From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Last weekend's short-lived military coup in Venezuela has left most of the media there with much to apologize for.

When President Hugo Chavez appeared to have been removed from office,

newspapers rushed to publish congratulatory ads,

celebrating the end of the ex-president of the ex-democratic government.

But on the day after the coup crumbled,

most major newspapers failed even to print

a daily edition, and Venezuelan television offered little of the Chavez return to power.

The media's jubilation, followed by its silence, fueled speculation that they themselves were

complicit in the attempt to topple the president. NPR South America correspondent Martin

Kosti has just returned from Venezuela, and he joins us to assess the eggsmeared faces

of the Venezuelan media. Martin, thanks for coming on the show.

No problem.

You said in one of your stories that the media have some explaining to do. What did you mean by

that?

What I meant by that is that a lot of people in Venezuela, especially those sympathetic to President Chavez,

simply believe that the commercial media in Venezuela omitted any reporting of the pro-Chavez demonstrations

in the hours and day right after the coup.

As you point out, television was not covering it as sort of a blow-by-blow basis. On Saturday,

as the coup was crumbling and as Chavez's supporters were coming out in the streets, we were watching

...