Dorothy Kronick wrote this excellent article in the American Prospect (worth the short free registration to read the whole article) on the RCTV shutdown, which contains some very interesting tidbits about it, like the “new” justifications for the end of the concession, such as the fact that the Minister of Communications said that RCTV had the “highest quality bandwidth” of any station and that is why it was singled out.
But for sheer ignorance of democratic principles, fair play, equality, the law and the like, nothing beats this cynical statement by Temir Porras, an adviser to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. As they say in those ads, simply “priceless”:
Temir Porras, who began working in the Chávez government in 2001 and is
currently an advisor to the minister of industry and commerce, has a
similar view. “Of course there are political motivations, and I
support that. A media outlet should not adopt one particular political
line,” he said in an interview. “Venevisión and Televen, for economic
reasons, realizing that Chávez will be around for a long time,
re-accommodated their political line after the coup. RCTV and
Globovisión didn’t. They forgot that their existence depends on
Chávez. I am sure that when the Globovisión concession expires, Chávez
will not renew it — we can say that right now. Unless, of course,
they try to moderate their tone, which would make them look rather
ridiculous. Essentially, those that collaborate with the government
project will be left in peace — that can be said about media outlets
as much as landowners or other actors.”
The Devil's Excrement 
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