Telesur and Andres Izarra

Today I read in Newsweek an article on the new Venezuelan government television network Telesur which is to be broadcast throughout Latin America and the Caribean. Needless to say the article does not paint the new network in a good light, but why should it? If the Venezuelan Minister of Information (Mr. Izarra) is also the president of Telesur, and the Telesur offices are in the same building as the Venezuelan govt. television station VTV. Needless to say Mr. Izarra is nothing but a lier and is quite happy to spread the Chavez gospel so what are we to expect with Telesur. Today was a prime example of his excellent journalistic skills as a Minister of Information. The privately owned media were reporting that Fidel Castro was going to be flying into Puerto La Cruz for an energy summit. This was followed by the Minister of Information calling the media liars and in disseminating rumors and that "journalists should only write on facts". Well guess what? Fidel Castro did arrive in Puerto La Cruz this evening, so who is the liar now? So just imagine, this is the man that will be directing Telesur, so what kind of responsible journalism will they be showing. I will leave you with this little piece form the Newsweek article, at least they know what is going on in Venezuela.

"...Venezuela's youthful Information minister, Andres Izarra, who also happens to head its editorial board. Telesur will operate out of an annex of Venezolana de Television (VTV), the state-run network that largely functions as a mouthpiece for Chavez's socialist-flavored policies and gringo-bashing rhetoric. The Venezuelan leader has enlisted his buddy Fidel Castro as a partner in the project."

The Main Stream Media

Whether you are living in the US or in Venezuela the public in recent years has been very critical of the main stream media. While I am not an expert in the field I think much of the more negative view of the likes of CNN and FOX is that they don't report the news. Instead MSM comment on it giving us their opinion, the MSM news reporters fail miserably to actually question their guests, ask them hard questions, or even argue with them. Instead the MSM is used as a podium for the guest to express their opinion without being challenged. The other significant problem I see with the MSM is that they report more on who married who in Hollywood and what Michael Jackson wore to his trial, than real news. I will not even comment on the coverage of world news since that is non-existant or only covered in 5 min!! This week the "Pew Research Center" released a survey report on the public and the media. Overall the American public views the major media outlets in a favorable light although it has been declining over the years. Here I will simply highlight a couple things that I find interesting, you can read the report yourself in detail. In short the level of credibility of the local Tv news, Daily newspapers, and Network Tv news has declined much faster than their favorability. although they are all have between 54-64% credibility. About 23% of the respondents get their news on-line and most people view blogs as more opinion than fact based (this is not surprising). News organizations are seen as politically biased (60%) and 72% see them as favoring one side politically. One thing I find interesting is that 67% of Republicans see the press as too critical of America. The obvious explanation for this is the war in Iraq so naturally this significant event results in strong opinions on this topic. Probably the most concerning aspect for the MSM is that 75% of the public perceive the news organizations caring more about attracting an audience and than keeping the public informed. Fortunately we in the US still have PBS and NPR (but maybe not for "long"). While I will admit they are at times little liberal they do the best job informing the public and will actually do an in depth coverage, which is more than I can say about the MSM. As a side note I highly recommend ""The Daily Show"" it makes fun of everything that is wrong with the MSM. And when the MSM is confronted about their lack of reporting among other things this is what "happens".

Hotel Humboldt

Caracas

I remember when I moved to Venezuela as a child back in 1989, seeing the Humboldt hotel atop El Avila and wanting to go to top to see it. I was fasinated how a hotel could be built back in the 1950's so high up but what made it even more interesting was that the hotel hadn't been in use for years and the cable car didn't work, but especially since it had been built during the last true dictatorship in Venezuela under Perez Jimenez. While it was a repressive dictatorship (including some in my family suffering from it) at least some of the greatest public works were done at this time. Here is a link that may be of some interest on the "Hotel Humboldt". Finally, it has been sold to a private company which is renovating and making into a tourist destination. The cable car system has been updated, and very nice I might add, but the hotel is still being fixed up although it is open or special events but the rooms are not ready yet. Anyone visiting Venezuela should take the trip up, even if it is cloudy, it is worth the 5 to 10 dollars. I also recommend going to Galipan, pay the few dollars and have someone drive you to it from the hotel area, walking it might not be a great idea.

Hotel Humboldt

Galipan

Email exchange with Mr. Carson from VHeadline

Mr. Carson from Vheadline and myself have been having a series of email exchanges in regards to an email I had sent on Thursday of last week. Below you can read the exchanges, note I have edited some email address since giving some of this info out I think is inappropriate:

Dear Mr. Carson, while I congratulate you in exposing this information to your readers I do have some questions about your arguments.
You say that you do not put blame on Andres Izarra, but why shouldn't you? I am sure that Mr. Pimentel has his job thanks to Izarra. Therefore at the very least Pimentel should be reprimanded or even lose his job, but this action is required from Izarra, so why doesn't he do something about it?
In many instances you yourself seem to go out of your way to defend the Venezuelan government and you even stated here to "support Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law" well as you are showing here the rule of law seems to be broken. It was pre-Chavez but it seems to have only gotten worse under Chavez, so my question is what is one to do? Furthermore, while you may be away from the grasp of the new government thugs many Venezuelans are not, so what are they supposed to do? Unfortunately they must live with it.
Ultimatly why do you defend Venezuelan government officials like Izarra, Chavez, and so many others since they do nothing to remedy the situation of corruption and intimidation. Thus they are no different than the likes of Mr. Pimentel, mainly because they have done nothing to get rid of people like Pimentel.
While I disagree with in many of your articles I do congratulate you on exposing this information.

Sincerely,

I recieved this email within a a few hours, from Mr. Pimentel from the Ministery of Information. Apparently Mr. Carson decided that my email was worth forwarding to Mr. Pimentel.

De: Roy S. Carson [mailto:Roy.Carson@netcom.co.uk]
Enviado el: Jueves, 09 de Junio de 2005 07:09 p.m.
Para: Yuri Pimentel
Asunto: Fwd: Mr. Carson

My original email (above) here

From: ypimentel@xxxxx.gov.ve
Subject: RE: Mr. Carson
Date: June 9, 2005 6:19:31 PM CDT

COMUNICADO
EL MCI ANTE SEÑALAMIENTOS
DEL GRUPO VHEADLINE

En los últimos días, hemos recibido una serie de llamadas telefónicas y correos electrónicos, de personas muy honesta y razonablemente preocupadas por informaciones recibidas desde la agencia extranjera VHeadline, en las cuales este grupo acusa al Ministerio de Comunicación e Información (MCI) de intentar “imponer a VHeadline.com, como publicación con sede en el exterior, una serie de condiciones y reglamentos que no se pueden tolerar bajo ninguna circunstancia”.
En su comunicado, VHeadline agrega que el MCI ha intentado obligarle a registrarse en Caracas, “solamente para así satisfacer los caprichos domésticos y políticos del burocratismo venezolano”.
El Ministerio de Comunicación e Información aprecia el valor de las informaciones en inglés que publica VHeadline, pero esta publicación no puede estar por encima de las normas y requisitos que nos impone la ley en Venezuela para la contratación de nuestras pautas publicitarias.
Alertamos a la opinión pública que, en razón de esta situación, debida únicamente al cumplimiento de las leyes vigentes en nuestro país, la agencia VHeadline ha anunciado que “lanzará una campaña de desprestigio en contra de esta institución”.
El Ministerio de Comunicación e Información reitera ante la opinión pública nacional e internacional que, en su calidad de ente rector de las políticas de información del Estado venezolano, no acepta chantajes ni amenazas de ninguna índole, y que seguirá actuando apegado a las leyes de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

En Caracas, 8 de Junio de 2005

I was actually shocked that Mr. Carson would forward this to Mr. Izarra and Mr. Pimentel. In my opinion Mr. Carson is trying to intimidate Mr. Pimentel and the MCI by getting outsiders (myself) involved in the conflict. This is irrisponsible and unethical in my opinion.

This was followed by an email from VHeadline

From: editor@vheadline.com
Subject: Izarra; Chavez ... they are no different than the likes of Mr. Pimentel
Date: June 10, 2005 7:30:18 AM CDT
editor@vheadline.com thought you might be interested in reading the following Article

Izarra; Chavez ... they are no different than the likes of Mr. Pimentel

To view this article, click on the above link or copy and paste this link into your web browser:
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=37274

My email after learning that my original email had been forwarded to Mr. Pimentel.
(My email below was sent to Mr. Carson and Mr. Pimentel)

At 03:34 PM 6/11/2005, you wrote:
Mr. Carson, el email que te mande era un email simplement para expresar mi interes sobre el asunto entre Vheadline y el MCI y como yo veo las cosas (claro de punta de vista como usted lo describiste en VHeadline). En ninguna manera era para duplicar y reenviar mi email al Senor Pimentel o al MCI. Cual quier lio que usted tiene con el Senor Pimentel y el Ministro de Informacion de Venezuela es entre ustedes, y no conmigo! Yo considereo esto algo muy grave y falta de etica como editor de una agencia de notica ya que usted Mr. Carson esta involucrando tus lectores (yo) en asuntos que no nos corresponde. Por favor no me vayas a contactar mas acerca de este asunto, esto es entre VHeadline y el MCI, no conmigo.

Mr. Carsons response

Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 09:39:25 +0100
From: "Roy S. Carson"
Subject: RE: Mr. Carson
You submitted a letter to VHeadline which we published!

My reply

At 09:31 PM 6/11/2005, you wrote:
Dear Mr. Carson, my last email is not in referece to you publishing my original email on VHeadline (which I care less that you did). Instead the forwarding of my original email to Mr. Pimentel is the issue I have a problem with, as I had stated in my last email. I hope this is clear since I do not know how to make my point clearer. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Carson response

Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 22:15:46 +0100
From: "Roy S. Carson"
Subject: RE: Mr. Carson
It was a matter of common courtesy for us to forward the email to Mr. Pimentel and also to Minister Izarra in case either of them wished to make a response. We have outlined our own opinions in various reports about the situation at MCI, but we must also allow those who are at the center of the debate to make their own opinions know if they so wish. For this I do not believe there is any apology due since it is a normal procedure in any publication, also where there has been no specific request for anonymity -- which would have been respected 100% if indeed it had been made. No such request was made and we published the letter in accord with our generasl editorial policy of letting our readers have a voice when it is conditioned to normal concepts of decency, democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law. In no respect have we breached any ethic or law or condition of confidentiality and in this respect I can only express my regrets that you apparently do not accept the situation. Perhaps you may wish to explain to me how I could possibly have made it much clearer especially when we also have to respect the rights of those we criticize in the normal course of publication inasmuch as we also respect reasoned criticism such as you have leveled in your emails to us.

best regards
Roy S. Carson

Mr. Carson does not seem to understand that my original email centered on arguments that HE made, thus I was wanting him to clarify HIS arguments and point of view. Instead Mr. Carson distorted my arguments and comments to appear as if they were directed to Mr. Pimentel and the MCI, which is not the case. While also trying (as I take it) to get me to be involved in his publlic fight with the MCI. This seems a little unethical and wrong to me.
I have not replied nor will I in regards to Mr. Carson's last email since I do not wish to waste my time with him nor do I wish to be brought into any conflict between Mr. Carson and Mr. Pimentel or the MCI.

VHeadline

On thursaday after reading an article originally posted on "VHeadline" but read on "Vcrisis" in regards to some funny business that the Information Ministery is conducting I decided to write an email to Mr. Carson. Below you will find my email. Essentially my email congragulated Mr. Carson for exposing this infromation but I also wondered why he does not hold Mr. Izarra responsible or even Chavez for corruption. I unfortunatlly didn't have the time to read in detail Mr. Carsons reponse and can no longer find it "online". I do remember Mr. Carson saying that Mr. Izarra was a nice person. SO! So am I, but Mr Izarra should still be held accountable for hireing thugs and for allowing corruption. Also Mr. Carson discussed disinformation in his reply, I am not sure why he did. But since he brought it up I would like to remind Mr. Carson the violations of human rights and it is not disinformation it is a fact! The Luis Tascon list (as is admitted by Chavez), and the multiple reports released by Human Rights Watch among others. Mr. Carson you did say in your reply that I had very good points and questions, so I ask you, why didn't you give me a staright answer or answer them at all?
To conclude, while I do congratulate Mr. Carson in revealing this information, I wish he would realize that Venezuelan government is rotten to the core, starting with Chavez.

Please read the full response (to me) that was "posted" by another reader. Below is part of the reply, it is the typical Chavez appologist argument:

"Imagine firing hundreds or maybe thousands of government employees, that haven't done anything wrong except being a bad employee ... maybe a few stole or lined their pockets with some extra cash. First you would need to prove that the employee is corrupt ... that could take a long time and money and it would tie up the courts for years. Also where are you going to get the replacements? Who will train them?"

So I guess this person is arguing that we shouldn't fire a corrupt person that has stolen money because it takes to much time, money, effort, and we might not be able to replace them. Ummmmmm... Am I missing something here? If I am please tell me.

My original email
Dear Mr. Carson, while I congratulate you in exposing this information to your readers I do have some questions about your arguments.

You say that you do not put blame on Andres Izarra, but why shouldn't you? I am sure that Mr. Pimentel has his job thanks to Izarra. Therefore at the very least Pimentel should be reprimanded or even lose his job, but this action is required from Izarra, so why doesn't he do something about it?

In many instances you yourself seem to go out of your way to defend the Venezuelan government and you even stated here to "support Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law" well as you are showing here the rule of law seems to be broken. It was pre-Chavez but it seems to have only gotten worse under Chavez, so my question is what is one to do? Furthermore, while you may be away
from the grasp of the new government thugs many Venezuelans are not, so what are they supposed to do? Unfortunately they must live with it.

Ultimatly why do you defend Venezuelan government officials like Izarra, Chavez, and so many others since they do nothing to remedy the situation of corruption and intimidation. Thus they are no different than the likes of Mr. Pimentel, mainly because they have done nothing to get rid of people like Pimentel.

While I disagree with in many of your articles I do congratulate you on exposing this information.

Your Fired!!!

No, I am not trying to be Donald Trump here, instead I am refering to another judge falling victum to the Chavez justice system. So this week the judge of the 9th circuit court in Caracas, threw out the fine aginst the 24 hour news channel Globovision that the government placed against it. Apparently the Chavez govt. did not like this and resonded by fireing the judge. So Mark Weisbrot what do have to say about this?