July 30, 2010
It has been generally standard fare in the media to refer to Venezuela’s Globovision as the “sole opposition-aligned television channel,” as the AP has put it. Rarely, if ever, is the actual reporting of Globovision put into context, which makes yesterday’s Los Angeles Times article all the more amazing. Chris Kraul and Mery Mogollon write:
The Caracas-based opposition news and opinion channel’s newsreaders and reporters — who make no pretense of impartiality and remain undeterred by harassment and threats of a takeover — regularly blast the president with obviously slanted coverage while giving opposition politicians free and usually unchallenged rein to vent.
The article goes on to mention some of the regular fare that a viewer comes across while watching Globovision. An opposition leader calling for Chavez to be “investigated for treason”, or equating the exhumation of Simon Bolivar last week to witchcraft, and calling it a “pornographic spectacle.” Even broadcasting calls to “rise up against the government.”
While the article is impressive for its accurate description of the bias and slant in Globovision’s coverage, it could be strengthened by adding more historical context, and by pushing back on the myth that it is the “last independent,” or “only opposition” TV station in Venezuela.
During the coup in April 2002 almost all of Venezuela’s private media actively participated in overthrowing the democratically elected Chavez. This included manipulating footage to make it appear as though Chavez supporters were responsible for the killing of innocent civilians, and airing cartoons rather than covering the mass mobilization that brought Chavez back to power. In fact, the day after the coup on the opposition station Venevision, a number of coup supporters appeared, with one explicitly thanking the media, including Globovision and other private stations for their role in overthrowing Chavez.
Globovision is frequently referred to as the last independent television station that is critical of Chavez and, though the LA Times doesn’t state this explicitly, it does leave the reader with the sense that Globovision is the last remaining independent station. However, there are a number of other independent stations both local and national and these account for a much larger share of the overall market than the country’s state owned television and radio. Nationally there is Venevision and Televen, for example.
Although the Los Angeles Times article is a real breakthrough in the coverage of Venezuelan media, it only scratches the surface of some of the broader issues around the behavior of the private, opposition media in Venezuela
