Hugo Chavez has carried out a multi-pronged attack on the liberties of the Venezuelan people ever since he became “president.” This attack includes (but is not limited to) the nationalization of large swaths of the economy, confiscation of private property, price controls, currency controls and various other restrictions on trade, socialist indoctrination in schools, a court packing scheme, and a relentless effort to silence any and all opposition.
Earlier this year, the Venezuelan government revoked the licenses of 34 broadcasters that had been critical of the Chavez administration. Another 240 radio stations and 45 television channels are also on thin ice with the Venezuelan government for alleged violations of the Telecommunications Law, and could well be next on Chavez’s hit list. The suppression of opposition voices in Venezuela has been so blatant that even the United Nations, an organization which never met a dictator it didn’t like, felt obliged to express some misgivings.
“I am deeply concerned over the reduction in the number of outlets through which citizens can exercise their right to receive information from diverse sources,” said UNESCO’s Director-General Koichiro Matsuura. “The people of Venezuela have the right to benefit from a diversity of perspectives in reports and analyses of events that concern them.”
President Chavez remained unfazed by the obscure UN bureaucrat’s blistering remarks, however, and the Venezuelan government’s long-standing policy of media intimidation continues apace. In fact, it now seems to be taking on a new dimension. Whereas in the past Chavez limited his abuse of power to those media outlets that dared criticize government policies, his administration is now threatening to impose fines on television stations simply for broadcasting shows that certain government officials just don’t like.
What kind of program could be so offensive, so subversive, so bourgeois and counter-revolutionary that it could call down the wrath of the Venezuelan high command? Family Guy. That’s right – Family Guy. Evidently the zany antics and shenanigans of Peter Griffin and his family are so antithetical to Chavez’s “21st Century Socialism” that they must be expunged from the airwaves of Caracas. According to the Associated Press, Venezuelan Justice Minister (insert your own joke here) Tareck El Aissami was outraged by a recent episode in which the show’s characters started a campaign to legalize marijuana, and he has indicated that any stations that continue to air the offensive (to him, at least) program will be fined.
I understand that pointing out the loss of liberty in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez is a lot like pointing out that the sun rose in the east this morning, but some stories are just too good to pass up. As the AP article mentions, one of the proposed changes to the Telecommunications Law is a requirement that all stations carry Chavez’s speeches. To that end, kicking Family Guy off the air may just be a necessary first step to free up the additional time slots el Presidente needs. Given how much Hugo Chavez enjoys hearing himself talk, the requirement to carry all of his speeches could easily fill up the entire day’s programming. Soon television in Caracas will be like radio in North Korea – all dictators, all the time.
I used to watch Family Guy quite a bit, but I stopped because it seemed to take them forever to get any new episodes on the air. But the fact that the Venezuelan dictatorship hates the show may just be reason enough for me to start watching it again.
