Summary Judgment

Condi and Chavez

"It would be difficult for any commission to debate more fully, to investigate more fully, to criticize more fully the policies of the United States government than is done every night on CNN, on ABC, on CBS, on NBC," she said.

"That is the point of press freedom -- that in a democracy the citizens of a country should have the assurance that the policies of their government will be held up for criticism by a free and independent press without the interference of their government," she said.

"The citizens of the United States have that assurance. I sincerely hope that the citizens of Venezuela will have that assurance as well," she added, standing up from the table, turning on her heel and walking away.
(From the NYTimes)

It is rare that I find myself in such strong agreement with any member of the Bush administration. But Dr. Rice really hit the nail on the head here, at least in principle. While I don´t think any educated person would say that any political discussion on these networks constitutes a full criticism of current policies, at least the possibility for that type of discourse exists (the good stuff is on NPR, PBS, C-Span and other nerdly channels which I miss ever so much.)

This weekend, I attended two massive protests. The pro-Chavez, government-sanctioned (and obviously, fully funded) march was on Saturday. My neighborhood was filled with red-clad Chavistas, spray painting and chanting in the hot sun. On Sunday, I joined one of my activist co-workers (there are quite a few!) in the larger, less graffiti-prone anti-government march down the same streets. Fortunately, I was treated kindly by both groups, though obviously standing out as one of the very few gringos in attendance. There were rumors that CIA operatives were taking pictures. Riiiiiight.

I have to say, being in Venezuela and learning as much as I possibly can about the closure of RCTV (if you´re interested, read more here), I am reminded how well the media has it in the US. Sure, there are serious problems with the media in the U.S. (just ask Judith Miller, or those whose minds have been fully numbed by Fox News´ incessant support of the government), but at least there are other channels in which people can speak. I´m encouraged further when taking into consideration the large portion of the U.S. population which has access to the Internets.

Here, the public has just one local news channel that is not controlled by the Chavez regime. And Hugo has already said he has his sights set on shutting it down for alleged abuses (which is perhaps more of an icy warning than an action plan). Few Venezuelans have internet access...which, by the way, is run by a recently nationalized company, CANTV. There have been threats of censoring the internet here, but I´m not sure how realistic that is.

Deep down, I´m hoping for an opportunity to meet Chavez and to ask him a question about this issue. (note: if I could ask Chavez about ANY issue, it would who writes such clever analogies for making fun of Bush, i.e. ¨Bush is more dangerous than a monkey with a razorblade¨...GENIUS!)

I would ask him to explain how any regime, his, W´s, China´s, can claim to be strong when it is unwilling to stand up to mere criticism. Corny analogy ahead (I really need to know who does this for Chavez!), but a diamond only becomes beautiful only after enduring pressure and hardship. I think the same can be said for governments. Just as Rome began to fall when it traded democratic principles for security (i.e. exacted more control on outside influences), even a well-intended Socialist government can quickly turn to dictatorship. If Chavez is so averse to suffering the slings and arrows of mere ideas to the point that he shuts them out...then I fear Venezuela may be on the long, desolate road to Havana.

posted by Jim @ 7:49 PM