Caracas Chronicles

A few weeks ago, filmmaker Oliver Stone embarked on a publicity tour for his bro-mantic, critically-panned documentary on Hugo Chavez. 

Among the many myths that he spread, there was this little exchange from his interview with Larry King:

"KING: — He (Chávez) s dismissed as a dictator. How do you see him? (Note: good question Mr. King – you should have followed up with "what do you think of George W. Bush?")

 

STONE: Oh, I don’t see him as a dictator. He’s been elected three times as president. He’s having another election coming up in September. It’s going to be monitored again by international groups. 15 times he’s been elected. …

 

KING: He comes down tough on free media, though. You wouldn’t call this an absolute democracy, would you?

 

STONE: Every democracy is relative, but on the other hand any dictator would not tolerate the degree of opposition in the media. It’s very vocal. It’s like Fox News on steroids down there. You have no idea what it’s like. I mean, they insult Chávez every day, the newspaper headlines, plus the TV stations. Except when you call for the overthrow of the government and that’s when he got upset. And in our country we wouldn’t allow that. We wouldn’t allow that –"

So, in honor of Mr. Stone and the rest of the gauche internationale menteurs that climaxes every time Chávez opens his pie-hole and lionizes him as a demi-god of democracy, we’ve decided to start a new section in Caracas Chronicles to track all the abuses committed by the government in this election cycle.

We’re naming it the Oliver Stone Watch.

Case in point: yesterday. Hugo Chávez forced all TV and radio stations in the country to carry a 2 hour, 40 minute speech he gave.

The topic? The strategy for the upcoming election.

The venue? A government-owned hotel, where a meeting of PSUV operatives was taking place, presumably free of charge.

The message? Blast the opposition at every turn, and command all chavista governors to work exclusively on delivering a victory next September.

Meanwhile, the opposition struggles to get their message on TV. According to the CNE, the opposition is allowed … 3 minutes per day on TV, and 4 minutes on the radio.

Pretty balanced, don’t you think?