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Hypocrisy On Parade — Why Now?
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Hypocrisy On Parade

by Bryan

Ahead of the Organization of American States meeting Secretary of State Rice Protests Venezuelan TV Closure to the Venezuelan foreign minister.

First off, let’s be clear exactly what Hugo Chavez did: he refused to renew the broadcast license for the RCTV network. He didn’t arrest the owners, padlock the building, blow up the transmitter; he refused to renew their 20-year license to broadcast over the frequencies designated for television.

The Center for Media and Democracy has a round-up of what’s been written on the issue: What’s Fair in Coverage of RCTV Shutdown?.

That includes an opinion piece by Bart Jones, who was a correspondent for the Associated Press in Venezuela, for the Los Angeles Times: Hugo Chavez versus RCTV

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.

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.

…

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.

Should the representative of an administration that talked about bombing a television network, be complaining because the leader of another country refused to renew a license?

I would note that Chavez is also saying unkind things about Globovision, which was also complicit in the coup, but he hasn’t threatened to imprison anyone.

Hugo Chavez is not a nice person, and certainly has more than a little demagogue in his personality, but his actions come nowhere near the level of press manipulation and agitprop as the Hedgemony.