It doesn’t seem to be huge news in the US yet, but in Venezuela, the Chavez government has closed down RCTV, the oldest broadcast network in the country, by refusing to renew its license. RCTV has long been conspicuously anti-Chavez and was seen as an active supporter of the coup attempt against Chavez a few years back. So, poof.

In RCTV’s place — and with RCTV’s own equipment — the Chavez government installed a new, government-controlled network, TVes. The changeover happened just after midnight a couple of nights ago, with scenes of tearful RCTV staff singing the national anthem and (earlier in the day) actor Franklin Virgüez literally getting on his knees and begging Chavez personally to save the station, choking up as he said "Yo creí! Yo creí en usted!" ("I believed! I believed in you!"), all replaced shortly by a black screen, a new logo, and pretty soon a lengthy lefty speech read by the head of the network.

Later on in the morning, viewers were treated to a bunch of smiling pro-Chavez redshirts in a studio with pictures of Che Guevara and Simon Bolivar hanging in the background.

The revolution, apparently, will be televised.

I believe this may be what US conservatives must think they’re seeing whenever they flip over to PBS. To the barricades! Big Bird will lead us against the American hegemon! But first, we must Riverdance!

The name of TVes, incidentally, is a fairly brilliant wordplay — an acronym for Televisora Venezolana Social that, when pronounced, is the phrase "you see yourself" in Spanish, with the subject chosen as if spoken to a friend. At first glance, and speaking from considerable ignorance, this may be the only truly clever thing about the whole operation.

My Spanish isn’t hot enough that I can follow it all, but I’m watching the Globovisión coverage of the ongoing pro-RCTV street protests in Caracas, which so far seem mostly large, peaceful, and passionate. (The cops teargassed a bunch of folks the other night, and there have been a few other incidents, but the protesters so far seem almost completely non-violent.)

Globovision also seems to tilt anti-Chavez, although not quite as militantly, but they’re making fewer bones about it as the day goes on. Suddenly during ad breaks they’re putting up self-promoting slogans like "Ahora El Compromiso Es Mayor" (Now Our Commitment Is Greater) and "Libertad de Expresión — Nadie sabe lo que tiene hasta que lo pierde" (Freedom of Expression — Nobody knows what they have until it’s gone) with heavy music and packaging.

It’s pretty hard to miss what they’re saying here: "Chavez sucks — and now we’ll be the ones to show you how much."

I have a weird feeling that the Chavez government just bit off more than will be able to chew long-term. You piss the media off this badly, you’re playing defense for a long time to come.

At the moment they’re showing the debate in Venezuela’s National Assembly, which is a lot like C-SPAN, only nobody wears suits, and people seem a lot more willing to scream until their eyeballs bust. I’m honestly not following it all, but it’s sure spirited as hell. Mostly it seems to be a lot of shoe-banging about the ¡Revolución! about as truly connected to reality as George Bush talking about Iraq.

I have no idea what comes next, and I don’t pretend to know enough about the situation to even know what to hope for, aside from a lack of bullets from all involved.

But it’s sure as hell the most compelling TV I’ve seen in years.

UPDATE: Ten minutes later. Huge student protest in the streets. I’m expecting more violence now.

This looks like it’s only going to get larger.

UPDATE DOS: Another hour goes by. Thanks to the coverage of the protests, Chavez is threatening to shut down Globovisión, too.

I am so not changing the channel.

UPDATE TRES: Somebody at Globovisión has just fetched the studio-set logo of RCTV’s flagship news program El Observador… and now they’re defiantly holding it, by hand, at Globovisión’s newsdesk. The entire news staff, including the sportscasters, are now crowding around in solidarity.

If I’m reading this right, it’s a very large middle finger to Chavez by all of Globovisión.

Incidentally, Globovisión is manifestly not showing the pro-Chavez rallies that I’m seeing reported online. So when Chavez says they’re pushing his overthrow, he ain’t far off.

Chavez has the next move.

Absolutely spellbinding to watch.

UPDATE CUATRO: It’s starting to become obvious that Globovisión is trying to engineer unrest at least as much as it’s reporting what’s happening. I have no idea if this is what RCTV looked like in 2002 during the abortive coup, but it gives you a hint, anyway. Chavez supporters are rarely shown; even Fox News allows token democrats the chance to get a word in occasionally. And when Chavez himself appears onscreen, it’s usually along with spooky dramatic music in the middle of slick little pre-edited packages. I’m not a great fan of Chavez, and I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever for his claim that Globovisión is trying to incite his murder, but I’m also seeing little evidence that Globovisión has the slightest sincere interest in giving both sides.

Several days into it now, the protesters appear to be almost entirely from students at a handful of universities, mostly chanting about libertad de expresión when they’re clearly having little trouble with speech, assembly, or access to the media. As time goes on, the coverage of these protests is starting to look more and more like dadaist theatre, demanding rights they’re exercising right that very second.

I half-expect people to start screaming ceci n’est pas une protest!, really loudly.

Still, about 180 people have been arrested (out of tens of thousands), which sucks, but compare and contrast with the mass arrests in New York during the GOP convention or the unprovoked beatings and rubber bullets that flew just a few weeks ago in Los Angeles (or in Los Angeles during the Democratic convention, after which the city had to fork over millions of dollars to the LAPD’s victims), and Chavez’s goons still score no worse than their counterparts in the US.

Can’t say I’d be willing to march with either side. Still, brilliant television. I’m surprised no US network is developing a TV series around a series of broadcasts from a restive country run by an democratically elected revolutionary with autocratic impulses and filled with unreliable narrators. Seriously. It’s hard to take your eyes away.

UPDATE CINCO:

RCTV continues to broadcast its flagship news program, El Observador, via time donated by the neighboring Colombian TV network Caracol and online via YouTube here.  The latest edition: