Private Venezuelan media officials stated that the majority of the media supported Chávez and the change he promised when originally elected in 1998, but after they reported the "negative realities" occurring in Venezuela, the Venezuelan government began to portray the media as an enemy. The relationship between Chávez's government and the media was then in dispute over press freedom, with the Venezuelan government threatening to revoke licenses of media organizations. Media owners, managers, and commentators working for the five major private mainstream television networks and largest mainstream newspapers then stated their opposition to Chávez's policies. These media outlets accused the Chávez administration of intimidating their journalists using specially dispatched gangs. Chávez in turn alleged that the owners of these networks had primary allegiance not to Venezuela but to the United States, and that they sought the advancement of neoliberalism via corporate propaganda.