Posted by: McQ on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 Got an email from the BBC World Radio Service asking me if I'd be interested in appearing on the show "World Have Your Say". They were interviewing journalist John Pilger who is a huge fan of Hugo Chavez and has a film coming out this friday about Latin America and democracy there. The person who contacted me asked me if I'd be interested in asking him some questions. I said, yes indeed, sign me up. So we had a phone conversation and got all the essential info transmitted (name, blog, etc). About an hour later they called, and put me on hold awaiting my time in the box. Interestingly just before I got on Tim Worstall, who I assume was also contacted by BBC, was on the show. His experience, unfortunately matched mine: Well, that was a waste of time and effort.Tim feels he made a fool of himself. I didn't think so. However, Tim did, at least get a follow up question, something I wasn't given. So, after hearing Pilger call Venezuela a "popular democracy", I asked "given the fact that Chavez is ruling the country by decree as a virtual autocrat, and given that the hallmarks of a democratic nation are accountability and limits on power, how in the world can you characterize Venezuela as a "democracy"?" Well, of course he didn't agree with my premise or characterization and I had to sit and listen to him compare a US president's signing statement as the same as Chavez ruling his country by decree. But as I began to ask my follow-up question (and it was some good stuff), boom, they moved on to someone else. Grrrrr .... It was interesting though. The two Venezuelans who got through made it very clear that Pilger really was spouting a lot of nonsense and, as one of them said, "I find it hard to believe he's even been to Venezuela if he thinks his description is a good one". Oh, one other interesting thing said by Pilger. He didn't feel Venezuela was a socialist nation at all. Guess he missed the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly's chilling declaration as she handed the power to rule by decree over to Chavez: Fatherland, socialism or death!Seig. |
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