VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: Striking an editorial balance is not an easy task! Shall one be a sterile, un-personalized transmitter of what are, from time to time, perceived to be FACTS ... or should one empathize with the readership and its desire to be informed. Once-upon-a-time, as a cub reporter on my first mission abroad, I was told the "Aunt Agatha" theory which, I will admit, has been a leading light throughout the last 45+ years I've been in "the business." Namely, that what the reader wants is to know the culture, the feeling behind the otherwise sterile functionality of listing daily events ... usually boring politics where the one side or the other seeks to score brownie-points off the other, often with total disregard for THE TRUTH.
Then again .. what is THE TRUTH? Today's truth quite often turns out to be tomorrow's un-truth, especially in the hands of wayward politicos and the criminal fraternity ... how many times have we heard the TV crook tell the cops, "it wasn't me! Honest!"
Covering the scenario that is, was and always has been Venezuela, it is a difficult job to plow an even furrow. Reactionary forces to the right and left are so enmeshed in their own subjective truths that objective truth is a fallacy in itself, an oxymoron if you will!
Who then is, and rightly should be, the final arbiter of his or her own TRUTH!
That is where my experience has shown that there are as many truths as there are readers, television viewers and radio listeners ... and a few more besides. Which is why the Venezuelan scenario is no different from anywhere else. And it is why one of our most sincere colleagues has decided that he no longer wishes to be part of the VHeadline Venezuelan project, for a number of reasons but mainly focused on, as he says, "the straw that broke the camel's back!" ... VHeadline's supposed support given to Miguel Salazar's weekly political magazine "Las Verdades de Miguel" (Miguel's Truths)! 
That is my esteemed (now former) colleague Franco Munini's honest opinion and I give him credit for it, although I will dispute the veracity of his claim since VHeadline's only connection with Miguel Salazar is equally collegiate and basically applaudative of VHeadline news editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue's weekly "Las Verdades de Trafalgar Square" column in Salazar's publication.
Yes! We know that "Las Verdades" gets up the nose of the Venezuelan "establishment" ... particularly the neo-bourgeoise establishment that has grown out of President Hugo Chavez' Bolivarian Revolution and typified by expensively suited, 4x4-driving, Blackberry-wielding former coffee boys and girls that inhabit the higher, middle and lower echelons of the current governmental administration.
Franco emphasizes the need to internationalize the Venezuelan reality and the various facets of the Bolivarian revolutionary process. Indeed! The question is whether we at VHeadline should be lackeys ourselves to a system that visibly is in serious need of application of the President's much-publicized "3xRs" (Rectification, Revision and Reform) which very visibly has failed to get even half way down the runway, never mind take wings in flight! Sadly, that is the TRUTH, subjective or otherwise!
In his departing letter, sent for publication on the pro-Chavez Venezuelan website APORREA, Franco very kindly relates the travails of recent years during which I have attempted, despite ill-health and lack of funding, have tried to keep the original ethos of VHeadline alive in the jungles of tit-for-tat violence and rhetoric between opposing sides in Venezuela's domestic-political debate. It has NOT been an easy task and were it not for my intense love for Venezuela and the Venezuelan people, it would probably have been strangled already.
Speaking essentially for the English edition, the readership figures show that very few Spanish-speaking Venezuelans read the English version of VHeadline and equally so, I can judge that very few among our many thousands of our English edition readers around the world will bother to click-over to the Spanish-language site. VHeadline Venezuela News (in English), however, seeks to view Venezuela from a foreigner's perspective while maintaining a core respect for Venezuela's democracy, constitutionality and the rule of law ... these are essential elements to the whole.
Very widely, and mostly through its own fault, Venezuela is perceived from abroad to be a Banana Republic with an evil Dictator, plotting every imaginable sin (and then a few more) against the United States.
Uninformed masses around the world are NOT given very much opprotunity to know that the Venezuelan people are an exceedingly warm and hospitable nation and that the country itself is one of the most beautiful and varied paradises on the face of this earth. Yet even paradise has its dark side...
Venezuela is NO different in this respect and it is therefore with a greater feeling of deception that I have personally witnessed the degradation of President Hugo Chavez Frias original thesis for Venezuela's salvation be so utterly bastardized by a bunch of crooks in the administration whose fealty to their land of birth can only be measured in negative figures in the absence of any patriotism other than a false display brought out for ceremonial occasions to ensure that they continue to be blessed by the bounty that has been appropriated by their pseudo-revolutionary zeal!
This is NOT to say that ALL Venezuelan government officials are corrupt and destined to incineration in some fiery hell. NO! But if one takes the analogy of a rotten apple ... while the rot can be cut from a partially rotten fruit and usually eaten without risk to one's health and well-being, it is in the initial stages of putrefaction that can lose the harvest unless the rotten apples are removed forthwith and the rest of the orchard checked.
This is what is lacking in Venezuela at this time -- checks and balances!
Is it all President Chavez' fault? Scarcely, since although he is the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, he is but a mere human being and already admitted at the beginning of his presidency that he was not 'Mandrake the Magician.'
The magic of Venezuela must therefore be itself, its own willingness to put on the magic show and to show the world that Venezuela is no longer the "Best Kept Secret of the Caribbean," but rather a society that has been enfranchised to be governed from the grassroots up through a stifling hierarchy with every possibility to achieve its great potential and show it proudly to the world. The potential is there, the grassroots are there ... the problem is the corrupt manipulators in politics and power who cut the legs off each and every initiative to realize Venezuela's full potential, and they do it to sequester financial benefit and status for themselves ... sadly!
Unfortunately, my dear friend Franco has fallen into a trap of his own making by getting tremendously upset over (at least) three recent articles I penned. The first was an editorial comment on an article published in El Nacional by Michael Rowan -- a constantly vehement critic of President Chavez!
- Was it editorially justified? Was it THE TRUTH? Who knows? It is up to the individual reader to decide his or her own truth!
The second was a skit on Communications & Information (MinCI) Minister Andres Izarra's latest folly! Was it a folly? Franco appears to believe that a reference to "Las Verdades de Miguel" makes the editorial an UNTRUTH! But is it? It is an editorial observation -- one among many -- that is just another of many interpretations of how things are most visibly going wrong with the current administration.
The big question -- danger, danger -- is whether or not the Venezuelan government should be the sole arbiter of what is or is not THE TRUTH! Certainly what I have dubbed "Las Verdades de Andres (Izarra)" has shown itself to be yet another exclusion of all and any essential democratic critique of the Venezuelan government. In other words, super-sensitivity among officials who themselves SHOULD be super-sensitive to the valid criticism levelled against them is somewhere in NO-NO land, buried under a rock somewhere while the ostrich buries its head in the sand.
The third transgression according to Franco Munini is an editorial on the continuing saga of the Las Cristinas goldfield and the complete lack of clarity from CVG president and MIBAM Minister Rodolfo Sanz. The circumstances speak for themselves and, judging by the number of obnoxious emails I received each day fileld with diatribes of abject hatred of Venezuela and the bureaucratic impasse and stone wall of silence from responsible(?) ministries, my comments were on the mild side.
That is why it was so utterly refreshing for me to put in a call to Venezuela's Ambassador to France, Jesus Arnoldo Perez, yesterday and to hear him say what he said to the comfort of many who have invested their faith and $ millions to help Venezuela's gold mining industry kick-start into the 21st Century.
Ambassador Perez' portfolio to Paris has obviously taught him how to get on professionally with media that is not routinely servile. In Venezuela, politically independent media are otherwise excluded, blatantly ignored!
Gratifyingly, Franco says he respects my fundamental right to speak as I wish and admits that "we are in an era of the rising freedoms of expression." Gratifyingly, also Franco adds that his support for the Bolivarian government does NOT prevent him from being critical of its mistakes, or what he consider to be its mistakes ... "perhaps criticism is the best way to help the government and the process of change ... but when I criticize, I do it with MY name clearly visible (we do too, Franco!), and always accompany the criticism with proposals and suggestions."
Yes, indeed! And that is where Franco, as a Venezuelan citizen, has the absolute right!
It is he and millions of other Venezuelans who must come with proposals and suggestions to change what has obviously gone wrong. It is NOT for foreigners like myself, although with an intrinsic love and fealty to Venezuela that belies my Irish citizenship, to come with proposals and suggestions ... that is the sovereign right and duty of grassroots Venezuelans themselves to shape Venezuela's political and economic destiny!
Franco says he's in the trenches doing his bit to internationalize Venezuela's image ... the village that never had a voice ... he says he is still "fighting for when the democratization of communications becomes a reality, so that the peoples of the world interact with no more middlemen who rely on translators" and he says he is honored to be one of them!
All praise and honor to Franco Munini for his stance! Bravo! Venezuela needs more men like Franco Munini who are willing to stand their ground and assert the true voice of democracy. But, Franco ... just a word to the wise ... it is up to each individual what he or she wishes to hold true, what he or she wants to see and recognize as the truth.
You (like me) recognize failings in those whose task it should be to formally facilitate the dissemination of Venezuela's reality, and you also encourage those who do not hesitate to warn of the risk posed by the bureaucratization of that work.
In this we are in total agreement! And as it should be, we have a variety of aspirations and opinions with regards to the outcome of Sunday's local and regional elections ... but in the final analysis, it doesn't matter a jot or tittle what you or I may think today...
The FINAL decision is in the hands of grassroots Venezuelans when they go to the ballot boxes this Sunday ... and may God go with them!
Roy S. Carson
vheadline@gmail.com
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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.
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Thanks for publishing this, Roy. I should have translated my article about parting ways in english, so it would be part of this same thread. The spanish original is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://vheadlinevenezuelaenespanol.blogspot.com/2008/11/franco-munini-la-gota-que-derrama-el.html
This is not a conflict between me and Roy: we share the same feelings about overzealous bureaucrat assholes who feel that their position, however low in the hierarchy, forbids them to call things with the proper name. We understand how servile some guys become when appointed to any position of intermediate power. We understand how deep in the collective mind is the perception that comes from past administrations about defending their jobs by defending their bosses.
My argument about disliking the defense of a slug like Miguel Salazar (my own perception, by the way) is based on the fact that "fatso" is pissed at Vanessa Davies' refusal to place ads on his rag: I don't want VHeadline to be seen as another beggar screaming at the guys who don't slip a dime or two into his hand.
Additionally, I don't share the diffuse, nameless accusations of corruption: there are many honest guys working in the public administration who don't deserve those accusations.
It should be noted that, indirectly, I've helped "Las verdades de Miguel" by correcting Pat's column (Las verdades desde Trafalgar Square) a few times-for free, as usual.
I might or might not share Roy's opinions about some things, but I'd fight with all my energies to make sure he can spread them. This is a compromise with freedom of speech and with the inmense efforts that Roy has made and makes every day to inform people around the world.
I've helped in the struggle to get funds for VHeadline, and came forward with proposals to make it bigger, as it seemed to me that it was the appropiate platform for a multilingual project. Proofs of this are available with a google search of my name, besides countless meetings with people at MINCI and other government branchs, radio interviews, etc.
And this is the point: the multilingual project HAS to succeed... but people with the possibility of helping in this are getting upset at Roy's rants, and they associate me with him, regardless of the fact that Roy's opinions are HIS, and he makes sure to let that be understood, and MY opinions are MINE, as I underline and underwrite them.
So I won't allow that boiling Irish blood of Roy to get in the way of my project. As long as we have flocks of "sifrinos perfumados" and "revolucionarios quincena o muerte" comfortably numbing themselves in the public administration, I'll have to fight my way with my friends in the alternative media and from the left-left of the popular movements... which will become the REAL opposition, the one that wants and demands true, deeper changes, not a return to the past.
This said, it comes clear that by doing this I open an additional front, one that has a very specific goal and is not tarnished by suspicions of, say, trying to lobby for mining companies, or funding foreign journalism, or supporting obliquely the "escuálido's" opposition.
Regards,
Franco Munini.
Thank you Franco for your clarifications. Just a thought, though, and that is that by your own admission you have collaborate more with Las Verdades de Miguel than I have ever done... You see: PERCEPTIONS! You admit that you have ib occasion directly assisted Patrick correct the Spanish in his Las Verdades pieces. That's great! No problem! You were faciliting communication even if you did not necessarily agree with it! That's my core belief too! Just look at the headlines today and you will see an article by the Reverend Obed Viscaina who you can scarcely accuse of being an evangelist for Manuel Rosales although he lives, works and has his being in Maracaibo. We have also published (in English and in Spanish) lengthy philosophical articles by Dr. Franz J.T. Lee a political sciences professor at the University of Los Andes who has alo been turot to personages in the government like Francisco Arias Cardenas -- Chavez' military colleague in the February 1992 coup d'etat against Carlos Andres Perez. NO PROBLEM! It is for the readers to read, enjoy or not-enjoy as the case may be, but anyway to set them thinking about what Venezuela is all about. I fear the problem is that some hot-heads skim-read articles and fasten their attention on just a few key words that excite their confused reactions and they do NOt give themselves the time or the opportunity to think about it. I certainly share your enthusiasm and drive for multi-platform multi-lingual communication with the "outside" world -- you know this from our various discussions over the last couple of years. To this end, however, I believe that you should at least try to adopt a more conciliatory discourse. Like there are obviously some excellent people in the administration who, in their own separate ways are doing what they can to avert the disaster that is impending upon the Revolution, there are indeed some excellent people on what is very very loosely and conveniently described as the "escualidos" side (usually, and very unfortunately, a very mis-used catchword for anyone and everyone who has something to say in even minimal agreement with what's happening with the Revolution. These people, mostly younger generation who have little or no experience of the corruption and the abuses of the pre-Chavez era will ultimately form the NEW Venezuela and it is these who should be encouraged to form alliances rather than divisions so that they can work together for Venezuela's future. It is NOT a matter of supporting wither Chavez of the Opposition -- it is about supporting VENEZUELA and VENEZUELANS to achieve a very much better future for themselves now and in future generations.
ReplyDeleteYes, my rants -- like yours also Franco, and those of others who are so much infatuated with an intense love for Venezuela -- are OPINIONS right or wrong. It is not for me to ssay that I am right and you are wrong. It is for all of us to freely express our opinions and to let the readers decide for themselves. The readers are intelligence thinking beings who you should credit with the capability of discernment. If they are NOT capable of discernment then we will all fail in our mission whether what we write is in English, Spanish, French, German or Swahili! It is communication that matters most and the individual's liverty to decide on issues for him or herself based on what they from time to time have learned, studied or otherwise have had communicated to them.
I guess then that we are in general agreement and I continue to support all and any effort you make to achieve those noble goals!
Saludos also to Marielena! PEACE!
Roy S. Carson
vheadline@gmail.com