Chavez the Censor

Socialism doesn't work and combined with Fascist behavior you end up with nightmare states:

(TNR)

Reporters Without Borders issued a tough communiqué “vigorously condemning the massive closure,” while the Committee to Protect Journalists called the government’s official justification for the move a “pretext to silence independent and critical voices.” And Amnesty International pronounced itself “extremely concerned at the deterioration in freedom of expression in Venezuela.” Similar shutdowns in past years badly damaged Chávez’s democratic credentials abroad, undermining his claim to be a brave reforming force within Latin America. So, the question is: Why does Chávez continue to tarnish his international reputation by forcibly silencing his critics?

The reason, quite simply, is that shutdowns work. They have forced Venezuela’s independent broadcast media into a defensive crouch, making their self-preservation contingent on their self-censorship.

Take the recent food crisis. Shortages of basic foodstuffs have been mounting in Venezuela over the last three years, with specific products disappearing from store shelves in succession. At times, chicken is impossible to find; weeks later, it may be milk that’s hard to get.

Against this backdrop, in late May, El Nacional, a Caracas daily, began investigating the discovery of food containers rotting away at Puerto Cabello,the nation’s main port. In all, some 75,000 tons of food are alleged to have gone to waste—food paid for with public money and delivered to government-run ports for distribution in government-run grocery outlets.

Clearly, Producción y Distribución Venezolana de Alimentos (PDVAL), the new state-owned food-importing conglomerate that Chávez had touted as an antidote to the iniquities of capitalist grocery shopping, is catastrophically mismanaging distribution. Cobbled together from the remnants of recently nationalized food companies, PDVAL’s government-appointed managers have neither the experience nor the training to keep 28 million people supplied with food. The results have been devastating: rising food prices, deepening shortages of key staples, and rows-upon-rows of rotting food containers sitting untouched as people find it increasingly hard to complete their weekly shopping.

On TV, the image of these containers would have been politically explosive. The story may even have had some traction on the radio. But the scandal is getting very little coverage through these popular outlets, and there’s been no public outcry to speak of.

Basically Chavez allows the electronic media nominal freedom with the understanding that they will be destroyed if they push stories harmful to him, in turn this leads to mass self-censorship.

This will end badly.