Thursday, July 12, 2007

101 - Hugo Chavez And The Television Station: Fact Vs. Fiction

Today I'm going to discuss with you the recent controversy over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's not renewing the broadcast license of a television station in that country.

All nations license the right to use their public airwaves, since the demand for use of the airwaves far outstrips the supply. In the US the Federal Communications Commission performs this function, granting terms of 8 years. In Venezuela, the term is 20 years.

Broadcasters must serve the public interest, and if not, their licenses can be revoked, or not be renewed.

And there's the rub, as Willy S. said.

We need to go over the events of the April 11, 2002 coup in Venezuela that attempted to remove Chavez from office, and the role RCTV played in that coup.

As you'll hear, Chavez was totally justified in not renewing RCTV's license based on its support of the coup. It's certainly not serving the public interest to support the overthrow of the democratically elected government of a nation.

We'll also go over what happened in Venezuela after Chavez's license non-renewal, and how the right-wing tried to exploit, if not outright create, a crisis in Venezuela.

Programming note: for the rest of the summer, Blast The Right will appear every other week.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

Jack Clark 5:10 PM [+]   5 comments
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