Posted on 12/21/2002 2:47:12 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela -- In fractured Venezuela, the media has become the message. And on both sides of this country's divide, news has become a political battleground in the struggle to win the people's hearts and minds.
Venezuela's four primary commercial television networks, as well as most independently owned newspapers and radio stations, stand firmly with the opponents of Hugo Chavez. The one government-run television station stands just as solidly with the country's embattled president.
As the crisis has deepened in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, some television reporters have seemed more like politicians than journalists.
"Without a doubt, journalists have become political actors with political interests," says sociology professor Amalio Belmonte. "Chavez was elected at a time when Venezuela's societal institutions -- political parties, unions, the church -- were either weak or non-existent."
As a result, Belmonte and other analysts say, the broadcast media ended up filling the void, and in the process becoming political activists. Even as the opposition movement surged in the streets this year, most of the country's privately owned media outlets have kept up their anti-Chavez roles.
Some say media politicization has nothing to do with Venezuela's institutional collapse, but rather that the country's media owners staunchly oppose Chavez's left-wing agenda.
Whatever the explanation, it has become clear that the fight over whether Chavez stays or goes has been as much a war of images as anything else.
Chavez's critics have used TV cameras to try to paint a him as another Fidel Castro, while the government's channel attempts to portrays him as a benevolent figure. Not surprisingly, many Venezuelans usually cannot stand to watch more than a couple minutes of the other side's media campaign.
The coverage on the privately owned channels is "propaganda," says Isidro Rivera Alvarez, a 32-year-old mechanic, while the government's channel "tells the truth."
Maria Teresa de Guzman, a 39-year-old-graphic designer, sees things exactly the opposite. "The government doesn't like the commercial media because they show the world that Chavez is a liar and a communist," says Guzman.
When three people were killed and about 27 wounded during an anti-Chavez demonstration two weeks ago, the private TV stations broadcast the same images of screaming gunshot victims and blood-soaked sidewalks throughout the entire next day. A small box in the corner of the screen showed interviews with opposition leaders accusing Chavez of ordering the shootings - even though an investigation had hardly begun.
"The media coverage right now is disgusting" says Adoni Muñoz, 31, a homemaker. "I'm afraid to let my children watch TV with so much blood and violence."
Whether by accident or design, the local media have often created the news during the crisis, some analysts say. When government forces recently tried to detain several dissidents in Caracas, for instance, live television coverage of the event turned out viewers who formed a noisy street crowd and prevented the arrests.
Chavez and his supporters charge that the private media inaccurately portrays Venezuela as a South American Beverly Hills, erasing any presence of the country's majority poor people and discrediting Chavez's achievements.
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] CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's opposition and state TV stations are waging a vicious propaganda war to win the hearts and minds of millions enduring an indefinite strike against President Hugo Chavez.
Venezuela's private media long have accused Chavez of inciting violence against the press. Chavez brands Venezuela's general strike as a media-orchestrated war seeking his ouster. The issue is important enough that the Organization of American States considers media content a factor in resolving Venezuela's political crisis.
In recent days, seven national private TV channels repeatedly have broadcast slickly produced ads blaming Chavez for everything from street crime to gasoline shortages. The gas problem stems from the TV-supported strike.
"We will not give up the fight, we won't give up until he resigns," one ad drones on Venevision.
"Not one step backward. Out! Leave Now!" states another, paid for by the Democratic Coordinator opposition umbrella group and repeatedly broadcast on the Globovision 24-hour news network.
Yet another ad, titled "History of a Failure," shows clips of dirty street kids, long unemployment lines and acts of political violence. A voiceover repeatedly accuses Chavez of "Failure! Failure!"
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. [End]
But Perez, who voted for Chavez before becoming increasingly alarmed by the president's leftist politics, said it was wrong to assume that all of the thousands of protesters were fighting to preserve their privileged status. ''Me, rich?'' he said with incredulity, gesturing to his worn tennis shoes and threadbare track pants. ''I make $150 a month if I'm lucky. I live in a working-class neighborhood. But that doesn't mean I want Venezuela to become like Cuba. There, everyone is poor.'' Chavez's opponents accuse him of trying to remake this conservative South American nation in the image of communist-run Cuba. They point to Chavez's close ties to President Fidel Castro of Cuba, his increasingly leftist rhetoric, and his creation of neighborhood watchdog groups modeled on Cuba's Committee for the Defense of the Revolution.
Chavez opponents accuse the groups - called Boliviariano Circles after the South American independence leader, Simon Bolivar - of inciting violence during protest rallies, including the bloody clashes in April that killed 19 people. Those deaths helped trigger an abortive 48-hour coup, after which Chavez resumed control. But the president's once sky-high popularity ratings have slumped to 25 percent, according to some newspaper surveys. Despite fears of more violence, the mood among anti-Chavez protesters yesterday was one of jubilation, with many participants equating their struggle with that of Eastern Europeans in the days before the fall of the Berlin Wall. ***
HOSTILITY TOWARD MEDIA "President Chavez made public threats against individual journalists and media organizations," it said, citing what it called "numerous allegations of inappropriate government pressure against the media." Chavez has accused his political opponents, including opposition media owners, of waging a hostile campaign of "media terrorism" against him. Journalists have complained of verbal and physical attacks by government supporters. "Some observers assert that President Chavez's aggressive rhetoric in criticizing the media has contributed to a climate of intimidation and hostility toward the media that encourages such attacks," the report said.
CHAVEZ BLAMES MESSENGERS ***In a familiar refrain, the president still is blaming the messengers: the media. Harassment against Venezuelan journalists -- physical, judicial and via new laws -- has gotten so bad recently that press organizations are sounding alarms. ''There can be no press freedom in a country where journalists have to hide their IDs and media logos out of fear of reprisals,'' concluded an Inter American Press Association delegation. In a three-day visit, the delegation investigated complaints of increasingly violent attacks against the media by Chávez supporters egged on by Mr. Chávez's inflammatory rhetoric. IAPA surmised that Mr. Chávez will ''have to answer for any escalation into even more serious actions'' that many fear.***
February 2002- But Chavez refuses to reconsider his appointment of leftist economist Gaston Parra as PDVSA president and of five government loyalists to the seven-member board of directors. He insists PDVSA employees must conform to state oil policy, which centers on strict compliance with production quotas imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The policy aims to stabilize oil prices but has significantly reduced PDVSA's production and output capacity. "They have to follow government policy because it's a state company. It's that simple." Chavez told foreign reporters earlier this week. "Those who don't agree can leave."
March 2002 - In comments Sunday, the Venezuelan leader slammed what he called ``perverse, immoral, lying and ill-intentioned'' coverage of Venezuela by national and international media.
March 2002 - But until recent weeks, the skirmishes had been largely confined to newspaper editorial pages and Chavez's fiery speeches. Now, press advocates say, the president's incendiary verbal attacks have incited his followers to physical aggression against journalists. Angry hordes have shoved reporters and photographers covering presidential events, rocked and banged on television-station vehicles, and spewed epithets at reporters such as "traitors to the homeland" and "sell-outs."
"Some people feel legitimized (by Chavez) in lashing out at us physically and verbally," said Globovision television reporter Jose Vicente Antonetti, who has complained to the government's Human Rights Office. "He is instigating people by saying that Globovision does not report the truth, which is totally false." Reporters say the harassment is getting worse, with some saying that they have been followed, threatened and had their phones tapped. "One of the things they say is that my daughter is going to be the first death of this (Chavez) revolution," said Patricia Poleo, editor of the daily El Nuevo Pais.
At Chavez's radio show last Sunday, local newspapers reported that a Chavez supporter was videotaping journalists covering the event. When questioned, the videotaper ominously said the film was to identify the reporters to his colleagues. The previous week, the official government news agency Venpres issued a story denouncing three reporters who have been relentless in uncovering government corruption scandals, claiming they are "narco-journalists" in league with drug traffickers. Chavez later termed the story "a mistake."***
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