WHAT THE VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW...


Cartoon Coup D'Etat
by Paul Haste / May 28th, 2007

'The Presidential Palace is in our hands; why don't you show that?'
Chávez's supporters shouted to the journalists... instead, RCTV was
broadcasting Looney Tunes cartoons.

Venezuela takes an important step towards democratizing its media on
28 May when a billion dollar media corporation loses its television
broadcast license to 'those who almost never have a voice,' in
President Hugo Chávez's words.

Radio Caracas Television - RCTV - and its multi-millionaire owner,
Marcel Granier, who are about to lose their unceasing political war
against Chávez and Venezuela's Bolívarian revolution, are claiming
that 'independent media are being closed down,' that Chávez is a
dictator intent on 'restricting freedom of expression and democratic
rights.'

Reporters without Borders declares that RCTV losing its license is 'a
serious attack on editorial pluralism', while editorials in US
newspapers have predictably misrepresented the controversy, claiming
Chávez is retaliating against his critics in the opposition media who
'disagree' with the Bolívarian revolution.

The reality is rather different. As Reporters without Borders doesn't
mention, perhaps understandably so, given its financing by the US
State Department's National Endowment for Democracy - which also
finances rightist opposition political parties in Venezuela - RCTV was
an active participant in the violent coup d'etat that deposed
President Chávez for almost 48 hours in 2002.

On the day of the coup, RCTV abandoned all pretense to report news
impartially, calling opposition supporters to illegally demonstrate at
the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas while showing the
constant on screen message 'Ni un paso atras': 'Not one step back.'

It deliberately showed film from one angle to falsely claim that
Chávez supporters were firing on opposition demonstrators, when
another camera angle would have shown that Chávez supporters were
defending themselves from sniper attacks - no opposition demonstrators
were in sight. The constant repeated broadcasting of this film was
then used as justification for some military officers to declare their
'disobedience' to the president, and these declarations were
faithfully broadcast to attempt to legitimize a military takeover.

The American editorial writers who fail to mention all this, also fail
to comment on the Venezuelan media's support for the subsequent
fascist junta that took control in Caracas and proceeded to dismiss
the entire Supreme Court and the Congress, suspend the constitution,
arrest the democratically elected president and then sent armed police
onto the streets to suppress any resistance.

A junta member, Admiral Victor Ramírez Pérez, thanked journalists on
live TV the day after the coup, saying that the organizers 'had a
weapon - the media - let me congratulate you,' and the businessman the
junta chose to be 'president', Pedro Carmona, summoned media
executives to Miraflores to ensure that opposition to the coup was not
reported.

RCTV's boss, Granier, denied he ever met Carmona during the coup,
despite film showing his presence at Miraflores, and while Granier
still refers to the junta leader as 'President Carmona', RCTV's
subsequent actions demonstrated that no instructions were necessary to
keep it on message.

As Venezuelans took to the streets to demand the return of President
Chávez, fighting the police and demonstrating at Miraflores in their
thousands against the coup, RCTV, contrary to the constant coverage it
awarded the opposition demonstration that led to the coup,
intentionally blacked out this breaking news, and as RCTV production
manager at the time, Andrés Izarra, later related, Granier himself
ordered journalists 'not to broadcast information on Chávez, his
supporters or anyone connected to him.'

The Chávez demonstrators coming down from the poor shanty towns on the
mountains above Caracas encouraged soldiers loyal to the president to
take back Miraflores and arrest the junta. Helicopters were sent to
the Caribbean island where the president had been kept prisoner, and
barely 48 hours after the right had attempted to take Venezuela back
to the military dictatorship of the Fifties, the coup had failed and
Chávez had returned to an ecstatic welcome.

However, none of the resistance to the coup, the junta's arrest or
Chavez's return could be seen on television screens. Amid the coup's
complete collapse, and on probably the most dramatic day in
Venezuela's recent history, RCTV was showing Warner Bros. Looney Tunes
cartoons.

Other opposition media followed its lead. No rightist newspapers were
printed or distributed the following day, but the leftist Últimas
Noticias in Caracas told Venezuela what had happened, and the Chávista
Panorama newspaper published four editions in 20 hours as its
journalists reported on the coup's stunning defeat.

It is not difficult to imagine that had CNN or the New York Times
acted in the United States as RCTV had done in Venezuela, their
executives would now be in Guantánamo, but President Chávez responded
with restraint, imploring the media to think about the fascist nature
of the junta it had supported: 'Reflect a little, for God's sake! It's
your country too!'

No journalists or media executives were jailed or persecuted after the
coup, and once the opposition dominated Supreme Court declared that,
in their opinion, 'no coup had taken place,' Pedro Carmona and other
putchists were released, and the right once again went on the
offensive against Chávez's Bolívarian revolution.

Marcel Granier's RCTV had abandoned any pretense at professional
journalism, concerning itself with the political impact of its
propagandistic 'news' broadcasts, rather than adhering to anything
that resembled journalistic ethics. In all, five private television
stations, reaching 90% of Venezuela's viewers, and nine of the ten
national newspapers, support the opposition.

Despite US newspaper editorialists claiming that the state is
restricting criticism of President Chávez, it is clear to anyone who
reads these newspapers or watches Venezuela TV, that the vast majority
are implacably hostile to the revolution and critical of the
president. There is no censorship, as there is in US client states
such as Saudi Arabia, and journalists are not intimidated or
assassinated as in México and Colombia.

US President Bush's recent inaccurate claim that Venezuela has
'repressive laws' that 'severely restrict the liberty of the press,'
hardly stands up to scrutiny, especially when, as Venezuelan Vice-
President Jorge Rodríquez pointed out, 'the only television channel
closed down for political reasons during this Bolívarian
administration was the pro-Chávez Canal 8 in 2002. It was taken off
the air on the first night of the coup by Pedro Carmona's fascist
junta.'

The disproportionate criticisms have more to do with Chávez's
challenge to the unaccountable elite that clearly limits 'editorial
pluralism' by using its ownership and control of the media to present
its own privileged interests as those of all Venezuelans. Accustomed
to operating their lucrative commercial television channels for
decades without democratic oversight, this elite has come to believe
this privileged position is their 'right.'

Chávez has pointed out that broadcasting licenses are concessions, and
are not granted in perpetuity. In fact, Venezuelan law and the
Bolívarian Constitution confer certain responsibilities, such as
ensuring the public receives 'true and accurate information,' on the
media corporations that are granted these concessions, as does the
respective media laws in the United States and most other countries.

RCTV's concession to broadcast on Venezuela's terrestrial Canal 2
frequency expires on 28 May. The government has decided not to renew
RCTV's concession, citing, among other crimes such as not paying
taxes, the station's failure to provide 'true and accurate
information' during the 2002 coup, when its executives intentionally
refused to report breaking news and critical information to the public
and imposed its 'cartoon blackout.'

'This decision is an irreversible fact,' William Lara, Venezuela's
Communications and Information Minister declared, 'the Constitutional,
legal and regulatory basis for the decision is solidly
incontrovertible.' For the first time in Venezuela, the privileged
media elite has come up against a government that cannot be bought,
bribed or intimidated.

Moreover, the Bolívarian revolution's originality doesn't stop with
challenging elite interests. A new television service, Televisora
Venezolana Social (Venezuelan Social TV or TEVES), will take over the
Canal 2 frequency, Chávez has announced. It will be run by an
independent foundation and have independent, community and alternative
programming and participation, promoting Venezuelan film and program
production.

Although the new TEVES station will initially receive government
financing, which the British state financed BBC rather ironically
claimed 'might affect its independence', it will not be required to
broadcast government programmes such as Chávez's ¡Alo, Presidente!,
and it will be able to take commercial advertising to eventually allow
it to be self financing.

Corporate media in almost all countries is often unresponsive,
unaccountable and inaccessible, permitting virtually no popular
participation in film production and programming. Venezuela's attempt
to start to democratize the broadcast media has been met with
predictable criticism from that corporate media, who continue to
insist that a tiny, wealthy elite - and not a democratic government
elected time and time again with a massive popular vote - should have
the right to control what is seen and heard on the airwaves.

As for Granier and RCTV, some in the opposition believe it is no loss
to have the station lose its license. 'RCTV wasn't even good at
propaganda,' wrote one anti-Chávez columnist citing Chávez's return
after the coup and massive election win in 2006, 'the point of giving
up journalism is to increase the political effectiveness of what is
broadcast, and on that score RCTV has certifiably failed.'

But all is not lost for the anti-Chávez opposition - RCTV can still
broadcast on cable and satellite, and should there be news it doesn't
like, it will be free to black it out with as many Looney Tunes
cartoons as it likes.

Sources



http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/05/cartoon-coup-d%E2%80%99etat/

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