Hugo Chavez Did Not Accuse the U.S.

[Andronex]

On January 19, Spanish newspaper ABC, a newspaper of record in Spain, published a story entitled "Chavez Accuses US of Causing Earthquake in Haiti."

The story was quickly picked up by websites around the globe -- most quoting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez as saying the U.S. used a new tectonic weapon to induce the Haitian earthquake. This was, according to Chavez -- "only a drill, and the final target is destroying and taking over Iran."

Within the actual story, ABC noted that the information came from an obscure opinion post on the website of a Venezuelan state television channel, VIVE Television. The post referenced a supposed Russian military report on American seismic weapons.

All quotes subsequently attributed to Chavez regarding Haiti and earthquake weapons were in fact direct quotes from this web posting -- none of which was ever uttered by Chavez.

more... <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/media250110.html>

[Forkboy]

1. And a lot of bozos here believed it.

[Bumblebee]

2. and I am sure he did not close all these TV stations either...

:sarcasm:

[Forkboy]

3. Which has what to do with this story?

And the fact that a bunch of bozos took it at face value due to kneejerk reactions to any and all things Hugo?

[Daveparts still]

21. It is called

propaganda, when the American military sword is drawn against Chavez the gullible public will answer, well after all he is crazy.

[Andronex]

4. Actually he did not close any TV stations down...

The Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) did, based on the law which requires that TV station respect minimum standards, this is common to all nations, one requirement is that they cannot advocate violence or the assassination of the democratically elected president, only people who lack common sense would consider this an attack on free speech...

It is infantile to believe that Chavez controls everything that goes on in Venezuela, and the revolution will forge ahead with or without him.

[LoZoccolo]

7. All that they did was cover a press conference by that general guy.

Should the networks here be locked up for airing statements by Osama bin Laden today?

[Peace Patriot]

18. I wish I could rec your comment! Thank you!

You did something I didn't do but that I try to do, most of the time, and often urge others to do: go. to. the. source. In this case, the Venezuelan agency that actually issues licenses to use the public airwaves, CONATEL. I try to stay current, detailed and factual. I have learned a lot about Venezuelan TV, the need for balanced political coverage on the public airwaves, public access and public interest programming--all vital to a democracy in the modern age, the lack of it here, the lack of it there--RCTV's participation in the violent rightwing coup in 2002, the documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," etc., etc. I know about and understand our own "Fairness Doctrine" that Reagan got rid of, and many other things. I even figured out how the Venezuelan people elected Chavez despite 100% rancidly fascist corporate media in Venezuela (--an important lesson--perhaps THE lesson--for us: transparent vote counting). But I did not know the name of the agency that licenses and de-licenses TV stations in Venezuela. And, yes, you are so right that: "It is infantile to believe that Chavez controls everything that goes on in Venezuela..."

It is not only infantile, it is submission to brainwashing to unthinkingly buy into this bogeyman "dictator" Chavez that our corpo-fascist media has created. That is something that I long ago realized--that there are MANY people in Chavez's government, including lots of brilliant, talented people committed to democracy and reform, plus thousands of grass roots activists who are transforming society for the better. All of these people are ignored by the corpo-fascist media, who routinely insult them and Venezuelan voters, in their obsessive, false focus on their own bogeyman creation.

There is a new book out, by the way, that people who want to deprogram themselves (re the bogeyman) should get and read: "Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grass Roots." It's a bit pricey, $22.50. I found it for $16 at Amazon, but Amazon had very few copies. Here's the publisher's site:

https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=169

Thanks again for reminding me, and everyone, to go to the source, attend to the details, and don't get sucked in by vague, corpo-fascist media impressions aimed at slipping subliminal ideas into your brain (i.e., 'Chaviz is a dictator') before you have time to think about it rationally and seek out the facts.

[LoZoccolo]

6. If someone said that Barack Obama said it, I would not have believed it.

However, Hugo Chavez has been making Bozo statements for months, and has a reputation for Bozo statements.

[Forkboy]

8. Then you're a fool willing to be suckered. But we all know that already.

And I bet you fell for this story hook, line and sinker.

[LoZoccolo]

9. Right and he hasn't been saying for years that the US is going to attack him.

Like a left-wing Bush*, constantly keeping his people in fear in order to justify clampdowns of human rights and civil liberties.

[Forkboy]

10. Thanks for admitting that you're a kneejerk reactionary.

Though again, something we all knew already.

[LoZoccolo]

11. Right, because civil liberties are reactionary, and so is not fearmongering. n/t

[Forkboy]

12. Believing anything you hear without evidence based on personal bias is reactionary.

Deal with it.

[tiny elvis]

14. rush limbaugh rashly broadcast a hoax about obama

and his early writings
when rush found out it was a hoax, he said the important part of the story was that it sounded like something obama would write

can you paraphrase a bozo statement by hugo?
using a control sample to calibrate your bozo gauge,
is 'US covertly expanding military operations in SA' a bozo statement?
my gauge says no

[ronnie624]

17. And some bozos

who didn't believe it, spread it around, anyway.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

19. No surprise considering who those people were n/t

[Soylent Brice]

22. yup.

Muriel Volestrangler, and CommiePinkoDirtbag, had both posted info about it being bunk the SAME day it was posted. went largely unnoticed.

[Joanne98]

5. This is a perfect example of the RW media in Venezuela. Constant LIARS!

He should arrest them and shoot them all.

[Vidar]

13. Thanks for the clarification.

[winyanstaz]

15. They think that they are making Chavez look bad....

When it is themselves that are revealed to be liars and evil doers...shame on them for being so stupid.....

[Judi Lynn]

16. Thank you, Andronex, for posting this info. Very typical in learning the truth

arrives long after the a-holes have had a picnic with the lie, and the lie is all those who refuse refuse to go to the trouble to research will ever remember!

As Mark Twain said, "A lie is halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its boots."

Really appreciate your looking out for the DU'ers who are interested in getting to the truth.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. I know too much about Latin American history to believe ANYTHING

the U.S. news media say about that region.

The U.S. has intervened in Latin America many times in my lifetime, both covertly and with troops. The scope of the interventions has been consistent, too. Any time a Latin leader is not "business friendly," in go the troops or, if the people are more sophisticated, the CIA.

I still remember how the CIA-sponsored overthrow of Joao Goulart in Brazil in 1964 was portrayed as "the people of Brazil rising up and demanding their freedom." (I was in my early teens then.) Even Jack Paar (talk show host) was sent down there to interview the all-white, all prosperous, all English-speaking demonstrators.

[MisterP]

23. you can't trust anything on any foreign region: for a few examples--

"Ukrainians reject electoral fraud" (when a vote against the CIA candidate is accused by that CIA candidate)
"Iranians repeating 1776, 1968, and the 2000 election" (though it's a fight between clerical factions and events are filtered through the lenses of exiles, perception-managed media, and "Ahmadinejad is just like Bush/Lenin/Hitler/Stalin/Rydz-Smigly/the Evil Emperor Daniel Ortega")
"Haitians reject their despot elected with 20% of the vote" (death squads expel Aristide, who won like 60% of the vote in a high-turnout vote)
"Russian democracy museum languishes as Putin destroys Yeltsin's reforms and democratization" (a feeble list of suspicious deaths and frankly baseless accusations: the body doesn't match the headline)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. I could say that same about Japan

Few Americans know that the Occupation authorities deliberately used the yakuza to bust leftist dockworkers' unions who were against loading ships to supply the Korean War or that they released war criminals with yakuza connections early. One of these (Kishi) became prime minister.

More recently, the New York Times is a continual purveyor of "gee whiz" stories about Japan. They send reporters over there for two years at a time, not speaking the language. That's why Nicholas Kristof was able to claim that nobody in Japan remembered the Nanjing Massacre, during a period when there was a regular magazine flame war going on about the subject.