Telesur: Chavez vs. Local Media

Last Saturday the oldest synagogue in Venezuela was vandalized and spray-painted with anti-Semitic slurs. Telesur’s coverage of the story highlighted the government’s criticism of the major Venezuelan newspapers and media outlets for their reporting about the incident. Chavez condemned allegations in the local coverage that supporters of the government could have either provoked or in some way supported the attack.

The vandalism came after weeks of tensions between Venezuela and Israel over the Gaza conflict, and the expulsion of the Venezuelan and Israeli ambassadors respectively, from each country. Chavez’ criticism of the local media and the “oligarchy” which controls it has been an ongoing theme. The first 2 paragraphs from a Telesur story about the incident is below (translated)--

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, roundly condemned the attack on a synagogue in the capital, carried out during the early hours of Saturday morning, while blaming radical members of his political opposition with ‘links to the nation’s oligarchy’.

The president complained that the incident was reported on the front pages of the countries’ private media (newspapers) with unsubstantiated allegations that supporters of the national government were in some way behind the attack.