Posted on 12/21/2002 3:28:00 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:08:44 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
CARACAS - Hundreds of thousands of opponents of President Hugo Chavez took to the streets of this capital city yesterday on the 19th day of a general strike that has crippled the country's vital petroleum industry and sparked critical gas and food shortages in the world's fifth-largest oil-producing nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Opposition critics, for their part, say that state media paints the country as a South American Switzerland, where the government has complete control over corruption and social problems.
Tensions between the media and the government peaked last April, when the private television stations broadcast endless coverage of the protests and military actions that briefly forced Chavez from office. But the channels turned the cameras off when Chavez's supporters and loyalist troops restored him to power two days later.
In response, the government uses its television to promote Chavez and slam the opposition at every opportunity, even though the station is required to remain neutral because of its public funding.
After opposition leaders mounted the current general strike, the private stations practically suspended all regular programming to provide nonstop coverage of the opposition.
Stations began showing movies and sitcoms a week later after being heavily criticized by international journalists.
But news cameras still jumped on opportunities to show gas shortages, long lines at stores, and shuttered businesses. In addition, the channels no longer run commercials, instead showing only opposition-sponsored announcements.
One shows film of a soldier ripping a Venezuelan flag off the back of a demonstrator as opera music rises in the background and a text scroll denounces the president as a dictator. Another shows smiling faces at a march and promises a quick removal of the president -- all to the tune of a catchy jingle.***
Venezuela's media war: Opposition versus government TV - Sat Dec 21, 1:51 AM ET - By CARLA SALAZAR, AP - [Full Text] *** Commercials for Christmas gifts have been replaced by political propaganda since the strike began Dec. 2. Normal programming - soap operas, cartoons, sitcoms - has been swapped for near-constant news coverage and marathon talk shows with opposition politicians.
"We've had to make the content more informative and open up more space for reporting, simply as a defense process," Victor Ferreres, president of Venevision, said at a news conference with foreign correspondents this week.
Ferreres denounced assaults against the media by "Bolivarian Circles," neighborhood groups sworn to defend Chavez's revolution. He accused "Chavistas," as the president's supporters are called, of intimidating journalists, reporters and television camera crews.
Chavez, who was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000, denies his supporters are responsible for media aggression. He claims the circles are helping him improve social conditions for the country's poor majority.
Similar propaganda charges have been lodged against the state-run Venezolana de Television channel, popularly known as Canal 8.
Canal 8 at first ignored the strike, filling its programming with Christmas themes and government-sponsored Christmas shopping bazaars.
It now runs ads featuring a disorganized, squealing opposition bordering on the hysterical. Speak-overs call strike leaders "idiots" and "kids" intent on overthrowing the president.
Pro-government propaganda, including special programs describing the leaders of an April coup that briefly ousted Chavez as "fascists," fills much of the station's programming. Other footage shows pro-Chavez marches with banner titles reading, "We are the majority!"
State TV repeatedly urges its viewers to turn off the TV - if they're tuned to other channels. ***
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