reclaim.....the.....tv

Wednesday March 26, 2003 22:40

by Al

some words from the NarcoNews journalist Al Giordano that could inspire us today to reclaim the Media and specially the TVs:

“The Commercial Media still talks about the so-called "Fall of the Berlin Wall." But the Fall of the Wall was an aftershock to the earthquake that had already happened. What happened to make the Soviet fall? The people in the Soviet Bloc countries took back the TV stations first. That - and not the halls of government - was the seat of Power.

There were amazing scenes from those days in which masses of people invaded the TV stations and began to stand in front of the camera as working people, students, housewives, poor people, people who never went to college and who had never been inside a TV station. And they began to tell their stories of life under those regimes on camera, live, on the air, to their nations.

That moment - when the State TV stations fell to the masses - was the moment when the Soviet Bloc fell. Only later was the Berlin Wall destroyed.”

(…)

“When the coup happened in Venezuela last year, the soldiers of the coup d'etat ransacked Catia TV and many other Community Radio and TV stations throughout Venezuela. Blanca and her colleagues had to hide the transmitter. Their elected president, Chávez, was being held prisoner.

But the masses in Venezuela already knew where the seat of power was located: They took back the national TV station and they surrounded the Commercial TV stations and corrupt daily newspaper offices. On that day, April 13, 2002, the Commercial TV stations stopped broadcasting news. The Commercial newspapers shut down, they did not publish. Of course, they have never reported authentic news or journalism, for them the job has always been one of simulated journalism at the service of the wealthy and not authentic journalism at the service of the majority. But on April 13, after Blanca and many others had taken back the State TV station and used smaller weapons like Community TV and Radio stations, like cell phones, like the Internet, to correct the lie - that "Chávez resigned" - with the truth - that a coup d'etat had stolen their democracy - the Commercial TV stations were reduced to non-stop broadcasting of cartoons and soap operas, with no news at all.

And no news was good news. The masses already knew the news, because the masses made the news, and made history on that day. Later, the corrupt owners of the Commercial TV stations in Venezuela claimed that they had to go dark on their news coverage because their so-called "journalists" - a word that, in the commercial press, means "professional liars" - were afraid for their lives! Were they? Really? I am an Authentic Journalist and if it is true that the false journalists feared for their lives I say to them and to you: "well, good!" War criminals should fear for their lives! The mercenaries who have helped the owning class to steal the public airwaves and put them to the service of a wealthy minority against the poor and working majority are war criminals.”

(…)

...read the complete article at:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue29/article710.html

...and please help with suggestions --- how can we use these ideas today?