Chavez-TV Goes On Line -

Can petro-dollars and lunacy make for good TV?


Venezuelan Supremo, Hugo Chavez, and Hollywood useful idiot, Danny Glover seem to think so.

AP and the B.B.C. both have stories.

The Colonel has come up with yet another grandiose scheme to project his visions of the Bolivarian Revolution to the rest of Latin America, this time by starting a brand new Television Station, Telesur. Flush with oil money, he no doubt sees the expense as a gift for the education of the whole Continent, as he himself modestly describes as '"part of an awakening of our peoples."

In his bold attempt" to counter cultural imperialism" as he put, he also enlisted the governments of Cuba, Uruguay, and Argentina, - who don't appear to be in a position to pick up the hefty tab of a brand new international T.V. network. No doubt, the Argentinians and Uruguayans are happy about reducing unemployment among their Broadcast sector, and Fidel - well - how can he be unhappy with a (free) new outlet for his marathonic rants?

And Fidel will not only be getting major primetime exposure for his rants all over Latin America, but his own people will also get an addition to Cuba's meager TV offerings, and one whose content he will not have to worry about. As the stations first president - who also happens to be the Venezuelan Information Minister, Andres Izarra - said "[i]ts an initiative against imperialism" - which pretty much means the 'giant to the north', in the words of actor, station board member, and just plain idiot, Danny Glover.

Meanwhile, as the B.B.C. points out, the first broadcast had controversy extending beyond Gringo-landia.

The channel's first news programme began with a critical report on the
failures of the mission in Haiti led by Brazil, followed by another on the
plight of refugees in Colombia - a sign that it is not only in Washington that
Telesur may be ready to ruffle feathers.

This should be interesting.


Meanwhile, the domain name Telesur.com is actually for sale by its previous owners who are looking at minimum offers $100,000.00. It would be great fun to track and see if Chavez' flunkies try to buy it.