After a long day of work I was greeted with the news that I was listed in a paid add in Ultimas Noticias, the semi pro Chavez tabloid which is referred as serious read by chavismo. I suppose that indeed, compared to VEA, Ultimas Noticas is a good read.
The reason of the add? Well, there is some business exposing of a few of chavismo shady deals by Gustavo Coronel and Alek Boyd here and there, and some people are not amused. I will not bother the reader with the details, the two pages add with Alek explanations are posted at Vcrisis, and it is more than enough.
I prefer to notice that if the whole add (ill written but craftily structured) was an accusation against Alek and Gustavo, somehow they managed to post a list of other figures and coin the words "Anglo-Venezuelan-Conspiracy". I have extracted the below paragraph (click to enlarge) where the delirium reaches some paroxysm as one is led to believe that Gustavo and Alek are one and only, and that in addition David [sic] Duquenal, Miguel Octavio, Francisco Toro and Alex Beech are just but pen names used by that one character that, henceforth, we shall name Gustalek.
I do not know whether I should feel my intelligence insulted by such a hash, or personally insulted as not even having my name correctly written.
But make no mistake, if the add is ill written as I said above (plenty of mistakes, and not only on my name, incoherent style only too often) it is still a craftily written add. Why do I think that there is a lot of craft behind? It is written by someone who makes all these mistakes to hide his personality. It is written by someone (or a group) who carefully follow all of the opposition blogs in English. It is written by someone (or a group) that see the effect that all of these blogs are having, and a bigger effect than the paltry results of the pro Chavez pages, supported at huge expense but with low yields. It is also a compendium of most of the accusations routinely made by chavismo, trying to pin all of them on us when none of them would stick in any court of law. But of course this is not about law, this is a first warning to try to scare us away from the web, wholesale. These tactics are not casual, no one completely out of his mind will pay Ultimas Noticias good money for a double page without a plan, or at least an intention. This, of course, reminds us of Berlin circa 1930-something.
So, I have decided to cooperate by revealing that last Tuesday I had an interview with the Voice of America, that infamous propaganda channel from the empire that makes Cuba’s Granma and Chavez’ VTV look like paragons of objectivity and truth (and Ultimas Noticias as a modern Gospel of sorts). Thus the ones writing the add will have further evidence of my betrayal of Venezuela, errh, of Chavez, its beloved leader (sorry for the slip-up!). If you want to hear the voice of Gustalek, a.k.a. David/Daniel Duquenal you can go there and in the table that opens you click on your favorite format (mp3, Real, Winmedia) for the show titled “hablemos” (one hour, in Spanish, with an interesting Bolivian blogger as co-guest, up until next Tuesday only, so hurry up).
And before anyone from the loony chavismo screams that I accepted to go to the Voice of America (where there is much more balance there than some would like us to believe, and certainly infinitely more than at VTV or RNV), I want to state that if RNV calls me I will talk to them; that is, as long as they treat me as well as US Boston public radio Open Source, the BBC or the VOA treated me (or, for that matter, as well as Miguel or other oppo bloggers that were interviewed by these media). But somewhat I doubt that they will ever get la Golinger seating across Alek/Gustalek. I wonder why........
PS: Added next day. I decided to read a little bit more about the charges of that infamous add. Usually when something is so ill written, such a hack, but dedicated, job I do not think it is worth further consideration or rebuttal. But my fellow conspirators at AngloVenCon have been digging some, or explaining some of these details. From Quico and Alek exchanges we get the scope on NAOR (you might want also to read the comment section of that Quico post and perhaps even the thread on the adds in Noticiero Digital note not to mention the Herald article). It seems, among other gems, that even the alleged web page of NAOR was quickly set up when doubts as to its authenticity emerged, and that the US offices are mythological. NAOR was B.S. from the start.
Another one from the multiple personality disorder of Gustalek posted his entry. Miguel coins TAC, for "The Anglovenezuelan Connection". For rebuttal to a tacky accusation you cannot beat it! I have not heard of other entries yet, but I am sure that Gustalek is at work somewhere else. Heck, for all what I know Instapundit might be yet another outlet of Gustalek!
Damn! That Gustalek works around the clock, around the world! He's goooood!
PS2: There is also, it seems, a Spanish version of Gustalek who translated quite well this article. Actually I migth even prefer the Spanish version. Go and read Klaus Meyer.
Now that I think of it, I understand better that famous Holywood quip: "there is no such a thing as bad publicity". Thanks Ultimas!
Y es gracioso que la página de una compañía llamada "North American Opinion Research" esté sólo en español...
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