a whole book could be written debunking that). As a result, any charge against a foreign government of restricting free speech immediately stirs up righteous indignation among trusting Americans.
There's not room enough and time for lengthy debate on that point here, but for one illustration of "free speech," give a look at the video link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00BNG4yESt4
Notice also that while the students received a lot of attention (five paragraphs), the article reports that "crowds" of students demonstrated. On the other hand, the article reports "thousands" of government supporters were in the streets; but they got one, two-sentence paragraph.
Germany, a capitaistic system "expressed concern" that a socialist government didn't allow capitalists a chance to take over the TV station's license and hints that not doing so might show a negative attitude toward free speech and pluralism. Well, I don't know Germany, but in America, the capitalist corporations that own the media aren't real big on free speech and pluralism, but I don't hear Germany or the EU expressing concern over that.
Well, I guess that's enough. It should be pretty clear that at best we are the pot calling the kettle black, and before we criticize others, we have a lot of house cleaning to do right here at home.
- Uke Man
Troops fire upon protesters in Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer (late May, 2007)
CARACAS, Venezuela - National Guard troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets Monday into a crowd of protesters angry over a decision by President Hugo Chavez that forced a critical television station off the air.
University students blocked one lane of a major highway hours after Radio Caracas Television ceased broadcasting at midnight and was replaced with a new state-funded channel. Chavez had refused to renew RCTV's broadcast license, accusing it of "subversive" activities and of backing a 2002 coup against him.
Two students were injured by rubber bullets and a third was hit with a tear gas canister, said Ana Teresa Yepez, an administrator at Caracas' Metropolitan University. She said about 20 protesters were treated for inhaling tear gas.
The new public channel, TVES, launched its transmissions with artists singing pro-Chavez music, then carried an exercise program and a talk show, interspersed with government ads proclaiming, "Now Venezuela belongs to everyone."
Crowds of students demonstrated across Caracas, saying they fear for the future of free speech.
"I plan to keep protesting because we're Venezuelans and it's our right," said Valentina Ramos, 17, a Metropolitan University student who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister and received stitches.
She said the protest was peaceful, but National Guard troops said they acted after students hurled rocks and sticks. Police said 11 officers were injured in separate protests on Sunday that were broken up with water cannon and tear gas.
Thousands of government supporters reveled in the streets as they watched the midnight changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo. Others launched fireworks and danced in the streets.
Inside the studios of RCTV — the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach — disheartened actors and comedians wept and embraced in the final minutes on the air.
They bowed their heads in prayer, and presenter Nelson Bustamante declared: "Long live Venezuela! We will return soon."
The socialist president says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use.
Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, expressed concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license." It said the EU expects that Venezuela will uphold freedom of speech and "support pluralism."
Founded in 1953, RCTV regularly topped viewer ratings with its talk shows, sports, soap operas and comedy programs. But Chavez accused the network of helping to incite a failed coup in 2002, violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism. RCTV's managers deny wrongdoing.
The government promises TVES will be more diverse, buying 70 percent of its content from independent Venezuelan producers.
"We've come here to start a new television with the true face of the people, the face that was hidden, the face that they didn't allow us to show," said Roman Chalbaud, a pro-Chavez filmmaker appointed by the government to TVES' board of directors.
TVES received $4 million in startup funds from the government, but officials say it also may seek commercial advertising.
Most Venezuelan news media are in private hands, including many newspapers and radio stations that remain critical of Chavez. But the only major surviving opposition-sided TV channel is Globovision, which is not seen in all parts of the country.
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