[mcmama]

I'll give you a topic, discuss:
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/sto...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Is this totalitarian censorship, or not?

[jadis]

Yes- it is completely censorship. The station presented an opinion that differed from that of the major political party in power and was thus shutdown.

But here's the thing- the same thing happens in the US, but in my opinion it's even more dangerous because it's all done behind closed doors. There are really no critical networks (other than perhaps PBS) on American television. Even CNN, whom many believe present a more "unbiased" view presents a pro-government/pro-US spin...it's very rare that anything is presented critically. Many of my American friends rely on the BBC and a few independent news sources for their information.

So- I guess my opinion would be that yes, what is occuring in Venezuela is blatant censorship......but the same thing occurs in North America, only it's not as blatant.

[twinzplus3]

Chavez is not known for his. . .um. . .niceness. He's like the tyrant that never was. But he's better than guerillas. Also Latin America has a long history of censorship of all of its media outlets. So yes, censorship but it's nothing new. . .it's been this way for hundreds of years.

As far as the U.S. goes I only half agree with you Jadis. I think news is very, very biased and definitely has the pro-U.S. spin (often). I generally think though that it's not censorship in the same form but rather money is the real issue.

[mcmama]

Our news is limited to a very narrow scope of interest. PBS will give you the BBC point of view as well. If you have some capability with spanish, you can get decent global coverage from univision and telemundo.

But I think here in North America, we have variety - the major networks, CNN, the NBC cable networks, FOX. I have several friends who have been featured in local news coverage of different events, and one of the frustrations is that with television, there is a lot of editing. One lady who is spokeswoman for a group I'm involved with tries to get every important word out in the first two sentences. My son was at a college that was "hidden camera'd" for fire code violations. While there were indeed violations, much of what was shown was staged, with the help of a disgruntled employee who was on the way out.

But at least we have alternatives. In a country as rich as Venezuela, there is no reason why they could not add one more channel to the lineup, instead of shutting down the dissenters.

[twinzplus3]

Well, that's because Chavez is somewhat of a tyrannical dictator. But I think things have improved and so they tolerate him. Plus, censorhips is part of their culture.

[tanyamclane]

jadis took the words right out of my mouth. It's entirely censorship. God forbid we let people make educated decisions after seeing both sides of an issue.