Obama Signals Four More Years of Bad Relations With Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

41. Just found a letter which was written to protest RCTV's Pres. Marcel Granier's upcoming appearance

at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere.

I didn't see it then, or I would have posted it:

Anti-Chavez Media Mogul to Speak at House Hearing

June 11, 2010
By admin

Write or Call to Demand a Fair Hearing – On June 16 the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere of the Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing entitled, “Press Freedom in the Americas.” Anti-Chavez Representatives Connie Mack (FL) and Eliot Engel (NY) have invited Venezuelan right-wing media mogul, RCTV owner Marcel Granier to testify.

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Letters can be sent to any member of Congress at:
Rep. __________________
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The House Switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

Sample Letter:

Dear Representative __________:

I am writing to you today as a voting citizen of the United States to express my deep concern about the lack of balance being demonstrated by the US Congress, and in particular by the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere. A hearing scheduled to be held on June 16th entitled, “Press Freedom in the Americas” demonstrates a disturbing lack of understanding and knowledge about Venezuela in particular. The reason for my concern is that Mr. Marcel Granier, President of RCTV, has been invited to testify. It is well-known that he was involved in the April 2002 unsuccessful coup against elected President Hugo Chavez, in which media owners and outlets sadly played a paramount role in denying the public truthful and balanced information.

To be specific, Mr. Granier not only personally supported the overthrow of the democratically elected government, but in the days preceding the coup, RCTV ran ads encouraging the public to take to the streets and overthrow the democratically elected president. Once Chavez was forcefully removed from office, the station continued to collude with the coup government by conducting a news blackout! In fact, one of the managing producers of Venezuela’s highest-rated newscast, the RCTV program El Observador, testified that he was instructed directly by Marcel Granier, on the day of the coup to show “No information on Chávez, his followers, his ministers, and all others that could in any way be related to him.”(1) This is publicly known and in fact, his participation as a media owner was not uncommon. For this very reason, this coup d’etat is referred to by academics in the US and Venezuela alike as the first media coup in our hemisphere.

To have Marcel Granier testify in our US Congress about press freedom, a right that he has denied openly to his own countrymen at a time of national crisis, is nothing less than absurd and downright shameful. I strongly urge you to reconsider his participation and instead invite an expert who has defended and upheld press freedoms in the hemisphere.

Sincerely,

Your Name

(1) “Venezuela’s Media Coup” by Naomi Klein, The Nation, February 13, 2003.

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From Sourcewatch:

CIA links

In August 2007, Chris Carlson reported that: "The president of Venezuela's RCTV, Eladio Larez, is no stranger to the CIA. In fact, Eladio's contact with the agency goes back nearly twenty years. Back in 1989, Larez helped the CIA funnel money through Venezuela to the Nicaraguan opposition as they worked to topple the Sandinista government through massive violence and destabilization. Larez was actually so kind as to set up a fraudulent foundation in Venezuela, called the National Foundation for Democracy, as a front organization to receive money from the CIA and pass it on to fund the operations of a major opposition newspaper in Nicaragua." [1]

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/RCTV

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From Wikipedia, regarding the private media participation in the coup:

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Media role

Mainstream Venezuelan media outlets such as El Universal, El Nacional, El Nuevo País, Globovisión, Televen, CMT and RCTV supported the coup.[82] At the same time, the anti-Chávez opposition's point of view was reflected in the reports of many international media agencies and organizations.[83][84]

In the run up to the coup, the private media had supported the anti-government demonstrations. The 11 April edition of El Nacional was headlined "The Final Battle Will Be in Miraflores".[85] In March RCTV had given blanket coverage to anti-government demonstrations whilst not covering pro-Chávez ones altogether.[86] On 11 April, the anti-government march, the message "remove Chávez", and the call to redirect the march to the presidential palace in Miraflores, were "widely announced, promoted, and covered by private television channels, whose explicit support for the opposition became evident." A steady stream of unpaid ads asked Venezuelans to participate in the insurrection.[87] Andrés Izarra, then the managing producer of RCTV's El Observador, later told the National Assembly that he had received clear instructions from owner Marcel Granier that on 11 April and following days he should air "[n]o information on Chávez, his followers, his ministers, and all others that could in any way be related to him."[88] The coup plotters, including Carmona, met at the offices of TV network Venevisión.[82] After Chávez was detained, protests by Chávez supporters, including riots and looting which led to 19 deaths, broke out in parts of Caracas.[86] RCTV sent its reporters to quiet parts of town for "live shots of tranquility" and ignored the events.[86]

At the beginning of the coup, opposition-controlled police shut down Venezolana de Televisión, the state television channel, whilst police efforts were made to shut down community radio and television stations.[89] As a result, the news that Chávez had not in fact resigned was largely kept out of the Venezuelan media, and spread by word of mouth;[89] only one Catholic radio network continued to broadcast the developing news.[86] Chávez was able to get word out that he had not in fact resigned, via a telephone call to his daughter, who, via switchboard operators at Miraflores still loyal to Chávez, was able to speak first to Fidel Castro and then to Cuban television.[63] The Attorney-General attempted to make public Chávez' non-resignation via a live press conference supposedly to announce his own resignation; most of his statement was cut off, with Venezuelan networks returning to the studios.[64]

Venezuelan television media failed to broadcast news of Chávez supporters retaking of the Miraflores palace; the four major television networks stopped providing news reports altogether.[86] The St. Petersburg Times reported that "RCTV was showing Walt Disney cartoons. Venevisión ran a daylong marathon of Hollywood movies: Lorenzo's Oil, Nell and Pretty Woman. Another station, Televen, told its viewers 'to stay indoors,' treating them to baseball and soap operas. Globovisión, the country's top 24-hour news station and CNN affiliate, spent much of the day rebroadcasting upbeat footage of Chávez' ouster. An announcer repeatedly cautioned viewers, 'We are living in times of political change.'"[90] The heads of Venevision, RCTV and Globovision, as well as the publisher of El Nacional, met with Carmona at Miraflores.[90] The head of Globovision reportedly called to CNN in Atlanta "to request the U.S. network join the blackout."[90] Two of the three major newspapers (El Universal and El Nacional) cancelled their Sunday editions, allegedly for safety reasons. (The third major newspaper, Últimas Noticias, printed a limited Sunday edition accurately reflecting events; some tabloids and regional television stations also covered the news.)[86] When CNN announced the rebellion against the coup of a key military division in Maracay (commanded by General Raúl Baduel), "CNN expressed amazement that the press were saying nothing."[82] After Chávez loyalist forces had re-taken Miraflores, the military coup plotters drafted a statement demanding the restoration of democracy; it had to be read to CNN studios since no Venezuelan media would broadcast it.[80] Only by 8 o'clock on 13 April was the reinstalled government able to inform the people of the situation, via domestic (state) television channels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Venezuelan_coup_d'%C3%A9tat_attempt

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From Wikipedia:

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RCTV licence

In 2006, President Chávez announced that the terrestrial broadcast license for RCTV—Venezuela's second largest TV channel—would not be renewed.[27] The channel's terrestrial broadcasts ended on 28 May 2007 and were replaced with a state network.[28] RCTV is accused of supporting the coup against Chávez in April 2002, and the oil strike in 2002-2003. Also, it has been accused by the government of violating the Law on the Social Responsibility of Radio and Television.[29] The director of the station, Marcel Granier, denies taking part in the coup.[30] RCTV is still broadcasting via cable and satellite and is widely viewable in Venezuela.[31] This action has been condemned by a multitude of international organizations.[30][32][33][34] However, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) questioned whether, in the event a television station openly supported and collaborated with coup leaders, the station in question would not be subject to even more serious consequences in the United States or any other Western nation.[35] In a poll conducted by Datanalisis, almost 70 percent of Venezuelans polled opposed the shut-down, but most cited the loss of their favorite soap operas rather than concerns about limits on freedom of expression.[28]

In May 2007, international media coverage of the events surrounding the RCTV's licence revocation almost universally reported it as a "shut down" or "closure" of an "independent" voice, when, in fact, RCTV was only revoked of its licence and equipment to broadcast on national airwaves but continues to broadcast by cable and satellite. The events were given wide coverage in the international media, arguably creating the image that there was widespread chaos and unrest in the country, when most of the protests only took place in the major cities. Many media outlets in the United States portrayed the government decision to not renew the broadcast license as a "dictatorial" act that was "muzzling opposition voices" and "attacking the media." Fox News in the United States gave especially distorted coverage of the events,[8] claiming that Hugo Chávez had "shut down the media all across the country"[36] when in reality RCTV was the only channel to lose its broadcast license. Many other opposition media outlets continue to operate in Venezuela, including the major newspapers and TV channels, making up the clear majority of the Venezuelan media.[37]

In subsequent international coverage of Venezuelan media, the RCTV licence episode is sometimes presented accurately, at other times mischaracterised as above - for example AFP declared in June 2009 that "The government refused to renew RCTV's license in May 2007 because of its critical news coverage."[38]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_representation_of_Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez