Venezuela opposition leader: Channel won't air live speeches

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela opposition leader: Channel won't air live speeches
May 27, 2013 12:03 PM

CARACAS: Venezuela's opposition leader says owners of the local Globovision television news channel won't allow the station to broadcast his live speeches.

Henrique Capriles claims the channel has caved into pressure from the government as officials attempt to silence criticism from critics.

There was no immediate response from the channel's owners after Capriles made the accusations on Sunday.

For years, Globovision has been the sole media counterweight to state television, which airs only praise for the government while attacking opposition politicians.

More: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/May-27/218488-venezuela-opposition-leader-channel-wont-air-live-speeches.ashx#ixzz2UWWfB53h

How many times have we ever heard live speeches from a Presidential candidate after an election, anyway? What's that, you say? NEVER?

How unbelievably STUPID.

[Socialistlemur]

1. I understand he remains a candidate in his mind

Plus he is a state governor and recognized as the opposition's leader. Under normal circumstances he would be entitled to coverage by the state owned news media - never mind a private channel. It's a sign the government is headed towards a Cuban or Soviet style complete domination of the airwaves. Venezuela is headed in the wrong direction.

[railsback]

2. The Venezuelan media is still treating Capriles as relevant

That could only mean that the oligarchs are shelling out tons of money to keep Capriles in the picture.

[Socialistlemur]

5. I suspect Capriles will remain relevant for a long time

Capriles is a sharp politician, otherwise he wouldn't have got 49 % of the vote. He's young. And I don't think he's going to lose traction because he's a state governor. Maduro has to perform, and he inherited a lot of problems. The critical one is the overvalued currency which leads to Dutch disease. They have to carry out urgent reforms, devalue the currency, and stop giving gasoline away which encourages frivolous consumption.

[railsback]

6. From what I get, Capriles is a horrible 'candidate'

uncharismatic and void of any substance, like a certain Bush we all know. All his press conferences are closed, or private, with ONLY supportive media types allowed in to ask scripted questions. He has a lot of backing from the oligarchs, who spend tons of money keeping him on the airwaves. The Venezuelan Republicans will ANYTHING to undermine Maduro, including choking off the flow of goods, trying to make the Venezuelans outside of the privileged class suffer. Apparently, they've been learning from the GOP here.

Agreed that Maduro needs to act fast, which he seems to be doing. Don't know about devaluing the currency again, but he needs to drastically ramp up exports, which shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[Socialistlemur]

8. Ramp up exports? With what?

Venezuela can't increase exports because its industry and agriculture are not competitive. I suggest you look at their internal statistics, for example the published "canasta basica". This is the basic food basket for a family of four. The latest published figure is $680 USD per month. This figure is too high, and it's a barometer of the degree of bolivar overvaluation. The talk about increasing exports is just fluff. Right now they need to worry about reducing imports.

You see, one item Ramirez has never faced is the ever increasing cost to produce marketable oil. I've seen their projected figures (the ones they showed Chavez and which he presented on national TV), and they are sheer imagination. Furthermore when we go interview PDVSA personnel about these figures they are like Jesuit monks, insist everything is just swell and refuse to face reality. This is common in corporate cultures where middle management is terrified of the top, and the system bogs down in a sea of crappy forecasts.

So the oil production just costs a lot more on a unit basis and this diverts cash flow from all those social programs. Why do you think Maduro announced they had to charge for the houses they had been giving away?

Regarding Capriles' popularity....the guy got 49 % of the vote. And Maduro made the comment he realized hundreds of thousands of Chavistas had switched sides...otherwise how could Capriles get so close when turnout was incredibly high? I think the man will be around for a long time. And I think it's good because the government sure needs to get its ac together. Countries where the government gets complacent, is always congratulating itself and everybody lies about what can be done realistically end in the dump. The way to get ahead is to understand what's wrong and fix it. And I didn't see much of that when Chavez was winning by landslide. They were way too complacent. It was almost like teenagers who had found a sack of gold coins, they wasted a lot of it with really naive economic moves.

[ocpagu]

12. "I suspect Capriles will remain relevant for a long time"

?

When does he plan to start?

[mecherosegarden]

15. He remains relevant to me , to my famiy, to many of my friends,

and I think that he is relevant to 49% that also voted for him . And that is my personal opinion.

[ocpagu]

18. My condolences.

Hope you, your family, your friends and 49% of the Venezuelans chose a better person to support in the next elections.

[Socialistlemur]

24. I see Venezuela is threatening Colombia

Capriles met with Colombia's Santos. Venezuela reacted with threatening words by Cabello and Jaua. It seems Capriles is relevant.

[Catherina]

3. Everytime I think he can't get more ridiculous, he does

Globovision is now owned by 2 Venezuelan businessmen and and banker. The last owner sold it because it was "financially unviable and its revenues no longer covered our cash need". ("Somos inviable económicamente, porque nuestros ingresos ya no cubren nuestras necesidades de caja &quot

I suggest he direct his complaints about how *relevant* he still is to them and why businessmen trying to make a profit, owe his ridiculous temper tantrum more airtime.

Somebody give that baby a pacifier.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Hard to believe this childish brat actually dreams he could lead a nation.

I'm afraid that photo flatters him far too much! LOL.

[Oele]

9. I understand that you two are not Capriles' biggest fans..

But do you honestly believe that it is a good thing that the last TV station that was broadcasting the voice of the opposition is now practically being silenced?

One of the main reasons that Globovision was becoming "financially unviable" was that the government was refusing to give the channel a broadcasting license in the new national digital broadcasting system.

After a meeting between Maduro & the new owners of the channel, Globovision is suddenly given a digital license and journalists that support the opposition are being fired. Does that sound like 'free press' to you?

[Catherina]

11. The biggest media lie, that Venezuela has no free press

First. I would be delighted to see the rightwing assholes of Fox TV off the air. It's a crying shame they're allowed to pollute the airwaves and mislead people 24/7.

Second. Globovision is most certainly not the last station broadcasting the voice of the opposition. You need go no further than wiki to put that mischaracterization to rest.

Most of Venezuela's mass media are privately operated and derive most of their revenues from advertising, subscriptions, and sale or distribution of copyrighted materials. A small proportion of the Venezuelan television, newspaper, and radio markets is controlled by state-owned outlets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Venezuela

One of the main reasons that Globovision became "financially unviable" is that it only had a 4.29% audience share and that other private TV stations, like Televen, Venevisión and even RCTV, still broadcasting by satellite, were beating it out. Venevision alone has a 67% audience share. Globovision killed itself by not diverting from its tiresome hatefest.

Let's take a look at television. Venezuelan television is dominated by four networks: Venevisión, Televen, Globovisión, and Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). Of these four networks, Venevisión and Televen are moderately anti-Chávez, Globovisión is extremely anti-Chávez, and VTV is extremely pro-Chávez. Venevisión and Televen hold 60% of the TV audience in Venezuela. VTV appears to hold only 6% of Venezuelans.

According to this article (published by a pro-Chávez newspaper), during the first week of the presidential campaign three of these four channels gave more favorable coverage to Chávez's opponent Henrique Capriles Radonski. Televen gave 15 minutes of favorable coverage to Chávez but 28 minutes to his opponent; Venevisión gave 9 minutes of favorable coverage to Chávez but 75 minutes to his opponent; Globovisión gave 56 minutes of favorable coverage to Chávez but 8 hours and 38 minutes to his opponent; and only VTV gave 8 hours and 26 minutes of favorable coverage to Chávez compared with 3 hours and 23 minutes to his opponent.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/29/1174713/-The-Myth-that-Hugo-Ch-vez-Controls-Venezuela-s-Media

Capriles is an irrelevant former presidential candidate who lost the elections. Twice may I add. Best he get used to it now instead of stamping his feet for airtime and scurrying over to Colombia, like he's doing this week, looking for support to overthrow Maduro. He's as irrelevant as Sarah Palin.

And the cries of "we was fired" are utterly ludicrous. Kiko Bautista was fired for being an insubordinate asshole, like he would have been in any corporate environment. Carla Angola and Pedro Luis Flores left in solidarity with that asshole which I find deliciously wonderful.

There's a big difference between a free press and a coup-supporting hate press. Frankly, I hope Maduro follows Rafael Correa's lead and sues the pants off of lying press members who intentionally defame and lie instead of laughing it off the way Chavez did.

Yes Oele, I think it is a good thing.

Venezuela needs a lot less of this. In the US we call this insurrection.

(Ruth Capriles sending crowds to the Cuban Embassy in 2002, telling them there are weapons hidden there)

[Oele]

16. First. I don't like Fox TV either :)

... but i don't want the government to censor them.

Second. Venezuela is extremely polarized. This is not just the fault of Globovision, but of course they had their share in that.

The current government isn't exactly trying to stop the polarization either. For instance, they are consistently calling everyone in the opposition "Fascists". I have even seen a picture of Capriles' face next to a swastika on the Asamblea Nacional website. They are blaming Capriles, the opposition, the private industry and everybody else "on the right" for every single problem that the country is facing. Their whole attitude seems to be that the opposition shouldn't exist - the whole fact that you are an opposition member or supporter makes you an enemy of the revolution and thus a fascist.

VTV is state-owned, and funded by public money, and as such, it should, in my opinion, try to broadcast neutral news, like public broadcasters in most civilized countries do, or at least try to do. Instead, VTV is, as the Daily Kos article called it, "extremely pro-Chávez".

As long as VTV doesn't even *try* to be neutral, i think there is a need for a station on the other side of the policital spectrum.

Bautista was fired because he ignored an explicit order not to broadcast a speech from Capriles. Of course, he knew he was going to lose his job over this. This was a form of protest against the new policies.

You seem to think that the sale of Globovision was a normal business transaction. I doubt that. Don't you think that it's strange that the government refused to give the station a new license until the station became less supportive of the opposition?

Capriles lost the elections? Maybe. But we still haven't seen a full audit that includes poll books, fingerprints, etc. As long as there is "reasonable doubt" regarding the election results, Capriles is quite relevant. Of course, a picture of him as a silly crying baby is funny, but don't forget that he still represents the other half of the population.

Yes, political opponents are annoying, especially when they don't shut up when you want them to. But that's life in a democratic country.

Refusing a proper election audit, throwing in a "cadena" every time something "too critical" is broadcasted and forcing TV stations to become less critical may make things easier for the government, but it's not exactly the democratic way. They are disregarding the right of free speech and fair elections of the half of the population that has a different political opinion.

Why are they so affraid of transparency if there is nothing to hide?

[ocpagu]

17. Capriles DID LOST the elections.

There's no doubt about it - except in his sick mind and the usual suspects in Washington DC. The government conducted an audit on 100 of the votes, with zero errors found. They didn't even have to do that. The regular audit they performed right after the election in the presence of the opposition members and international observers is already several times the amount needed to detect fraud. And they did a RECOUNT on 100% of the votes even though Capriles didn't present a SINGLE credible evidence of fraud.

Add to that the fact that members from his campaign had already said, BEFORE the election, that they didn't intend to recognize the results.

What is happening is that since the audit CONFIRMED that he lost, he changed his demands. You say "we still haven't seen a full audit that includes poll books, fingerprints"...

Please... there's not a single government in this planet that makes an AUDIT on 100% of votes - but Venezuela's. Now you want a "full audit including poll books, fingerprints"? You don't want and audit. You want a new election.

You won't get it. Sorry. Deal with it.

[Socialistlemur]

23. I understand the full audit wasn't carried out

This is an interesting story. The full audit process wasn't carried out. This is evident because the government refused to have the log books audited. A log book audit is required to make sure those who voted were qualified to vote.

Now let me describe how I have felt about this whole process: when Maduro was declared the winner I said, that's it. Then I heard Capriles had challenged the results, has asked for an audit and Maduro agreed. Then I heard Maduro refused to follow through....at this point I started getting the feeling that Maduro is an honest guy but somewhere in the system somebody had cheated on his behalf. Say 10 to 20 thousand votes were cast by the dead. So I felt the whole deal was just to avoid embarrassment.

But this thing drags on, Capriles doesn't go away, and I see what seems to e a very well organized campaign to smear him. The government loses legitimacy even more when they beat up National Assembly members like they did. So by now I'm starting to think the fraud must be serious and it's possible it swung a close election? My point is that unless one is a fanatic, it makes sense to do the audit as requested. This blunt refusal, the lies, and the whole paraphernalia are counterproductive. You guys who post here smearing and trying to convince people there's nothing wrong are achieving the opposite result. At least you do with me.

It's this whole election saga and the way it was mishandled which made me sign up for DU. Somebody has to let you know that Maduro is going to have to take harsh economic measures and they are the only option left. And the thing is with this election baloney causing doubts, the man lacks the horsepower to get things done. This isn't looking good right now because urgent measures are needed. This cheer leading as if nothing was wrong comes across very poorly.

[Oele]

26. He did not change is mind after the audit confirmed that he lost.

He withdrew his support for the audit as soon as it became clear the CNE didn't want to include these kind of checks.

See, for instance, this article: http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/130426/henrique-capriles-rejects-election-audit-without-voters-lists

[Judi Lynn]

27. You're citing a virulently anti-Chavez "news"paper as your source. Coup supporter. n/t

[Oele]

28. That is just ridiculous.

Whether that website is anti-chavez or not, it proves that that Capriles already complained about the issue on April 26th.

Or do you think that they backdated the article to fool everybody?

Come on, it's all over the internet:

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/778425.shtml#.UaraIxUu1-g (April 30)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/xinhua/2013-04-30/content_8909330.html (April 29)

http://english.sina.com/world/2013/0429/586572.html (April 29)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/25/venezuela-opposition-protest-election/2113113/ (April 25)

http://globalnews.ca/news/512794/venezuelas-opposition-leader-says-he-will-boycott-audit-of-election-results-demands-new-vote/ (April 26)

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53938 (April 29)

[Catherina]

20. Well see, I do.

The freedom of speech of liars and haters isn't something I have any respect for. There are millions of dead people, women, children, elderly, babies, young men, buried under the desert skies because of the lies those assholes tell. And if the people behind FOX have their way, we could be bombing Venezuela one day to liberate all that oil from Communists, Hezbollah,civil war. No thank you, they done enough of lying this country into enough death and destruction.

You say you even saw a picture of Capriles with a swastika next to him on the Natl Assembly site. I read their site regularly and never saw such a thing. Do you have a link or screenshot? Or even remember when this was? Now what there is a lot of is this sort of thing

and more dishonesty such as taking this picture

and changing it to this


and for a nice fascist touch


Hard to believe there's no tolerance for free speech in Venezuela.

This latest is my personal favorite. The right wing, under the guise of free speech running a photoshopped picture to pretend there are rats in the state food stores.

Original picture from PARAGUAY, that ran in a Paraguayan paper



Fabrication to destabilize, removing the store's logo on the employee jacket and replacing it with a PDVAL logo to pretend this is happening in Venezuela. And that fabrication is still up on its website as I type, with their assurance that "Two phones took a picture of a rat in the cheese section of a Pdval store... There are rats there."



You want the revolution's channel to give the right wing opposition airtime? The same right wing that

On the evening of the 11 April 2002 coup attempt against Chávez, Enrique Mendoza, then governor of Venezuela's Miranda State, while being interviewed by Venevisión announced "a esa basura de canal la vamos a cerrar" ("We are going to shut down that trashy channel&quot , referring to VTV. Hours later, the Miranda state police occupied VTV and forced it off the air. It remained off the air until April 14, 2002, when Chávez was returned to power.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezolana_de_Televisi%C3%B3n

And besides, VTV did offer him airtime, twice, but he turned it down twice because a. he didn't want to do a live interview where they were going to hammer him hard on his record as Governor and b. he didn't want a 30 minute interview, he wanted hours and hours and hours on a tiny little state channel that, combined with all the other state channels, has a tiny 5.9% audience share. He got all the time in the world on private channels with a much greater audience share and still couldn't fool enough people. I don't think you appreciate how patient this revolution is being with the opposition.

Bautista was fired not only because he decided to change the programming all on his own to accommodate his buddy Capriles, but because afterwards he refused to take any calls from the management. “Adicionalmente, el señor Bautista se negó a recibir las llamadas telefónicas que se le hicieron para conversar sobre el asunto, y solo apareció el domingo en la noche, cuando ya estaba tomada la decisión por la junta directiva” http://www.noticierodigital.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14773264&sid=f782dba2ebfaade24fdba036a15a6741

Fine, he doesn't like the new management. Tough luck. It happens all the time. Those businessmen legally bought the station and want to turn a profit, running the station the way they want to. If their management bothers the hard core opposition so much, with all the money the opposition has, they should have bought Globo instead though I'm delighted they didn't.

The only thing I find strange here is that the same opposition that tried a coup d'etat against Chavez is doing exactly what Capriles' chauffeur said they would do- refuse to recognize the election results.

An election he was expected to lose and full well knows he lost. From the thread with the translated transcript Leaked phone calls: Capriles just wanted to make a scandal

His little games about transparency, fingerprints and fairy dust could be cute for a soap opera but they have no place in real life. His 15 minutes are up.

[Oele]

25. Sorry for the late reply.

Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2013, 05:25 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm a bit too busy right now with my work etc. to write long stories, but here's a quick answer:

Catherina, here's the Capriles-with-swastika page: http://www.asambleanacional.gob.ve/noticia/show/id/1482

VTV is not "the revolution's channel" - it's a state owned, publicly funded channel. That's why i would expect it to try to broadcast neutral news for all Venezuelan people.

The audio and video clips you posted are very interesting, but so are the ones from Mario Silva. As long as we're unable to verify anything that is said in them, they are all just gossip.

As soon as there's real transparency, the truth will come out. That's why I think there's a need for real free press, and a real election audit that includes everything that can be audited.

Especially if you don't agree with Capriles, and you're sure that Maduro won the elections, it's in your interest to prove that Capriles is wrong.

Imagine that the audit indeed proves that Capriles lost the elections - that means that he made a complete fool of himself. Nobody, including his current supporters, will believe him any more.

[hrmjustin]

14. Welcome to DU my friend!

[bahrbearian]

4. Who does he think he is , John McCain?

[Eugene]

10. Venezuelan opposition TV station tones down, angers Capriles

Source: Reuters

Venezuelan opposition TV station tones down, angers Capriles

By Andrew Cawthorne and Diego Ore
CARACAS | Wed May 29, 2013 9:43am EDT

(Reuters) - A flagship Venezuelan TV channel known for its militant opposition to late socialist leader Hugo Chavez has toned down under new owners, depriving the opposition of a favored platform as it fights a new government.

During Chavez's tumultuous 14-year rule, Globovision played a controversial and high-profile role: it was derided by officials as a pro-U.S., law-breaking broadcaster but feted in the opposition as a beacon of free speech.

Its majority owner, businessman Guillermo Zuloaga, who lives in exile in the United States, sold the station this month. The new bosses have made immediate changes, including stopping live broadcasts of opposition leader Henrique Capriles.

"I was told that the new directors gave an order not to show me live," Capriles said on Twitter this week, arguing the buyers were stooges of recently elected President Nicolas Maduro's government.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/us-venezuela-tv-idUSBRE94S0OX20130529

[ocpagu]

13. Great news.

We had enough of him.

[joshcryer]

19. Only on this forum would a fairness doctrine be frowned upon.

[naaman fletcher]

21. For VZLA

I'd bet that posters here have made plenty of comments about the fairness doctrine for the US.

[Socialistlemur]

22. I support a fairness doctrine everywhere

I think a fairness doctrine for the public airwaves is legal, useful and necessary. I'd also consider it should be legislated when cable or satellite carriers are near monopolies. But this is a really delicate issue which needs to be given a lot of thought. In today's world, I'd rather see the government invest in super high speed fiber optic cables and do whatever is necessary to allow Internet channels to proliferate. and i would change internet architecture to allow for priority transmissions for those whose transmissions are supported by voters, in other words a "station" could submit its national candidacy to be given high speed priority by internet servers. those receiving xx votes would be designated so their signal comes in clear and without interruptions. This means anybody can set up and broadcast whatever ideas they want, and have it delivered everywhere at super high speed if they meet a support threshold (say 1 million votes in the USA, 100 thousand votes in Venezuela, etc? And let their quality and the quality of their ideas carry the day. Those nations which restrict the Internet behind political firewalls would soon fall behind in the battle of ideas and would be recognized for what they are, autocratic oligarchies where elites dictate what people see.