TODAY IN TAP ONLINE. Dorothy Kronick reports from Caracas on the fight between the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the anti-Chavez private TV station RCTV (recently taken over by the state). Defenders of the government's decision say that RCTV violated the law by aiding the attempted 2002 coup d'etat. Critics deem Chavez's move merely as another power play. Both are right, Kronick argues: But the actual motives for Chavez's actions in this case do not bode well for the ailing cause of democracy and free expression in Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Shadi Hamid argues for conditioning U.S. aid to Egypt on political reform and a reversal of that government's recent wave of domestic political repression; and Elizabeth Henderson talks to James Scurlock, director of the documentary about the credit industry, Maxed Out, which comes out on DVD this week.
--The Editors