[Lasa] Censorship in Ecuador - Lese-presidente - Rafael Correa seeks to bankrupt his media foes

[Lorien Olive]

I also agree with Marc. I find the U.S. coverage of this case to be woefully
simplistic. Describing El Universo as an "independent newspaper" being
crushed by a thin-skinned autocrat glosses over a long history of serious
conflicts of interest between big banking and the "free" media that they own
and control. If publicly-owned media is to some extent beholden to the
state, then El Universo, Expreso, Metroquil, etc. (in Guayaquil, at least)
very much work in concordance with the municipal government and local
moneyed interests. In short, I think we should be careful about labeling
this as a black-and-white government censorship issue. And in this effort,
Marc's point about social movements is key. However, I would add that of
importance are not only movements that seek to hold the state accountable,
but also those who organize and speak out against the excesses of power at
various levels of government, as well as the private sector.

Sincerely,
Lorien Olive



On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 6:43 AM, timo at lat-0.com <timo at lat-0.com> wrote:

> Yes.  Four legs bad, two legs good.
>
> Sent from myTouch 4G
>
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: "Maria-Auxiliadora Cordero" <MCORDERO at pitt.edu>
> To: "Marc Becker" <marc at yachana.org>
> Cc: "lasa at ecuatorianistas.org" <lasa at ecuatorianistas.org>
> Subject: [Lasa] Censorship in Ecuador - Lese-presidente - Rafael Correa
> seeks to bankrupt his media foes
> Date: Fri, Jul 29, 2011 21:49
>
>
>
> I agree with you Marc.
>
> Mariuxi Cordero
>
>
> On Fri, July 29, 2011 11:47 pm, Marc Becker wrote:
> > I find it highly significant and insightful that in protest El Universo
> > printed the words of Ayn Rand on its otherwise blank cover. As
> > objectionable as some of Rafael Correa's actions might be, we have to be
> > careful that our positions and actions do not strengthen the oligarchy,
> > and that is exactly what the conservative media establishment
> > represents. Instead, I think, we should ally with social movements in
> > their struggles to hold the government accountable to a more humane,
> > more just system of administration.
> >
> > marc.
> >
> > --
> > Marc Becker
> > Professor of History
> > Truman State University
> > marc at yachana.org
> > http://www.yachana.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Lasa mailing list
> > Lasa at lists.ecuatorianistas.org
> > http://lists.ecuatorianistas.org/listinfo.cgi/lasa-ecuatorianistas.org
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lasa mailing list
> Lasa at lists.ecuatorianistas.org
> http://lists.ecuatorianistas.org/listinfo.cgi/lasa-ecuatorianistas.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lasa mailing list
> Lasa at lists.ecuatorianistas.org
> http://lists.ecuatorianistas.org/listinfo.cgi/lasa-ecuatorianistas.org
>
>


-- 
Lorien Olive
Ph.D. Candidate
Duke University
Department of Cultural Anthropology
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ecuatorianistas.org/pipermail/lasa-ecuatorianistas.org/attachments/20110730/3cdec95d/attachment.htm>