In 2007 the Venezuelan government led by Hugo Chavez refused to renew the broadcast license of the opposition television station RCTV. It replaced RCTV’s signal with that of a new government-controlled station called TVes.
TVes broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Venezuela. And although the video evidence unfortunately has been removed, the station’s announcer, describing a race featuring American swimmer Michael Phelps, informed viewers that Phelps competed in the 1972 Munich Olympics, presided over by Adolf Hitler, who refused to give Phelps his medals.
It seems Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz, Jesse Owens, 1972, 1936, Munich and Berlin all became jumbled together in his head and he couldn’t sort them out.
After such a fine job, of course, TVes is being allowed by the government to broadcast the 2012 London games to Venezuela.
As the Olympic team from the west African nation of Benin entered the stadium in the opening ceremonies, one of the TVes announcers hilariously intoned: “Unga, unga!”
When the team from Madagascar came in, he proclaimed: “No se crean que hay puros animales; las personas viven en Madagascar“– which as best as I can figure means something like: “It’s not just animals; people live in Madagascar.”
That must have gone over well with the millions of Venezuelans of African descent. Or perhaps not. Of course you don’t need to be of African descent to find it offensive.
TVes president William Castillo apologized and said, “We will correct what needs to be corrected.”
(Hat tip: Caracas Chronicles)
