Larry Birns kicks some ass on NPR: Venezuela's coup-plotting RCTV gets what it deserves

Latin America News Review

Larry Birns, director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)National Public RadioJanuary 26, 2007As Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez begins his third term, U.S. editorial pages are chiding him for nationalizing a major telecom company, and not renewing the broadcast license of one of his biggest critics. But Council on Hemispheric Affairs director Larry Birns argues that the editorialists are missing the point. BOB GARFIELD: For the Bush administration, the socialist revolution proclaimed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made him the hemisphere's public enemy number two, right behind Fidel Castro. Chavez's radical rhetoric, anti-Bush invective and increasingly authoritarian behavior have won him the suspicion of the American media as well.As he began his third term this month, editorials in The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times condemned his plans to nationalize huge private companies and, mainly, to not renew the license of the nation's most popular TV station, RCTV.Chavez's former communications minister has referred to the move as "the leading edge of the information hegemony of the state," and RCTV says it has been denied due process. But to Larry Birns of the Liberal Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the underlying facts betray anti-Chavez editorializing as one-sided and simplistic.LARRY BIRNS: RCTV is arguably the most scabrous example of yellow journalism in Latin America. It's an advocacy outfit, and it was one of the major plotters of a coup against Chavez back in April of 2002. This station engaged in trick photography and all sort of scandalous behavior in order to advance that coup.BOB GARFIELD: Does not the principle of free speech, even of, you know, sort of obnoxious critics trump the history of RCTV's behavior? Is Chavez not setting a very bad precedent by silencing his most vocal critic?LARRY BIRNS: This is a situation where RCTV uniquely was shouting out the word "fire" in a crowded theater. Ninety-five percent of the media in Venezuela is controlled by the anti-Chavistas, and they have their knives out for Chavez. So talking about constitutional guarantees, you may be talking to the wrong bunch...
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http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/01/26/05

As Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez begins his third term, U.S. editorial pages are chiding him for nationalizing a major telecom company, and not renewing the broadcast license of one of his biggest critics. But Council on Hemispheric Affairs director Larry Birns argues that the editorialists are missing the point.

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LARRY BIRNS: RCTV is arguably the most scabrous example of yellow journalism in Latin America. It's an advocacy outfit, and it was one of the major plotters of a coup against Chavez back in April of 2002. This station engaged in trick photography and all sort of scandalous behavior in order to advance that coup.

BOB GARFIELD: Does not the principle of free speech, even of, you know, sort of obnoxious critics trump the history of RCTV's behavior? Is Chavez not setting a very bad precedent by silencing his most vocal critic?

LARRY BIRNS: This is a situation where RCTV uniquely was shouting out the word "fire" in a crowded theater. Ninety-five percent of the media in Venezuela is controlled by the anti-Chavistas, and they have their knives out for Chavez. So talking about constitutional guarantees, you may be talking to the wrong bunch.
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