Venezuela president Hugo Chavez continued his assault on free speech and the free press with the closing of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), the last major television channel offering criticism of his regime. Previously, his government kicked the station off free television channels. RCTV then continued to criticize his policies on cable. Now it has been barred from any broadcast.
The Chavez regime insists that the decision was due to such implausible violations as not playing the national anthem and failing to warn before it aired violent scenes.
This brings a new civil liberties meaning to former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton N. Minow’s famous reference to a “vast wasteland” on television. Chavez’s friendship with leaders like Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to extend to their preference to have media span the full gamut from adoration to breathless adoration. From now on the only critics on Venezuelan television will be those commentators criticizing Chavez for being too good to the people and working too hard.
Despite Chavez’s crackdown on critics, thousands took to the streets recently to protest his policies, here.
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BuelahMan,
Your point on Chavez as a dictator is well taken. You’re right, my main knowledge is what I get from a biased media. however, in my life for instance I can remember my tears flowing when Fidel matched into Havanna and liberated his country from the Mafia and American imperialism. It’s fifty years later now and although I realize the problems caused by the ridicupous American embargo, one would think a good leader would have not ruled for so long and have a better succession plan than his brother taking over. I understand all too well Venezuela’s history of being raped, but I get suspicious about people who want to be appointed President for Life.
I wonder how anyone can be a dictator after winning every election hands down (as opposed to the elections we have in America)? How can it be that so many smart people simply gobble up the CNN propaganda and do not seemingly take ANY time to seek out the truth about Chavez and Venezuela.
As John Puma points out (and the sourcing comes from our own USGS), Venezuela may be sitting on the earth’s largest oil reserves.
Of course this has NOTHING to do with the rhetoric or the gullible brilliant people here that take it in and regurgitate it as if they know something.
Chavez is no dictator. No more than the fools that occupy the POTUS office in the USA.
Chavez also has a far better approval rating than Obama (or Bush). By far.
Of course, Americans wouldn’t know this because CNN didn’t force feed to to you.
Egad. The one place I always thought I could find fair evaluations of a subject, I now see that this place is much like many of the others. Regurgitators of bullshit propaganda. And in matters of military obfuscation. THIS blows my mind.
No thanks. I prefer reality. And Mr Turley just jumped in to the vast space of MIC horseshit propagandistic Unreality.
Enjoy.
I now will disable my feed to this blog.
Another example of why political philosophy is irrelevant to how governments are run. People who would seek to run a country are generally either sociopathic or venal. Chavez is a creep.
However, and a big one though is how Venezuela was for years treated as an American fiefdom, with the Rockefeller’s playing the liege lords. The treatment of Venezuela by the US certainly has not endeared us to them and so aguy like Chavez gets to run things. In truth he’s probably doing better for the people, but
it is hard for me to justify dictators.
The US Geological Survey has just released a report saying that Chavez’s country sits atop some 500 billion barrels of YOUR oil!!
The report states: “This is the largest accumulation ever assessed by the USGS.” Currently Venezuela ranks 6th in proven oil reserves (100 BBL) behind leader Saudi Arabis (267 BBL), according to CIA fact book figures.
Is there any mystery why Chavez is making increasingly frequent appearances on our media’s “daily hate.”
USGS report: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2386
CIA proven oil reserves table: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html?countryName=Venezuela&countryCode=ve®ionCode=sa&rank=6#ve
He hates Bush. Don’t you remember when he took the podium after Bush? “I can still smell the sulfur!”
As evil as he is, how can you bring yourself to hate him now?
Well what have you with a friend of Bush. If you air what we don’t like we just figure out a way that your people don’t get into the press rooms.