You’re right. I have been terribly negligent in my blogging duties. If you could provide me with the link that demonstrates a clear financial relationship between RTV and the CIA, I’d love to see it. Because, I mean, if you didn’t have such a link in your possession, that would be a little like calling the kettle black, n’est-ce pas?

Or, I guess you could always cheap out and say something like “the proof that this is a conspiracy is that there is no evidence”. JFK theorists have been pushing that for years.

And more to the point: it doesn’t matter who funds the station. So long as they’re not breaking any laws (those concommittant with the freedom of expression and the press, anyway), shutting them down (and this is the point I made in my post) just justifies critics who call Chavez undemocratic. If the station were CIA funded, I suspect this is exactly the kind of thing they were after. Shutting down a media outlet can only hurt Chavez’s popularity.

I’m confused: are you advocating that Fox news be closed down for being the mouthpiece of crazy right-wingers? While its pedigree as a font of lunatic right babble is unquestioned, I think the constitutionality of such an act would be highly suspect.

I think my basic problem with your point, Peter, is that I don’t really trust the government to decide which media I should consume. The problem with the left/right media bias hystericists is that the assume people are stupid. I’m not stupid, Peter, and I doubt you are. So can’t we make up our own minds when we’re getting fed a line of bull from bad media? And can’t the people of Venezuela do the same?