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Today's
Stories
July
11, 2007
Patrick
Cockburn
The Benchmark Blame Game
July
10, 2007
James
Ridgeway
True North: Big Oil in the Arctic
Tariq
Ali
New Clashes in Islamabad: Judges and Jihadis Torment the Regime
Javed
Hussein
Pakistan's Waco?: The Storming of the Red Mosque
William
Blum
Neocons, Theocons, Demcons, Excons and Future Cons
Ralph
Nader
Grown in China
Jay
Arena
New Orleans, Public Housing and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Anthony
DiMaggio
A Begrudging Reversal: The New York Times and the "Anti-War"
Turn
Eva
Liddell
Has Ann Coulter Got the Hots for John Edwards?
Jerry
Kroth
Democratic Defectors and the Israel Lobby
Alice
Woodward
White Supremacy and the Jena Six
Nikolas
Kozloff
Where's Jerry?: On Cheney Impeachment, Rep. Nadler's a No Show
Paul
Shannon
It's Time to Reform Sex Offender Laws
Website
of the Day
March for Remembrance
July
9, 2007
Fidel
Castro
The Killing Machine: Reflections from
a Target of the CIA
Diana
Johnstone
King Sarko the First
John
Walsh
Will the Greens Seize the Moment?
Uri
Avnery
The Jordanian Option
Ramzy
Baroud
The Palestinian Left: a Lost Opportunity?
John
Ripton
The New West Bank Palestinian State
Stephen
Lendman
Making Gaza Scream
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Going Down: the Correct Way to Affix a Stamp
Michael
Donnelly
What's the Matter with Winchester?
Doug
Giebel
Wanted: Old Men with Nothing to Lose
Website
of the Day
Ron Paul on This Week with George
July 7 / 8, 2007
Saul
Landau
Blame the Puppet
Ismael
Hossein-zadeh
Parasitic Imperialism
Fawzia
Afzal-Khan
What Lies Beneath: Dispatches from the Frontlines of t he Burqa
Brigade
Alan
Maass
Will "Sicko" Spark a Movement?: a Film, Militant Nurses
and a New Opportunity for Single Payer Health Care
John
Ross
The Fire Last Time
Pat
Williams
The Supreme Court and Mr. Peanut
Rannie
Amiri
The Unbreakable Mordechai Vanunu
Farzana
Versey
Does the Taj Mahal Deserve to be a Wonder of the World?
Bart
Gruzalski
Bush, the Revolution and the Iraq War
Paul
Rockwell
An Army of None
Reza
Fiyouzat
Tax Cuts for the Rich Only Benefit the Economy of the Rich
Monica
Benderman
Americans, Honestly!
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Total War: From Clausewitz to Clinton and Bush
Dave
Lindorff
Poll: Impeach the Bastards
Charles
Modiano
History's Hit Job on Thomas Paine
Missy
Beattie
King Cretin
Dal
LaMagna
A Peacemaker's View of Baghdad
Jean
Gerard
Those So-Called Oil Contracts in Iraq
Anne
Dachel
Autism: an Epidemic of Fairly Recent Origin
Ron
Jacobs
Modes and Melodies of Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Gibbons, Orloski, Engel and Buknatski
Website
of the Day
Van Morrison and Bob Dylan in Athens
July 6, 2007
Daniel
Ellsberg
When the Crimes of the White House
are Unpunishable
Gary
Leupp
The Cracks in Cheney's World
Harvey
Wasserman
Leonard Peltier vs. Scooter Libby: the Hero and the Henchman
Omer
Subhani
Our Dead are Not the Same: Ignoring Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
Marjorie
Cohn
Compassion, Conspiracy and Commutation
Christopher
Brauchli
Kingly Edicts: Bush's Executive Orders
David
Michael Green
Scalia Time: the Wrecking Ball Court
China
Hand
Catfish Blues: Food Safety, the FDA and the Emerging Trade War
with China
Renee
Saucedo
and Todd Chretien
The New Challenges Facing the Immigrant Rights Movement
Corporate
Crime Reporter
The Crime Wave Behind the Media Curtain
Website
of the Day
Jean Bricmont on the Humanitarian Interveners
July
5, 2007
Andy
Worthington
Two Americas, Both Unjust: Scooter
Libby vs. the "Enemy Combatants"
Mike
Stark
Double Standards of North Carolina "Justice"
Norman
Solomon
The Keyboard Hawks: a Bloody Media Mirror
Michael
Schwartz
Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month
Susie
Day
Killer Lesbians Mauled by Killer Court (and Media Wolfpack)
Jacob
Hornberger
A Tangled Web of Lies: Bush and the Libby Case
Bill
Hatch
Smoking with Arnold: The Strange Return of Toxic Mary Nichols
Don
Fitz
When Building Green Ain't So Green
John
Wright
The Crisis of Imperialism
Website
of the Day
Anti-Flag and Tom Morello: "This Land is Your Land"
July
4, 2007
St.
Clair / Frank
Obama's Nuclear Ambitions
Vijay
Prashad
Democrat (Punjab): Obama and Outsourcing
Carl
G. Estabrook
The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Exist
Ron
Jacobs
Texas Wants to Kill Another Man, the Law be Damned: the Disturbing
Case of Kenneth Foster
David
R. Dow
The Quality of Bush's Mercy: the Ghosts of Texas
Claudia
Johnson
Is My Doctor a Terrorist?
William
S. Lind
What Israel's Defeat in Lebanon Means for Defense Industry Fat
Cats
Gregory
Afghani
Truth and Tenure: Finkelstein and the Perils of Impeccable Scholarship
Paul
Edwards
End It Now!
D.
K. Wilson
The Sliming of Tank Johnson
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Thank You, Mr. President: Bush/Cheney for Dummies
Thomas
Jefferson
The Spirit of Resistance: Lethargy is the Forerunner of the Death
of Public Liberty
Cindy
Sheehan
Call Out the Instigator
Website
of the Day
Springsteen: 4th of July, Ashbury Park
July 3, 2007
Bill
Quigley
Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging
from the "White" Tree
Gary
Leupp
Civil Strife in Palestine: a Broader Context
Lynda
Brayer
Norman Finkelstein and the Catholic Church
Richard
Thieme
Mind Wars: Brain Research, Nanotech and the Military
Helen
Redmond
They Don't Come Back the Same: the Mind of the Returning Iraq
War Vet
David
Swanson
Scooter and the Commuter: When Presidents Pardon Their Own Crimes
Jacob
Hornberger
Martha Stewart vs. Scooter Libby: Commutation as Cover-Up
Ayesha
Ijaz Khan
Pakistan's New Jihad
Franklin
Lamb
The Edginess of Lebanon
Ray
McGovern
Unimpeachably Impeachable: Start with Cheney
Kevin
Zeese
The Air Force vs. Rev. Lennox Yearwood
Dave
Lindorff
Nancy Pelosi and the Low Bar Democrats
Website
of the Day
A Military Guide to the Iraq War
July 2, 2007
Andy
Worthington
The Guantánamo Whistleblowers
Nina
Serrano
The Assassination of a Poet: Memories of Roque Dalton
Jack
Hirschman
The Nation and the Assassin: a Shameful Blunder
Paul
Craig Roberts
Enter Turkey
Bill
Williams
The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul
Anthony
Papa
A Taste of the Gulag: What Paris Learned
Sonja
Karkar
Who Will Save Palestine?
Louay
Safi
Steve Emerson's Fantastic Obsession
Anthony
Gregory
When Killer Cops Walk
Monica
Benderman
In Consideration of War
Website
of the Day
Dylan's Masters of War, at West Point, 1990
June
30 / July 1, 2007
John
Ross
Free Frida Kahlo!
Alan
Farago
Fakery, Inflation and the Housing
Market
Peter
Quinn
The Political Paranoia Over Immigration: Two Centuries and Counting
Christopher
Brauchli
Cheney Does the Constitution
Robert
Fisk
Abu Henry and the Mysterious Silence
Uri
Avnery
A Dark Summit
Judith
Siers-Poisson
The Politics and PR of Cervical Cancer
Saul
Landau
Israel is Bad for Jewish Ethics
Abbas
Zaidi
The Ad Hominem World of Pakistan Politics
Ron
Jacobs
Ending the War, Organizing for Change
Ralph
Nader
Move Over Oprah: a Summer Reading List
Donald
Worster
Which City is Worse Off Today, New York or New Orleans?
Mike
Whitney
The Fed's Role in the Bear Stearns Meltdown
Jacob
Hill
Fast Track to Trade Failure
Kenneth
Couesbouc
Why Global Trade is Rarely Fair
Missy
Beattie
Kakistocracy
Mohammad
Kamaali
Envoy for the Quartet
Ramzy
Baroud
Finding Lessons in Gaza's Bloodshed
Leonard
Peltier
A Gathering at Oglala
Phyllis
Pollack
Seven Hours of Banging with the Stones
Poets'
Basement
Reed, Orloski and Buknatski
Website
of the Weekend
A Podcast Interview with Cpt. Ward Boston on the USS Liberty
June
29, 2007
St.
Clair / Frank
Toward a New Environmental Movement
Brian
Cloughley
Losing the War in Afghanistan: One Civilian Massacre at a Time
Patrick
Cockburn
End the Occupation: an Open Letter to Gordon Brown
Gilad
Atzmon
The Peace Envoy: Tony Blair on Work Release
Dave
Lindorff
Subpoenas, Executive Privilege and Liberal Pipedreams
Jennifer
Matsui /
Carl Kandutsch
Electric Larryland
Kevin
Zeese
A Different Kind of Peace Candidate
Daniel
Klimek
Fasting for Justice at DePaul
David
Michael Green
The Founding Fathers Never Met Dick Cheney
John
Chuckman
The London Car Bomb
Website
of the Day
BAM!
June
28, 2007
Bill
Quigley
How to Destroy an African American
City in 33 Steps
Vijay
Prashad
Once More on the New York Times
Margaret
Kimberley
The Whitening of Marianne Pearl: When White Actors Play Black
Characters
Winslow
T. Wheeler
House of Pork: Changing Lightbulbs in the Democrats' Bordello
Philip
Rizk
The Failing of Gaza
D.
K. Wilson
The Black Villains Club
Bill
Williams
Strange Calculus at DePaul
Mahmoud
El-Yousseph
The Deportation of Yardlin Jimenez
Richard
Rhames
The Liberation of Paris
Paul
Krassner
Bong Hits for Repression: the Giant Sucking Sound of the Supreme
Court
Website
of the Day
Free
Lightnin' Hopkins
June 27, 2007
Marjorie
Cohn
Targeting Dissent: FBI Spying on the
National Lawyers Guild
Dr.
Susan Rosenthal, MD
Sick and Sicker: Two Models of Health Care Rationing
Alan
Farago
Bush and the Everglades: Rebranding Failure as Success
Carla
Blank
"America, the Beautiful": the Queen, Jamestown and
the Eye of the Beholder
Matthew
Abraham
The Smearing of Robert Trivers, Dershowitz-Style
Sunsara
Taylor
The Deadly Consequences of Compromise: Abortion Rights Under
Assault, Where's the Women's Movement?
Russell
D. Hoffman
16 Dirty Secrets About Nuclear Power
Robert
Weissman
Blackstone and Capital's Grand Scam
Sen.
Russ Feingold
Secrecy and the Federal Death Penalty
Paul
Buchheit
The Footprints of Democracies
Website
of the Day
Anarchy for the USA: an Interview with Josh Wolf
June
26, 2007
Jonathan
Cook
Divide and Rule, Israeli-Style
Ralph
Nader
Sicko and the Politics of Health Care
Corporate
Crime Reporter
Which Side Are You On, Michael Moore?
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Neocons Really Going?
Martha
Rosenberg
Mad Cow in God's Country
John
Chuckman
China's New Weapons
Denny
Haldeman
Ethanolics Anonymous
Anthony
DiMaggio
Free Speech Hypocrisy at the Supreme Court
Stephen
Fleischman
The Tightrope Economy
William
S. Lind
Legitimacy, Toujours Legitimacy
Website
of the Day
The CIA's Family Jewels
June 25, 2007
Paul
Craig Roberts
Goodbye to the City on the Hill
Jennifer
Loewenstein
The Triumph of US / Israeli Policy
in Palestine
Bob
Anderson
The Grooming of Bill Richardson: New Mexico's Nuclear Governor
Robert
Pollin
The Realities of Microlending
Patrick
Cockburn
Chemical Ali Faces the Hangman: the Life and Crimes of al-Majid
Eva
Liddell
Why They Want to Fire Ward Churchill
Dan
Bacher
Democrats and the School of the Americas: 42 House Democrats
Back Torture Academy
Larry
Atkins
The Case of the Judge and the $54 Million Pair of Pants: an Embarrassment,
Not an Argument for Tort Reform
Mark
Brenner
SEIU Ends Nursing Home Partnership
James
Rothenberg
Hillary Does Iraq
Website
of the Day
"A Long Train of Abuses"
June
23 / 24, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
Zyklon B on the US Border
Jeff
Taylor
The Foreign Policy of Barack Obama
Oren
Ben-Dor
Israeli Apartheid is the Core of the Crisis in Gaza
Gary
Leupp
In Defense of Academic Freedom: the Ward Churchill Case
Robert
Fisk
The Bumbling Envoy
David
Rosen
The Hidden Cost of War: Genital Injuries, Prosthetic Devices
and the War on Terror
Russell
Mokhiber
Ins and Outs for 2008: Up with Spoilers!
Alison
Weir
USA Today and the USS Liberty
Robert
Fantina
The Floundering Congress
D.
K. Wilson
Of Gangstas and Spearchuckers, Sex and Zulus
Nicole
Colson
Litigating Gitmo
Stephen
Soldz, Steven Reisner and Brad Olson
Torture, Psychologists and Colonel
James
Dave
Lindorff
Exodus of the Puppets: Bush's Incredible Shrinking Coalition
Benjamin
Dangl
Cerámica de Cuyo: a Profile of Worker Control in Argentina
Michael
Dickinson
The Catholicization of Tony
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Engel, Gerard and Orloski
Website
of the Weekend
Incarcerex: a Drug War Video
June
22, 2007
Andy
Worthington
A Tunisian in Gitmo: the Story
of Prisoner 660
Sherwood
Ross
Corporate America's Deadliest Secret: the Big Profits in Biowarfare
Research
Eliana
Monteforte
The Torture Academy
Robert
Weissman
Things Can Be Different
Richard
Rhames
Farmer Preservation
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Uighurs: an Encounter in Albania
Ramzy
Baroud
Chronicle of a Chaos Foretold
Ehud
Krinis, David Shulman and Neve Gordon
Facing an Imminent Threat of Expulsion: Palestinians in S. Hebron
Hills Need Your Help!
David
Michael Green
If Reid Were Rove
Kathryn
Webber
Boycotting DePaul
Website
of the Day
Stop Me Before I Vote Again!
June
21, 2007
Peter
Linebaugh
The Day of the Rope
Natsu
Saito
The Regents and Ward Churchill: Now is the Time to Speak Out
Ron
Jacobs
The Intimidation of a Vet
Saree
Makdisi
The West Chooses Fatah, But Palestinians Don't
John
Stauber
Blessed Unrest: an Interview with Paul Hawken
Scott
Liebertz
Fox News and Venezuela: an Analysis of How the Network Deliberately
Misinforms Its Viewers
Tom
Clifford
The Ghost Prisoners
Robert
Jensen
The Last Sunday?
Michael
J. Smith
Who Among Us Will Step Up to Destroy the Democratic Party?
Jeb
Sprague
Pain at the Pump in Haiti
Website
of the Day
Dion: Hey Paris
June 20, 2007
Omar
Barghouti
A Secular-Democratic State Solution
Andy
Worthington
Repatriated to Torture
Margaret
Kimberley
Supreme Injustices: the Bush Court
Robert
Weissman
Sicko, Part One: the Human Tragedy
Russell
D. Hoffman
Time to Choose: Meltdowns or Solar Power?
Rannie
Amiri
Mideast Alight
Stephen
Lendman
The New York Times vs. Hugo Chavez
Dave
Lindorff
Democratic Disconnect
David
Swanson
Booing Hillary: Platitudes from the Drone Machine
Anne
Dachel
Autism & Vaccines: Why are They Afraid to Look?
Website
of the Day
Revolution By the Book
June
19, 2007
Ralph
Nader
Hillary's Stock and Trade: the NAFTA
Two-Step
Dr.
Shepherd Bliss
Torture's Long Reach
Bill
and Kathleen Christison
Demostrating Against the Catholic Church in Santa Fe
Jeff
Leys
Swarming Congress: Building a Resistance to the 2008 Iraq War
Supplemental Funding Bill
Dave
Zirin
The Unforgiven: Barry Bonds and Jack Johnson
Chris
Floyd
Hitchens Takes a Roll in the Hay
Ben
Terrall
Iraq Union Leaders Speak Out Against the Occupation
Anthony
Papa
Veronica's Story: a Dying Wish to Governor Spitzer
VIPS
Countering Terrorism: How Not to
Do It
Linda Flores
Criminalizing the Classroom
Website
of the Day
Sign On to the Iraq Moratorium
June 18, 2007
John
Ross
The Annexation of Mexico
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Reign of the Tyrants is at Hand
Martha
Rosenberg
Let Cheney at Him: Richardson the Oryx Hunter
Norman
Solomon
War at the Remote
Don
Santina
Memo to the Queen: Bobby Sands Died for Your Sins
Isabella
Kenfield
Landless Rural Workers Confront Lula
James
Brooks
America's Guilty Silence
Eva
Liddell
Planning to Lose: Democratic Stratagems
Sam
Husseini
Clinton Health Care Scam Revisited
Akiva
Eldar
Ariel Sharon's Dream
Website
of the Day
Frank
Zappa: the Cop Interview
June 16 / 17, 2007
Alexander
Cockburn
The Psychopathology of Shrinks
John
Halle
Finkelstein and "The Progressive"
Robert
Fisk
Welcome to "Palestine"
Andy
Worthington
Return to Torture?
Uri
Avnery
The Gaza Cage
Fred
Gardner
Paris Hilton's Punishment: a False
Parable
Saul
Landau
Our Gang of Thugs: The 1970s as a
Context for Terrorist Violence
P.
Sainath
Heaven Can Wait: Creditors and the
Widows of Vidharbha
Missy
Comley Beattie
Calling Evil Its Name
Alan
Gregory
When ADM Comes to Town: Killer Tax
Breaks for Wildlife Destruction
Walter
Brasch
Bush and the Philosophy of Swiss Cheese
Website
of the Weekend
Obama Girl
June
15, 2007
Alan
Farago
View from the Construction Crane:
Sex, Taxes and Real Estate Scams in Miami
Andy
Worthington
The Ordeal of Ali al--Marri
Michael
Simmons
Terrorizing Artists in the USA
Franklin
Lamb
Blowback Across Lebanon: The Failed
Sunni Army Solution
Gary
Leupp
The Day After We Attack Iran
John
Ross
Ballot Burning Time in Ol' Mexico
Website
of the Day
The American Rationalist
June 14, 2007
Michael
Donnelly
Charred SUVs and the End of Citizen
Eco--Activism
Faisal
Kutty
Scare Canada: The No--Fly List's False
Sense of Security
Harry
Browne
Ireland's Green Party Sells Out
Charles
Jonkel
From the Arctic to Yellowstone: Bears in a World of Indifference
Steven
Higgs
Murder in a Small Town: "Gay Panic"
in Indiana?
Bruce
Dixon
Black Power Through Low Power Radio
Bruce
K. Gagnon
What Do We Do Now? A 10--Step Plan
for Antiwar Activists
Website
of the Day
Finkelgate
June 13,
2007
Glen Ford
Obama's
Siren Song
Marjorie Cohn
Repression
in Oaxaca
Bill Christison
A Grave Injustice at DePaul University
Charles Jonkel
Bears in a World of Indifference
Silvia Cattori
"I Was Not Prepared for the Horrors I Saw": an Interview
with Hedy Epstein
Richard Gott
Racism and TV in Venezuela
Firmin DeBrabander
How the Neocons Misread Machiavelli
William S. Lind
The Perfect (Sine) Wave: Bombing Railroad Stations in Iraq
Keith Rosenthal
Workers Score a Victory at Harvard
Website of the Day
GOP and Monty Python Explain: "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
June 12,
2007
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
to Sell a War
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Neocon Threat to American Freedom
P. Sainath
India's
Plutocrats and the Press
Ralph Nader
The Biggest Scam in the World
Omar Waraich
A Black Day for Pakistan's Press
Dave Lindorff
Things Your Media Momma Didn't Tell You
Harvey Wasserman
Confessions of an Anti-Nuke Jerk
Malini Johar
Schueller
It Takes a Bomb
Ramzy Baroud
War Foretold: Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire
Website of
the Day
Palestinian Chronicle Needs Our Help!
June 11,
2007
Patrick Cockburn
The
War on Journalists
Paul Craig
Roberts
Losing the Economy to Mythology
Uri Avnery
40 Bad Years: the Rot of Occupation
Norman Solomon
The Silence of the Bombs
Eva Liddell
Paris Hilton Doesn't Do Dishes: How Barbie Stood Up to Allen
Ginsberg
Rannie Amiri
Groundhog Day in Pakistan
Rachel Voss
Poetry and Politics in Nassau County
Christopher
Brauchli
A Wild West Tale, Starring Rev. Dobson and Bill O'Reilly
D. K. Wilson
Untangling Michael Vick from the Dogs
Website of
the Day
Paris, Mixed Up
|
July
11, 2007
Monitor Radio vs.
RCTV
Where's
the Outcry Over the Closure of Mexico's Populist Radio Station?
By SCOTT LIEBERTZ
Early Sunday afternoon, a giant crowd
dressed largely in yellow gathered in the largest plaza of the
capital city of a Latin American country to defend freedom of
expression and denounce the closing of a media outlet that has
operated for decades. Another opposition march in Venezuela
to protest the shut down of RCTV? No, this time the angry protestors
weren't in the heart of Caracas but in the famous Zocalo of Mexico
City. Thousands of Mexicans gathered to protest the closing
of Radio Monitor, home to the popular newscasts of Jose Gutierrez
Vivo.
But this story isn't likely
to get much traction in the mainstream US media. Unlike RCTV
in Venezuela, Radio Monitor wasn't the property of multi-millionaires
that regularly denounced a controversial anti-American president.
It was a populist voice critical of the political and professional
elite and defender of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist
who was narrowly defeated by Felipe Calderon in a presidential
election many still believe was fraudulent.
Radio Monitor, a station that
broadcast for thirty-three years and made Jose Gutierrez Vivo
a household name, stopped transmitting on June 29th. The facts
surrounding its closure are still somewhat foggy. Vivo claims
that he was forced to stop broadcasting due to an economic conspiracy
led by a collusion of former President Vicente Fox and the media
elite.[1] Part of the accusation is that its parent company,
Radio Centro has deliberately withheld over 20 million dollars
it owes the station as a way of starving it into oblivion. Vivo
believes that Fox, a friend of the Aguirre-Gomez family which
owns the company, interfered in the legal process to undermine
Radio Monitor's financial well being.[2] Current president Felipe
Calderon has also been accused of meddling, though he denies
any wrongdoing.[3]
Perhaps Radio Monitor is simply
the victim of impartial market forces, but for the supporters
gathered in the Zocalo, this was a naked act of censorship and
aggression. "Radio Monitor, No One Is Going to Silence
You!" read one banner. Another sign proclaimed, "Enough
is Enough You Spurious President! Stop Repressing the Information
Media that Actually Tells the Truth." One man addressed
the crowd by saying, "Once again our dignity is in danger.
The owners and masters of society want to return to the days
when they repressed the truth." Another man that I interviewed,
Ruben Gutierrez Gutierrez, was quite despondent. When I asked
him if there was any hope that Radio Monitor would return he
replied, "Who knows, because the people that did this have
all the power. First they stole an election and now they are
closing a radio station without reason and without warning."
Former Mexico City Mayor Obrador has also strongly criticized
the situation claiming, "This is simply an act of aggression
against freedom of expression, which they have been undermining
since the days of Foxthis is characteristic of the right, they
don't want libertythey just want discourse with one voice."[4]
Are all these people simply
overreacting because of an unwillingness to countenance one more
blow to their populist dreams? Perhaps. But the closure of
Radio Monitor still provides a good opportunity for reflection
about what we consider to be threats to freedom of expression.
If it is true that in Venezuela,
the government shut down a popular TV station simply because
it could not tolerate its harsh editorial position, then such
an act deserves all the attention and criticism it has received.
But Radio Monitor has leveled extremely similar charges and
considering that this is happening in neighboring Mexico, one
might expect it to receive at least as much attention from the
so-called defenders of freedom of expression as a TV station
in Caracas. Whatever be the virtue of RCTV's cause, it has some
undeniable advantages. It is a station that produces wildly
popular soap operas and game shows, and is owned by an ultra-rich
family with connections in the United States. Radio Monitor
was dedicated to the much less popular pursuit of providing hard
news and being a watchdog over the political and corporate elite.
In a media landscape where
two corporations Televisa and TV Azteca enjoy near
total control in Mexico, and where US media is dominated by giant
corporations and billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, who continues
to expand his holdings, we must ask ourselves what is the more
serious threat to freedom of the press. [5] Our civil liberties
are judged not by how they benefit the most powerful, but the
most vulnerable. There may be several legitimate reasons why
RCTV received so much more attention than Radio Monitor. But
one flyer being passed out at the recent march expressed a different
view:
Hugo Chavez has been criticized
for closing a TV station by not renewing its concession. But
isn't it worse to attack a media outlet that is democratic and
inclusive? Apparently Radio Monitor has to die for telling the
truth.
Scott Liebertz is a high school teacher living and
working in Venezuela.
Sources:
1. Alonso, Emilio Olivares.
"Llaman a realizar boicot contra Radio Centro"
La Jornada. 9 July 2007. p. 12
2. "Acuden
trabajadores de Radio Monitor a los Pinos." www.diariodemexico.com
3. July 2007. accessed 10
July 2007.
See also:
Vargas, Rosa Elvira and Gomez,
Carolina. "Muere
Monitor a causa de boicot desde el gobierno: Gutierrez Vivo."
www.lajornada.com.mx 30 June 2007. accessed 10 July 2007-07-10
3. "Mexican
President denies role in closure of radio show that highlighted
rival" Associated Press. www.signonsandiego.com.
30 June 2007. accessed 10
July 2007.
4. Cardenas, Javier Valdez.
"El
cierre de Radio Monitor, golpe a la libertad de expresión:
Lopez Obrador." www.lajornada.com.mx 30 June 2007 accessed
10 July 2007
5. "Mexico
TV Reform signed into law" BBC News. 11 April
2006. accessed 10 July 2007
Note: All translations are
the author's.
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