Chavez and RCTV

[Neva]

The Nation.

When Chávez finally returned to the Miraflores Palace, the stations gave up on covering the news entirely. On one of the most important days in Venezuela's history, they aired Pretty Woman and Tom & Jerry cartoons.

I think that's pretty funny tbh.

Also disownedspirit RCTV don't actually claim to be a news organisation, they broadcast soap operas, comedy shows, sports and all sorts. It's the most popular station in Venezuela apparantly. Or was

 

[disownedspirit]

The problem with doing stuff like that to news organisations though is they have an annoying habit of reporting it to people. Chavez is cunning like a fox, take them off air and then chuck them in the gulags. Safer and you get the bonus of broadcasting it on your own channel. It would be a ratings winner for sure!

so wtf were you on about in this post then ?

 

[Neva]

For some reason I thought they were a news organisation. Then I did a bit of reading after the Tom and Jerry thing and found out they weren't.

 

[London_Calling]

Thanks London Calling for the OP; I had been wondering about this myself

No worries. Fwiw, I feel a little better informed.

For some reason I thought they were a news organisation. Then I did a bit of reading after the Tom and Jerry thing and found out they weren't.

Glad you also found the thread useful.

 

[nick1181]

For some reason this reminds me of fake Iraq War pictures in UK newspapers - and that major spat that the govt had with the BBC. Heads rolled.

Compare and contrast. RCTV was blatantly involved with and calling for a violent overthrow of a democratically elected government. If this had happened in the UK the reaction would have gone far beyond resignations and sackings - people would have gone to prison.

Given that 90% of the media outlets in Venezuela are privately owned and openly hostile to the (democratically elected) government, I think it's fair enough that this becomes a state-run station. If they can do with it what Al Jazeera have done with their World Service then it will probably turn into the most popular station.

I noticed a bit of a smear against AJ in an earlier comment - we get AJ World Service here in NZ - on a chanel that plays news services from all over - it plays Fox News, CNN and a load of European stations. AJ is by far and away the best. It gives people time to say what they want to say, doesn't try to railroad them in any particular direction and it doesn't talk to its audience as though they're about 12.

 

[lewislewis]

I don't think people defending 'freedom of speech' realise that the people of Venezuela are involved in a situation that is essentially revolutionary in terms of the transformation of their society, lives are at stake and to allow a media company to continue to violate the democratic Venezuelan government is not acceptable.

 

[kropotkin]

It amuses me to see how quickly lefties are prepared to line up behind a state if it is controlled by a populist anti-American making noises about 'socialism'

 

[nino_savatte]

It amuses me to see how quickly lefties are prepared to line up behind a state if it is controlled by a populist anti-American making noises about 'socialism'

Conversely, if there was no Chavez, Venezuela would be another US puppet state (as it was before Chavez's rise to power), kowtowing to Washington. Furthermore, RCTV and those who support it, would not allow those whom Chavez has enfranchised, a say in anything.

 

[kropotkin]

Whether it is factions of the Venezuelan elite controlling the state in the interests of foreign or domestic capital, either way the poor of Venezuela get exploited, and the workers must conform to what their bosses desire.

You have this arse about tit- the Venezuelan elite were forced to concede various measures to the working class because it had achieved a certain level of organisation and thus power. Fetishising the form that concession has taken as if it itself was the reason for the increased power only helps strip that power away- something that Chavez and his cronies have been doing from the start (e.g. the workers autonomously running the oil refineries themselves during the coup when the management fucked off were forced back under management when Chavez reinstated control) and are continuing to do now- centralisation of control and authority.

 

[London_Calling]

It amuses me to see how quickly lefties are prepared to line up behind a state if it is controlled by a populist anti-American making noises about 'socialism'

"controlled by a populist": isn't that how democratically elected executive works?

 

[kropotkin]

No, the word 'populist' has a definite meaning.

 

[In Bloom]

the workers autonomously running the oil refineries themselves during the coup when the management fucked off were forced back under management when Chavez reinstated control

Interesting, don't suppose you have a link about this, do you?

As for Chavez banning RCTV, meh. One group of bosses fighting another group of bosses over who gets to be in charge. What does bother me is Venezuelan police using tear gas and batons against demonstrators.

 

[kropotkin]

No, the Venezuelan comrades who came over to London showed us a documentary they filmed about it- interesting interviews with the oil workers...

 

[mk12]

kropotkin - I saw on the libcom news section that student protestors were saying that venezuela is a dictatorship. That's total bollocks really, isn't it?

 

[In Bloom]

Students in "embarrassingly crap slogan" shocker!

Personally, I thought the news article could have been a lot better and shouldn't have given RCTV such an easy ride, but there you go.

 

[mk12]

you smash the bourgeois state, and you turn the world around,
and that's what it's all about - hey!

 

[DexterTCN]

I'm sure I heard on the radio today that the channel is still available on satellite and cable.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I'm sure I heard on the radio today that the channel is still available on satellite and cable.

it is.

 

[kropotkin]

kropotkin - I saw on the libcom news section that student protestors were saying that venezuela is a dictatorship. That's total bollocks really, isn't it?

yes-as far as i understand.

 

[London_Calling]

I'm sure I heard on the radio today that the channel is still available on satellite and cable.

Perhaps more accuratley, it's available to people who can afford and have cable and satellite.

 

[London_Calling]

The Guardian have something this morning on Chavez's response to the media's coverage of the RCTV closure: Chávez attacks another private TV channel. Translation (always a worry), as follows:

Hugo Chávez condemned Venezuela's last remaining opposition-aligned TV station yesterday, two days after pulling the plug on another critical broadcaster. The president called cable news channel Globovisión an enemy of the state, and accused it of fomenting violence and attempts to assassinate him.

"Enemies of the homeland, particularly those behind the scenes, I will give you a name: Globovisión. Greetings gentlemen of Globovisión. You should watch where you are going," he said, in a speech all stations were obliged to air. He accused it of distorting reaction to the closure of RCTV, a network which closed on Sunday after the government refused to renew its license. "I recommend they take a tranquiliser, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down."

Tens of thousands of mostly youthful protesters have marched through the capital, Caracas, and other cities for four days chanting slogans accusing the government of drifting towards Cuba-style authoritarianism. Clashes with police have left dozens injured.

State TV depicted the marchers as vandals and fascists. Most private networks, which allegedly have been cowed by the government, ignored or played down the protests. Globovisión, in contrast, depicted them as a battle for free speech and blamed the police for the violence.

By moving so swiftly, Mr Chávez showed he was not deterred by international outcry over RCTV's closure, a decision he defended as sovereign, legitimate and overdue, given its backing of a coup which briefly ousted him in 2002.

Communications minister Willian Lara asked prosecutors to investigate Globovisión for inciting attempts to kill Mr Chávez, citing its airing of footage of the 1981 assassination attempt against John Paul II in Rome accompanied by This Does Not Stop Here, a salsa song by Ruben Blades, now Panama's tourism minister.

In Venezuela's political climate this was a coded message to kill Mr Chávez, said Mr Lara, adding that he had consulted semiologists. "The conclusion of the specialists is that [in this segment] they are inciting the assassination of the president," he told a press conference.

Alberto Federico Ravell, Globovisión's director, said the accusation was "ridiculous". He said the station had shown the Pope's shooting as part of a week-long airing of RCTV archive footage accompanied by songs with farewell themes. He expressed concern at sharing RCTV's fate: "If this government, with one stroke of the pen, closed the oldest TV station in the country, that has been on the air for 53 years, how will it not be able to shut this station which is far smaller?"

Jesse Chacón, the telecoms minister, said Globovisión would be allowed to broadcast if it did not break the law.

Mr Lara also accused CNN, which has a bureau in Caracas, of smearing Mr Chávez by juxtaposing his face with that an al-Qaida leader and an image of unrest in China. He also complained that it used footage of violence in Mexico to illustrate a story about Venezuela.

The network denied that the juxtaposition had signified hostile intent, and also said that it had publicly apologised weeks earlier for the Mexico footage gaffe.

 

[nino_savatte]

Actually all this talk of Chavez "banning" RCTV is incorrect: he's not renewing its license.

I got this on Myspace this morning, Just to remind folk the role of RCTV in the 2002 coup. Excuse the C&P but I'm not linking this to my Myspace page (too much IRL info). This is a snippet.

Sections of Venezuela's private media – including RCTV – played an active role in supporting this coup which became known as the world's first 'media coup'. One of the coup leaders Vice-Admiral Victor Ramirez Perez, underlined the key role of the media in organising the coup, stating, "We had a deadly weapon – the media." The media's role is highlighted in the documentaries, The Revolution Will Not be Televised and the new John Pilger film The War on Democracy.

RCTV's specific involvement included running adverts encouraging the public to take to the streets and to overthrow the democratically elected president. As www.venezuelanalysis.com highlighted, RCTV was the first to broadcast the false claim that Chávez's supporters were shooting at opposition demonstrators, which then served as a justification for high level military generals to declare their disobedience to the government and RCTV also showed exclusive interviews with coup plotters.

 

[Barking_Mad]

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

in my opinion one of the most brilliant documentaries you could watch.

 

[paimei01]

If you want to know what that tv station did in 2001 when there was a CIA coup against Chavez watch this :

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

Imagine a tv station in the USA sending false news and helping a coup, if the coup would be unsuccessful they would all get arrested and the station closed.
Chavez did not do that, he just did not renew their license
Look at the movie above, you will see a coup from inside, and you will also see what is on CNN at the same time : "All is well in Venezuela, there is a new government - the people like it, no problem, all is fine"
What we see now on the news could be another try to remove Chavez

 

[STFC]

Tens of thousands of mostly youthful protesters have marched through the capital, Caracas, and other cities for four days chanting slogans accusing the government of drifting towards Cuba-style authoritarianism.

If only they'd log on to U75, then they'd realise how privileged they are to live under Chavez...

 

[paimei01]

Watch the movie above, you will see that the 2001 coup started the same way, paid protesters marching towards the presidential palace, at the same time the coup leaders saying "Chavez wants violence" etc.
There were not ten thousand protesters, there were 2500 and they attacked the police

WASHINGTON, April 24 - In the past year, the United States channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to American and Venezuelan groups opposed to President Hugo Chavez, including the labor group whose protests led to the Venezuelan president's brief ouster this month.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2002/05/10577.shtml

 

[Barking_Mad]

If only they'd log on to U75, then they'd realise how privileged they are to live under Chavez...

I have serious reservations about Chavez but that doesn't mean there isn't a massive amount of hypocrisy from the UK media in the way they present Chavez. Folk in glass houses shouldn't throw stones......

 

[nino_savatte]

Watch the movie above, you will see that the 2001 coup started the same way, paid protesters marching towards the presidential palace, at the same time the coup leaders saying "Chavez wants violence" etc.
There were not ten thousand protesters, there were 2500 and they attacked the police

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2002/05/10577.shtml

Exactly and rather than examine the so-called 'evidence', there are many who will accept this sort of thing at face value.

 

[London_Calling]

Looking forward to viewing the Doc later. Cheers.


Fwiw, I have a feeling Alistair Campbell would never have allowed things to get this messy . . .

 

[disownedspirit]

hugo chavez said

"If the bourgeoisie of Venezuela continues to become desperate, and continues to try to undermine the Bolivarian people of Venezuela, they will continue losing their possessions one by one. One by one!" he said.

he's goin to step on you again

if i lived in south america id vote for him