Radio Free Venezuela
Fred Thompson asks why the American government has not been trying to spread freedom in the same way we did during the Cold War: by broadcasting the truth.
Well, he's done it. Hugo Chavez was already systematically silencing criticism of his autocratic rule through threats and intimidation. Journalists have been threatened, beaten and even killed. Now he's shut down the last opposition television networks in Venezuela and arrested nearly 200 protesters – mostly students. It’s a monumental tragedy and the Venezuelan people will pay the price for decades to come. Americans are also at risk as he funds anti-American candidates and radicals all over Latin America.
It’s equally tragic that the U.S. is in no position to provide the victims of this emerging dictator with the truth. There was a time, though, when Americans were on the front lines of pro-freedom movements all over the world. I'm talking about the “surrogate” broadcast network that included Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, often called "the Radios."
When Ronald Reagan was elected, he greatly empowered the private, congressionally funded effort and handpicked the Radios’ top staff to bring freedom to the Soviet Union. Steve Forbes led the group.
Cynics still say that the USSR fell of its own weight, and that President Reagan’s efforts to bring it down were irrelevant, but Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev say differently. Both have said that, without the Radios, the USSR wouldn't have fallen. The Radios were not some bland public relations effort, attracting audiences only with American pop music. They engaged the intellectual and influential populations behind the Iron Curtain with accurate news and smart programming about freedom and democracy. They had sources and networks within those countries that sometimes outperformed the CIA. When Soviet hardliners and reformers were facing off, and crowds and tanks were on the streets of Moscow and Bucharest, the radios were sending real-time information to the people, including the military, and reminding them of what was at stake.
He says we have missed a great opportunity to engage people in Latin America and in the Middle East. I don't disagree that this is something we should be doing. Counteracting the information offensive the al Qaeda and their fellow travelers are engaged in is, in and of itself, a good idea. Thompson does not mention Radio Marti, however. That operation, launched in 1985, has continuously attempted to send the truth into Cuba ever since. It has not had a noticeable impact on Cuba, unfortunately. (On the other hand, they have wasted a lot of money trying to jam those signals.) So it doesn't always work. But planting the seeds of freedom is a good thing. I rather like his closing lines:
I do know, though, that it's time for a new generation of Americans to stand up for freedom — like others before us. And this time, we’ll have a whole new set of media technologies.
Thompson has an enormous amount of media savvy. It will be interesting to see what detailed proposals he comes out with. (Incidentally, the television network Chavez silenced, RCTV, is not taking it quietly. They have jumped onto YouTube and a Colombian station is broadcasting RCTV programming into Chavez's benighted proto-police state.)
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Blue Crab Boulevard » One Of The More Annoying Habits — Sunday, 3 June , 2007 @ 6:36 pm
By Purple Avenger, Saturday, 2 June , 2007 @ 7:01 am
When Chavez realizes these alternate avenues exist will promptly begin shutting them down too. VE’s edge routers will be reprogrammed to exclude things like YouTube, Google, etc just as the PRC has done.
Owning a general purpose radio or TV will become illegal and only those with preselected stations will be permitted.