[NYTr] The Magic Realism of Venezuelan Television
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The Guardian - December 2, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1962163,00.html
The magic realism of Venezuelan television
by Rory Carroll
The camera panned across an ocean of faces and banners, a political rally of
noise, colour and passion cascading into Caracas. Venezuela's privately run
24-hour news network, Globovision, carried continuous live coverage of what
it called a historic mobilisation of those determined to oust President
Chavez in Sunday's election.
The camera zoomed in on a woman draped in the national flag. "This
government is corrupt, they're robbing our money. We need to reclaim our
democracy and our freedom," she shouted, and people around her cheered.
Back to the studio for an interview with a political scientist who said this
display of people power, combined with opinion poll trends, spelled
electoral doom for Mr Chavez.
Or perhaps not. Hop to channel 8, the state-run Venezolana de Television,
and an aerial view of the rear of the rally showed pockets of marchers on a
mostly empty avenue.
Hardly dramatic, so the channel cut to a live feed from western Venezuela
where Mr Chavez was inaugurating a new metro station and listing government
achievements. "Energy, water, gas, satellite technology, education, it's all
part of a grand strategy." Back in the studio and analysts agreed that
opinion polls guaranteed the president a landslide.
Welcome to Venezuelan magic realism, a journalistic genre which jumbles fact
and fantasy and turns news into folklore. With camera angles manipulating
crowd sizes and pundits massaging statistics television channels are portals
to two different worlds. One depicts the president as a communist demagogue
who steals elections, terrorises the country and will receive an overdue
comeuppance on Sunday. The other casts him as a democratic saviour of the
poor who will overcome lackeys of US imperialism to win a third term.
Some newspapers have softened criticism of Mr Chavez, allegedly because
government advertising swamps their pages. Eleazar Rangel, the director of
Ultimas Noticias, a relatively neutral daily, denied that. "We do not
self-censor ourselves."
But although the campaign has been peaceful so far, the airwaves have set
the stage for a bitter aftermath to Sunday's poll, with the losing side
almost certain to cry foul and reject the winner as a vote-rigging usurper.
*
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