They all want to control media that opposes their political party or view. Leftists have long hated conservative talk radio. Lately, with the decline of radio in general, and the rise of the internet at a news and opinion medium, their opposition against conservative talk radio has abated, but the attitude still remains. The more politically inclined always want to stifle speech they do not agree with. Both sides engage in this sort of thing to varying degrees.
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What’s behind Trump’s fresh push to wrest control of Voice of America
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
They all want to control media that opposes their political party or view. Leftists have long hated conservative talk radio. Lately, with the decline of radio in general, and the rise of the internet at a news and opinion medium, their opposition against conservative talk radio has abated, but the attitude still remains. The more politically inclined always want to stifle speech they do not agree with. Both sides engage in this sort of thing to varying degrees.
Sure but what we're talking about here is using the power and funding of the federal government to force your view on someone else. That's what Pack is saying he wants to do with USAGM. That's what the president is threatening to do with Comcast and Warner Media.
I understand. I don't agree with the VOA, or any government-subsidized broadcast entity engaging in what is basically political propaganda.
I'm not sure to what extent Radio Marti engages in it... Mostly what I've heard is baseball games, and the news (although my Spanish is limited) seems fairly straightforward, at least as it pertains to US news. I have no idea what RFE and Radio Free Asia broadcast. Hopefully it's not politicized. Same with the VOA. If Trump is trying to use it to make himself look better in the eyes of the rest of the world, it's going to fail. The rest of the world also has access to the internet and television. They have already made up their minds.
Not sure what the president's intent is, but Pack has said he wants to do "editorials." We'll see what that means.
Marti is politicized by the huge group of Cuban refugees who create the programming. The format includes news and commentary, and the commentary is partial to a free nation philosophy and highly anti-Castro and anti-Communist. Yes, even though Fidel is gone, his philosophy is constantly attacked.
I did the congressionally required annual evaluation of Mart?* twice in its earlier years. And then did a consulting stint later on in the late 90's and early '00s. The position of the station, over those decades, was virulently anti-communist, anti-Russian and anti-Castro and Annt-Castroism.
In other words, it was very polarized... virulently so at time. There was a time when Casto's name could not be said. Instead, titles like "The Assasin of the Americas" and the "Criminal Dictator" and the like were used instead.
Interestingly, in talking with friends in the Media all across Latin America, I find great "respect" for Trump among people who work in the Broadcast industry. They find him to be the kind of charismatic, aggressive leader they know to work in their own countries and I've heard "It's about time the US got a strong leader..." from many. Of course, the loud and vocal anti-American elements in each nation where I have worked would suddenly dislike Mickey Mouse were he named president; it's just a matter of principal for the communist / socialist element to dislike anything American and that has been true for 197 years since the Monroe Doctrine was put forth by Washington politicians!
It's funny that no one in this administration is saying anything about Cuba, and how quickly the intended coup of Venezuela was given up.
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/11/21249203/venezuela-coup-jordan-goudreau-maduro-guaido-explain
The US really has no foreign policy any more, which makes VOA and Marti almost useless.
On the other hand, and speaking specifically about Latin America, the US had a rather offensive, disliked and interventionist foreign policy in the past, and the VOA attempted to contextualize that policy and make it sound "helpful" rather than "imperialist".
They did not succeed. All of us who lived in Latin America knew of or had lived through US intervention in our local governmental system and we did not believe a word of VOA attempts to explain why the US could not stay out of nearly all of the nations in the rest of the Hemisphere.
Which once again explains why the Venezuela coupe was a total flop. Here's how Fox News reported it:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tr...venezuelan-representative-casually-reads-book
David---curious how much of a factor, if any, Radio Habana Cuba was in Latin America. I remember they broadcast in Spanish most of the day on 11760. Presumably one could work all day and get their daily socialism.
Radio Habana Cuba did get some listening in the 60's when I was in Ecuador. But its audience was mostly made up of urban socialists and true communists... a tiny but very vocal and aggressive minority.
My first Quito station was taken over at the lunch hour in 1965 by communist guerillas. They beat up the DJ, tied him and gave a mostly incoherent declaration before exiting via the trash chute from the second floor studios. I am positive that they were P1 Radio Habana listeners; their declaration paralleled the positions of that broadcaster.
Unfortunately, the US media for the most part sympathizes to some extent with the Maduro government, and all news reports are slanted in that direction. This attitude comes from a failure to understand the damage that the Chavez-initiated economic reform did to the sustaining industry of the national economy.
The fact is that Chavez depleted all the government resources and took needed exploration, development and maintenance moneys from the oil industry to foment his policies.
No oil, no economy.
Maduro can't turn the course of that river because the river ran dry as he came into power. Instead, when any industry fails to produce jobs and cost-controlled products, it is nationalized and soon disintegrates. And then oil prices collapsed but Venezuela can't produce enough for even local demand, so they import it from Iran. They sit on the world's greatest oil reserves, but can't even pull it out of the ground any more due to Maduro's castration of the oil fields, pipelines and refineries.
Every talented, skilled person I know from Venezuela (I was once offered the leadership of Venevision's radio division) has left. Everyone they know has left, too. We have unskilled people who are partisans running industry, so there are shortages of everything and the death rate from the Coronavirus likely is ten to twenty times what is reported; media is so controlled that accurate reports are quashed.
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I haven't seen any examples of that. But I wouldn't blame US media for the failure of the coupe.
Why not? According to most self-described U.S. "Conservatives" The News Media is the reason for all the world problems.
I don't know about US media sympathizing with the Maduro government, but it's been a roaring silence when it comes to coverage of the plight of Venezuelans. Much of what David mentions about Venezuela I haven't heard mentioned in US media, aside from there being Venezuelan emigres in nearby Colombia, and some attempting to come to the US via Mexico.
K
kenglish
Guest
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/09/8893...-not-extend-visas-for-its-foreign-journalists
Sounds like they don't want journalists who speak the language, or understand the people. Will they all be replaced by blonde-haired Americans in short dresses, a la Fox News?
Sounds like they don't want journalists who speak the language, or understand the people. Will they all be replaced by blonde-haired Americans in short dresses, a la Fox News?
The four key words are "They don't want journalists." They want ideologues.
Hair color and clothing are unlikely to be significant criteria in hiring reporters and news readers for a radio service, but yes, either the actual Kaleigh McEnany or a homely doppelganger would likely be given strong consideration on the basis of ideology.
There are as many as 3 million Venezuelans who have gone, principally, to Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. In those nations, they are the most affected by the Coronavirus since they have no savings, no permanent residence and, mostly, have no jobs.
My former partner in Guayaquil, Ecuador, who is the acting mayor right now, has mentioned that many Venezuelans are among the huge percentage of unreported and un-tabulated dead being buried in 300-foot-long mass graves with no markers.
There are so many Venezuelans in Houston that the town of Katy in the metro area of Houston is being called "Katyzuela".
But then we have Hollywood luminaries like Brad Pitt commending the Maduro-initiated "social revolution" with suggestions that we should imitate them here.
Taking this back to a radio and media subject, all the opposing media companies have been seized and nationalized, starting with former Latin American powerhouse Venevision. Many radio stations have been closed, and most of the owners of major stations have left the country. Commentators and journalists who don't follow the party line are jailed or worse.
I am very closely aware of the situation in Venezuela as I have worked there in the past. What I see is failure to talk at all about the desperate social conditions and criticisms of the economic sanctions that are intended to force change in Venezuela based on the national assembly's decisions.
There is very limited coverage of the legal legislature calls for elections and censure of the government, resulting in many of their leaders being arrested.
Of course, any declaration of support by Brad Pitt is widely reported as are any celebrity declarations based on ideals and not reality.
Venezuelans I know, including the owner of what was the "iHeart" of local radio, say that the recent coup attempt was not really finance or coordinated by the US government but by Venezuelans in exile, including a group of very wealthy industrialists. But the media wants to blame the US government which, of course, could not prevent exiles from attempting a coup.
There's a big difference between not reporting on desperate social conditions and supporting the Maduro regime. Those are not the same thing. News organizations try to stay away from advocacy journalism. There are lots of countries around the world that are in similar dire straits and get no coverage from major media outlets. It's not unlike corporate radio only focusing on four main genres of music. Don't mistake that as being dislike for lesser known genres. My old boss always said just because his radio stations play U2 doesn't mean he can't listen to Errol Garner on his own time. Same thing with news coverage of Venezuela.
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