Press Release

Media Ignore Security Threat,
U.S. Dependence on Venezuelan Dictator

All eyes are on Dubai while Chavez threatens to cut off American oil

Alexandria, VA—While American networks fret over the Dubai ports deal, U.S. security is becoming increasingly endangered by Hugo Chavez’s control of American oil, according to a study released today by the Business & Media Institute (BMI). BMI’s media analysis, titled “Hugo the Boss,” found broadcast networks’ coverage of this anti-American tyrant grossly incomplete since he took power in 1998. Network news jumped on American oil profits and then on foreign companies running ports – but they overlooked a truly dangerous oil man in the process.

“All eyes are on Dubai,” said Dan Gainor, The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow and Director of BMI, “while Chavez threatens to cut off American oil. The media are leaving Americans in the dark while imminent danger looms overhead.”

Conclusions from “Hugo the Boss”

• Only 3 percent of news stories acknowledged Chavez’s control of a familiar gasoline retailer, Citgo, despite $785 million in profits for Venezuela in 2005.
• The media downplayed the radical politics of Chavez, calling the strident anti-American dictator a “Bush critic” or “left-leaning” – the same term they had used for John Kerry and “Brokeback Mountain.”
• No network paid significant attention to the human rights abuses of the Chavez regime, despite evidence of detention, torture and murder of Venezuelan people.
• ABC, CBS and NBC each reported Chavez’s oil “gift” to America’s poor and minimized the extent of his political agenda. Congress is now looking into his “charity.”
• To schedule an interview with Mr. Gainor contact Colleen O’Boyle (ext. 122) or Tim Scheiderer (ext. 126) at (703) 683-5004. To view the study “Hugo the Boss” visit www.businessandmedia.org.

To schedule an interview with study author and Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow Dan Gainor, contact Colleen O’Boyle (ext. 122) or Tim Scheiderer (ext. 126) at (703) 683-5004. To view the study “Hugo the Bass” visit www.businessandmedia.org