Crickets... (updated)
It’s been a good six hours now since the Colombian government levelled at Venezuela some of the most serious accusations one government can level at another and, from the Venezuelan state media…crickets. VTV is still leading with some non-story about Election observers they don’t like. AVN leads with an upbeat piece on the nationalized Banco de Venezuela.
And the massive international crisis brewing right on the border? Bien gracias…
You know, it would be considerably less irritating taking lectures on journalistic ethics from these guys if the state media didn’t go all deer-in-the-headlights on us whenever a big story breaks that makes them uncomfortable.
Think about it: this is now third on the BBC News website, but a Venezuelan who gets his information only from official media (i.e., somebody working in Fuerte Tiuna) just wouldn’t have heard about it!
I’m not asking them for wall-to-wall coverage, but, you know, para cubrir las apariencias. I mean, just this morning one high profile chavista was arguing that failing to pay attention to the thin, thin gruel the government’s served up on Chávez Abarca amounts to "complicity with terrorism"!
It’s easy to picture the sheer terror holding sway over the VTV newsroom right about now as editors mull the risks of touching this story with a 10 foot pole before Fat-Man-in-Palace hands down the official line.
Not that it’s particularly hard to imagine what the reaction will be, when it comes. Which makes it all the more remarkable that the chavista propaganda machine won’t even acknowledge that anything noteworthy at all happened in Bogotá today until they have a green light from upstairs. Lovely.
Oh and this video, BTW, is totally wild:
Update: The government responds by saying it. Is. So. Offended.
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