It is a mistake for the US to try to overthrow the democratic government in Venezuela.

This. Especially the conservative types who value their market "values" over democracy.

Basically the Venezuelan elite along with their conservative allies in the US has despaired of winning democratically as the majority is becoming more entrenched against them. They had hoped to defeat the Bolivarians when Chavez died. After their narrow defeat in the presidential election and then later their crushing defeat in the legislative elections in December they are trying again to make the country ungovernable hoping that this turns more folks against Maduro. It might work or it might make the government begin to actually become an undemocratic dictatorship as they have falsely alleged over and over.

 

One of the false ideas about Venezuela is that the media is so dominated by the state and that the reason why the Bolivarians win the majority of the votes in elections.

Fact:The international media are fond to talk about Chávez and Maduro’s crackdown on the Venezuelan media and their censorship of the public debate, but it turns out that, as in the West, Venezuela’s media is overwhelmingly privately owned by the country’s richest business elites. In 2012, the BBC noted that only 4.58%of the country’s TV and radio channels actually belong to the state. The three national newspapers — El Universal, El Nacional and Ultimos Noticias, accounting for 90% of the country’s readership — are all anti-government. Of the four main national TV channels, three — Venevision, Globovision and Televen, similarly accounting for 90% of the audience — are aligned with the opposition. The international media (along with the admins of important social movement pages on Facebook and Twitter) simply echo the right-wing narrative emanating from Venezuela’s highly concentrated corporate media landscape without asking any critical questions whatsoever.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10389

 

Some folks including some fairly liberal folks feel comfortable relying only on the mainstream media when it comes to a foreign policy issue as we saw with the wide support for the launch of Bush's last Iraq War.

For those who don't. Here are some wikileak cables showing how the US government has actually been conspiring to overthrow Chavez and help the leader of the current demonstrations Leopoldo Lopez, who by the way was a leader of similar demonstrations that led up to the armed coup that Chavez survived in 2002. BTW Lopez is fromm oneof the handful of richest families in venezuela and a Harvard grad. Perhaps unwisely Chavez after being rescued from the armed coup allowed Lopez to remain free in the name of reconciliation.

Now I realize the cables stop in December 2009, so for those determined to view the current mainstream media will believe that it is a conspiracy to believe that the US could somehow be helping Leopoldo Lopez and the current leaders of the street demonstrations.
Overthrowing Chavez

WikiLeaks on Friday released a 2006 State Department cable detailing the Bush administration's strategy for undermining Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez by supporting alleged pro-democracy groups.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-aff...strategy-for-undermining-chavez#ixzz2uAMLmWru
Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

more recent cables concerning US help to Leopold Lopez and trying to help the opposition in general.

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10388

 

You mention Leopoldo Lopez. In the US he would have been in prison for a long time after his involvement with the armed 2002 coup against Chavez. Perhaps you would argue that the US government would not punish a failed coup leader. BTW Lopez is proud of his past role. He led street demos leading to the coup and is trying to do it again. I know it is not popular among "libertarian" conservatives to accept elections when they lose.

The Economist and CNBC are viewed as just slightly more moderate than Fox on policies that our oil companies want.

As to damage to the economy. Venezuela has had economic problems forever including before Chavez. The economy grew very rapidly until the last year or so and the situation of the majority has improved. Before Chavez the vast poor who were the majority and suffered economically had no lobby with the Economist or CNBC etc. Many could not even read much less travel.

 

Well it is problematic what to do with a media owned by folks who cheered on a past undemocratic armed coup against the government and are trying to do so again.

Fined for tax evasion is perfectly legit and in the US you can't broadcast on unauthorized frequencies.

In the relative recent past our government required public broadcasters to cover speeches by the president and to try to educate the public about issues.
This was hardly communism though against prevailing anti-government rhetoric.

 

I actually read the links. sort of weird you object toattacking the source when you led off with: " I took a look at your link. Have you seen the site's "mission statement," and its contributing members' political leans? They are "activists," collaborators of such sites as "Green Left Weekly," etc."

You seem to object nearly per se to government ownership of any media, but cite the bbc which I believe is essentially owned by the British government.

Here is a snippet from a more fact based analysis of whether the Venezuelan media is forbidden to criticize the government which might give you more insight as to whether you should believe the standard line wrt that issue.
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs...-provide-coverage-that-opposes-the-government
**********
Before surrendering to authorities for arrest last Tuesday (February 18), opposition leader Leopoldo López said, “we no longer have any free media to express ourselves in Venezuela.”

Are these statements true or false? Similar statements are made repeatedly in the major international news outlets covering Venezuela, and are generally accepted as true. However this should be a factual question, independent of whether one is sympathetic to the opposition or the government, or to neither.

As it turns out, data published by the Carter Center for the media coverage during the campaign for the last presidential election, in April of last year, indicate that the two candidates were fairly evenly represented in television coverage.
...
Here is a long interview with María Corina Machado, one of the most prominent and hard-line opposition leaders seeking to topple the government. She also accuses the government of torturing students, and defends the most controversial aspect of the ongoing protests: she argues that the people have a right to overthrow the democratically elected government
(btw Machado also played a prominent role i the 2002 armed coup against the government-- my addition)


Another interesting article that is against the standard line of mainstream publications.

Venezuela Leads Region in Poverty Reduction in 2012, ECLAC Says
www.cepr.net › ... › The Americas Blog‎
Center for Economic and...
Dec 6, 2013 - The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has highlighted a slowing of progress in poverty .

 

Well we will just have to disagree as to whether the business and mainstream press reports without bias on Venezuela, even if they are not upfront as to any possible bias.

As an aside, can you agree that the liberal press (let's call it that) was much more correct wrt to their analysis of the whole facts leading up to the Iraq War than the vast mainsteam, much less Fox etc. , press?