Winter Patriot Community Blog

Thanks for the videos, NJT. If this kind of exercise was part of our school programs, we wouldn't have to worry too much about people losing their critical thinking. The "documentary on the documentary" is particularly interesting, but it loses most of its firepower if you watch it after you've seen the first one. I would advise watching it first for this exercise to be most revealing.

At times Channel 8 (back when it was fully operated by private interests) seems a bit too drastic in its bias to be believable, and way too open about its political backers (the part when the coup instigators thank the channel for making the overthrow possible is downright eerie - try picturing Dick Cheney thanking Fox News for making the Iraq war a reality!). I guess that's the major difference between here and there - here the media is airtight: a self-serving system that never questions or explains itself in public, let alone changes hands.

As a whole, the role of the media (and Channel 8 in particular) in this crisis was particularly important. Had it not be taken over again by the Chavez government, the outcome might have been different or bloodier.