OUR PUBLIC TELEVISION–AND THEIRS

If PBS was beings shut down–would thousands rally in the streets?

The Third Estate Sunday Review asks

Can PBS sink any lower? That was our question long before Paul Farhi (Washington Post) reported Friday that neocon hate masking as a documentary was being distributed by CPB after PBS (in a rare show of defiance) refused to distribute it to public television stations across the country. As Jeff Chester observed to Farhi, “It appears that CPB’s leaders — prominent Republicans — are engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to secure an air date for a program appealing to their own conservative constituencies. Congress needs to investigate the corporation’s own problems with fairness and balance.” Or maybe it’s time Congress just cut off funding all together?


VENEZUELA’S TV WAR

See FAIR’S REPORT ON US COVERAGE

REUTERS REPORTS: Chavez moves against second opposition TV channel

Hours after President Hugo Chavez shut down Venezuela’s main opposition broadcaster, his government demanded an investigation of news network Globovision today for allegedly inciting an assassination attempt on the leftist leader.

CNN: TROOPS FIRE TEAR GAS AT PROTESTERS

THE AUSTRALIAN REPORTED:

Venezuela’s oldest private television station went off the air yesterday as thousands banged on pots and pans in protest against a decision by President Hugo Chavez that did away with a popular opposition-aligned channel.

Troops seized the anti-government television channel’s broadcast equipment, the station said yesterday, ahead of a takeover by Mr Chavez.

YOUR DISSECTOR WONDERS—how come we don’t have any “opposition-aligned” channels on American TV?

BUT THERE ARE AOTHER SIDES TO THE STORY

First that the protests are not about the news—but the telenovellas (soaps that have been cancelled.

Here’s a report in Granma, the Cuban newspaper:

CARACAS, May 27 .— The first public TV network is receiving lots of attention in Venezuela, whose recent history has been considerably influenced by private media outlets.

Venezuelan Social Television (TVes), which will begin broadcasting on Monday
on Channel 2, will offer diverse programming 24 hours a day and become a space to promote national productions.

The new network is part of the government’s attempts to democratize the mass media, which has been largely in private hands, and to foster ethical values with television and radio broadcasts.”

Narconews reports:

The Venezuelan Government recently refused to renew the license of the television station RCTV, creating an outcry in the mainstream media that free-speech is being endangered in Venezuela due to this action. However, Narco News co-publisher Charlie Hardy explains that after putting the situation in context, this action is nothing that would have not been expected if the station had been operating within the United States.

Hardy writes:

“U.S. newspapers seem to overlook what Venezuela used to be like as they today discuss the actions of the current government. I have lived in Venezuela for most of the past 22 years and have never experienced such freedom as that which the Venezuelan population enjoys today under Hugo Chavez. That would include freedom of information. Never, in the past 22 years, has the mass media experienced the freedom it has had during the presidency of Chavez. One can freely buy anti-Chavez newspapers on streets and the airwaves and television channels are amply filled with anti-Chavez commentators.

“…In 2002, RCTV actively encouraged Venezuelans to march toward the presidential palace in order to participate in a coup that was taking place to overthrow the democratically elected president. Marciel Granier gave clear instructions to the managing producer of Venezuela’s most watched news program on the day of the coup that he should not give any information about President Chavez. Actions like this would not be tolerated by the FCC in the U.S.”

For more, read Narconews.

ROMANIAN FILM WINS AT CANNES, NOT “SICKO”

SPIEGEL: Romanian Film About Abortion Wins Top Prize

Depressing films about ordinary life dominated this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which ended Sunday. A German-Turkish film about race relations won best screenplay and may be the cheeriest movie in the lineup. A Romanian film about abortion won the Palme d’Or.

A grim Romanian movie about an illegal abortion during the Communist era won the Palme d’Or, the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival, on Sunday.

Behind all the usual glamor, hard-hitting films about real life dominated the competition, and critics said the festival, now in its 60th year, had chosen one of the strongest film lineups in years.

WHILE WATCHING FOX, NEWS HOUNDS REPORTS

A tipsy Ann Coulter giddily insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the war in Iraq is popular, that President Bush’s low approval rating results from his stand on immigration and that the majority of Americans agree with conservatives on immigration and abortion.
http://tinyurl.com/2qscwu

JACKSONVILLE READERS BLAST WAR COVERAGE

TERROR WEBSITE ANGERS ACTIVISTS

FIRE SHUTS DOWN WABC TV IN NEW YORK

NEW YORK — AP: WABC-TV was back on the air Monday morning after a fire damaged equipment in its Manhattan studios and filled the building with thick smoke just before the start of an evening broadcast.

No one was injured, and the fire was quickly put out, but the smoke forced an evacuation that knocked out programming a few minutes before the 11 p.m. Sunday newscast. The station’s viewers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were left with a black screen or color bars.
WABC-TV returned in time for a 5 a.m. newscast Monday morning, with the two morning anchors sitting at a cramped desk in what looked like an office

That will never do. How can you do eye-witless news without the accoutrements, the graphics, the doppler radar, the helicopters etc.