I sincerely wish that this diary would put the "Chavez shut down the free press" fake debate to rest. There is a difference between free over-the-air broadcast stations and private media paid for by a subscriber. On my CABLE stations I can watch Glenn "everything Obama does is just like Hitler told him to" Beck on Fox, per Rupert Murdoch's wishes. More power to him, literally. But on broadcast TV my local Fox station DOES NOT play that crap and (hopefully) would get its license pulled by the FCC. Let me make it simplier for those still confused. I can watch boobies on cable but not on broadcast TV. There are legitimate reasons for that. So imagine if Beck, Limbaugh and O'Really were on FCC regulated "digital bunny ears" TV, on three out of the four broadcast stations. You think someone would start a letter writing campaign here on Kos asking them to take those programs off the air and only allow them on CABLE? I would friggin hope so. Here's the reality about that "press blackout" in Venezuela. The "Chavez is a dictator that stopped the freedom of the press" crowd really needs to follow me below ...
You and I own the PUBLIC airwaves, comrade. We pay taxes so the FCC directs the public airwaves to serve our interests, not Rupert Murdoch's or BP's interests. Call it socialism and cry about it, but I like it and a majority of voters like it too. Oh, and the Constitution agrees.
The privately run, privately paid for CABLE stations laid down these things called "cable" (pretty sure thats where Cable got it's name, btw) and big corporations promote their agenda on that medium. They own it and if you pay for it (not through taxes, but out of your pocket, btw) they can put whatever they want on their "property". And the Constitution and a majority of people agree with that, as do I.
Now imagine that some big business anti-progressive rightwinger selectively edited a video that played over and over and over and over on the PUBLIC airwaves that distorted what was really happening in our country. The video projects the idea that a New Black Panther party is given free reign to terrorize white voters in the 2012 elections by a Kenyan Muslim who stole our election through ACORN and illegal aliens dressed like pimps. Over and over and over again this is playing on free TV, with the movie Red Dawn serving as break from the constant fear mongering. You laughing? Death panels are now being, per local stations, formed by this treasonous group and US senators and military leaders are going on publicly owned TV and confirming these reports, which are on three out of four stations. Funny stuff, huh?
I know that seems like a really radical stretch of the imagination to some, but it really isn't. It really isn't. In a country where a significant portion of the population believes the Earth is a only few thousand years old, this should not be a stretch of the imagination. From the country that made Independence Day, a blockbuster movie based on the premise that someone downloaded a computer virus into a vastly superior alien race's operating system to save the planet, this should not be a stretch of the imagination. I'm sorry to say this folks, but this site's followers are waaaay smarter than the average American. I live in Texas (Austin, thank FSM) and you have no idea the level of political ignorance I observe.
In fact, the same US military leaders supporting this coup d'état were trained in the same country approving the coup, lets call it the "School of Venezuela". I sincerely hope that the anti Chavez crowd gets the irony.
And the big businesses supporting this bizarre narrative are also tied to Venezuela's oil interests. All the publicly owned TV stations (again, our airwaves, our taxes, our FCC) are playing footage of the "documentary" Camp FEMA telling all white christian gun owning Ron Paul supporters that they are rounding up the guns and taking away their bibles, putting them into concentration camps. And their flouridating the water to sterilize us.
I know it sounds like a kooky conspiracy theory, but apparently it sells like shiny gold coins do on talk radio.
In a few days scared, angry, gun toting idiots are taking to the streets and wanting their country back and the Kenyan Muslim terrorist out of "their" White House.
A counter protest, comprised of people who get their information from somewhere other than the free TV come out to give a logical fact based detailed rebuttal on...poster board signs? Notice how once public TV says the same b.s. as privately owned TV there are few outlets that you could point to that compare in hysteria generating mediums. What? Magazines? Even book publishers, mostly dominated by big multinationals, couldn't print up a counter argument to debunk the crap fast enough. And books really don't get people energized like video clips played over and over and over and over, do they? Are you going to hand over your laptop for a Tea bagger, in a street protest, to read a point by point detailed rebuttal while you hold his AR15, you hippy? Get real.
During one of the protests, a select squad of military snipers trained by the "School of Venezuela" takes to the roof and fires at the Tea Baggers, proving their worst fears. Later than night, on public TV, footage is shown over and over and over again portraying the dirty Muslim loving hippies as the real trained snipers trying to kill all the white Christian capitalists.
If you think that notion is a stretch of the imagination to Tea Baggers, allow me to enlighten you on reality. They believe it already. Just listen to Alex Jones' broadcasts, which are easily downloaded on prisonplanet.com. Alex Jones literally talks about how the Democrats are going to take our guns away by giving the illegal aliens the right to vote and then end the 2nd amendement. That narrative is already forming in the minds of millions of right wingers all over this country.
So then President Obama gets overthrown in a media, military and business coup d'état, supported by a foreign imperialist country that has vested interests in reversing his policies.
President Palin's Whiter House now runs the show, broadcasting their glorious free market theocracy on all the TV stations, while cable says that she needs to push harder and offers brilliant suggestions.
Fortunately a mass of people surround the uber-White House and force her to leave through the underground tunnel. The democratically elected real President is restored.
Now you say "how dare President Obama yank the FCC license of those publicly owned stations that supported the coup d'état?
Are you serious?
Why have an FCC?
The wealthy elite who run those stations are free to go to cable. Here's another thing to consider, that in a country that suffers from vast economic disparity, the poor huddled masses yearning to be free are not paying for cable, they are watching free broadcast TV, if they still have electricity.
This scenario is what happened to Hugo Chavez before the coup d'état. Afterwords, he didn't kill the irresponsible elites that promoted the fake video clips showing the pro Chavez crowd supposedly firing on the anti Chavez crowd. The military leaders responsible were trained at the School of Americas, which changed it's name to WHINSEC due to the bad publicity coming out about all of it's actions. The American tax payer paid for the equavalent of Venezualian Tea Baggers to start up a bunch of false propaganda. The US doesn't even allow that to happen here. Imagine if Hamas (or any other manufactured "enemy" of America) poured millions into MoveOn or ACORN. The MSM would absolutely flip out and call for public floggings.
Before Hugo Chavez was overthrown the public airwaves were filled with racist crap, calling him a "monkey". You'd like that being said about President Obama? You would have no problem renewing their FCC license? Wow, talk about a limited and simplistic concept of "freedom of the press". Go read some early quotes from our founding fathers, they really didn't dig slander and libel in the press and specifically cited that as the limits to the press' freedom.
So here are the rebuttals that I expect to this reality. "Prove that any of this happened" or "How do you know that this is the case?" and "So therefore you agree with every other policy of Hugo Chavez?".
The documents detailing the US support for the coup d'état are now out in the open, and have been for 6 years. If you're six years late in finding this out, then you are in little position to "inform" or "educate" me about what happened in the US backed coup of the democratically elected Chavez.
In April 2002 two SOA graduates, Army Commander in Chief Efrain Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda, helped lead a failed coup in Venezuela. Additionally, Otto Reich, who was named to the "new" school’s Board of Visitors, met with the generals in the months preceding the coup. During the coup Reich advised business leader Pedro Carmona, who subsequently seized the presidency
link here
But I know the detractors want more. I bet I would have to link every station's time and place, with the specific clips translated in english, to prove they were racist and tried to forment a violent overthrow.
Google "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and watch a movie you intellectually lazy bum. Get a clue. I handed a dozen to you to follow yourself. Educate yourself on what you are talking about, otherwise I call it "talking out your ass".
Let me add another personal experience. I randomly attend the Tea Party conspiracist meetings to check in on the patients and at one of their local hangouts, Brave New Books on "the drag" in Austin, they promote your anti Chavez ignorance in the exact same terms. So be proud and say it loud, that you agree with the the Tea bagging crowd when it comes to President Hugo Chavez. Also, you probably wouldn't yank Andrew Brightfarts (sp) race baiting TV station's FCC license after he helped put in President Palin in a violent overthrow. And the "freedom of the press" is a simplistic term, to you, not me, that means all cable is the the same as public airwaves and that any violent race-baiting imperialistic slander is fair play.
So I'm guessing a change of subject will be a main defense of the anti Hugo Chavez crowd. "But he is egotistical and plays hour long speeches on TV!!". You yourself could apparently use a few hours a day of Chomsky and Robert McChesney with another hour of Democracy Now added. I regularly read or listen to all three, that's why I know more about this than you. I listen to the voices of the dispossed and disenfranchised from all over the world, on the regular, do you? I listen to the "disenfranchised" Tea Baggers here in Texas, eventhough their gripes are bs. If you don't, then it seems pretty weak for you to be educating me about your "concern" for the poor people of Venezuela.
This diary deals with the simple subject of pulling the publicly controlled license of the irresponsible news outlets that formented a coup d'état against democratically elected Hugo Chavez. Apparently some people here have a problem with that and can see no relation to what happens on TV here. I had to give the context of why that was a justified response, but if the arguement now wants to shift to Columbian paramilitaries in Venezuela, or reducing rates of poverty or the land reform issue, that is for another diary of considerable length. In short, I'm not wasting my time dealing with those subjects in the comments section.