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Commercials for Christmas gifts have been replaced by political propaganda since the strike began Dec. 2.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. ***