The Golden Rule
When commenting on Hugo Chavez' shutdown of RCTV in Venezuela, Chile's president Michelle Bachelet kept the rhetoric cool but said that "freedom of expression is the Golden Rule"
..."for Chile".
Good she added that last part because I always thought the Golden Rule was universal and something more like "Do unto others as you'd have done unto you". Since when did Chile get an exception? If I were Bachelet I'd have upgraded to Platinum or Titanium, just to keep things straight. Although that might have been interpreted by Chavez as upping the rhetoric. You never know with these things.
One might also speculate that it's better for Bachelet to reinvent the golden rule. Because in its original incarnation, the Golden Rule is pretty much worthless to Chile when discussing Press Freedoms internationally.
Sure, Chile is no Venezuela, and they haven't shut down any RCTV recently. But Chile's current government certainly hasn't helped in resuscitating the country's largest liberal daily, the Clarín, that thrived until Pinochet axed it over 30 years ago. Now, while El Mercurio and La Tercera dominate the Chilean newspaper market with a formidable conservative duopoly, (and the press is ironically even less ideologically diverse than it was during the latter days of Pinochet's rule), the government officially laments the press' poor reflection of Chile's liberal populace yet, at the same time, is "fighting tooth and nail against [Clarín's] re-emergence".
At least, that's my slapped together summary of John Dinges' Columbia Journalism Review piece entitled The Curious Case of Victor Pey. A fascinating story, I plan to read it soon.
..."for Chile".
Good she added that last part because I always thought the Golden Rule was universal and something more like "Do unto others as you'd have done unto you". Since when did Chile get an exception? If I were Bachelet I'd have upgraded to Platinum or Titanium, just to keep things straight. Although that might have been interpreted by Chavez as upping the rhetoric. You never know with these things.
One might also speculate that it's better for Bachelet to reinvent the golden rule. Because in its original incarnation, the Golden Rule is pretty much worthless to Chile when discussing Press Freedoms internationally.
Sure, Chile is no Venezuela, and they haven't shut down any RCTV recently. But Chile's current government certainly hasn't helped in resuscitating the country's largest liberal daily, the Clarín, that thrived until Pinochet axed it over 30 years ago. Now, while El Mercurio and La Tercera dominate the Chilean newspaper market with a formidable conservative duopoly, (and the press is ironically even less ideologically diverse than it was during the latter days of Pinochet's rule), the government officially laments the press' poor reflection of Chile's liberal populace yet, at the same time, is "fighting tooth and nail against [Clarín's] re-emergence".
At least, that's my slapped together summary of John Dinges' Columbia Journalism Review piece entitled The Curious Case of Victor Pey. A fascinating story, I plan to read it soon.
posted by Chileno @ 2:40 PM
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4 Comments:
Why would Chile want to be like Venezuela?
Who said so?
All the lefties!
In Chile we don't want real democracy, because we fear it might unleash our inner demons, and it's 1973 all over again.
Yes, this country is still traumatized. Everything here has to get the right's seal of approval. We fear them. They have the military on their side, they have the U.S. on their side, they have big money on their side. This is why change has been slow. You can only understand this if you lived here through the 70's and 80's.
It's a sort of faked Stockholm syndrome.
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