The liberal media's adoration for leftist dictators certainly knows no bounds.
Such was immediately apparent in filmmaker Oliver Stone's love letter to Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez published by the Huffington Post Friday.
The article also shamelessly doubled as an advertisement for Stone's documentary "South of the Border."
With this in mind, all quotes have been safely placed after the teaser to limit the gastrointestinal distress to readers that may have eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner prior to reviewing this piece (video of "South of the Border" trailer also follows with commentary):
President Chávez is a polarizing figure to be sure, widely demonized by U.S. reporters and cable news anchors who have broadcast claims that he is more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden. But is there any truth to these extreme assertions?
I was first invited to Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chávez during his aborted rescue mission of Colombian hostages, held by FARC, during Christmas of 2007. As is often the case, the man I met was not the man I'd read and heard about in the U.S. media. In the US I kept hearing he was a dictator, a bad guy and a menace. But I found him to be a charismatic and dynamic figure, bent on helping his country emerge from the crushing weight of US political interests.
So in January 2009 I returned to Caracas and spent three days speaking with him. Our interviews were relaxed and informal. We sat around and talked, or ventured into the countryside touring agricultural areas, housing projects and factories that have flourished since he took office. And a side of the man emerged that has rarely if ever been glimpsed in the U.S. media. [...]
So is President Chávez really the anti-American pariah we've read about for years? Is he really all that different from the other democratic, left-of-center leaders who now govern most of the region? I don't believe so, but I encourage you to see South of the Border when it comes out in the US in June and make up your own mind.
He's just a swell guy, folks -- not at all what you've been told. Someone you'd be proud to have sit at your Thanksgiving Day dinner table or even marry your daughter.
But there's more, for Stone's propaganda campaign concerning Chavez has just started according to this snippet at the end of his post:
This will be the first in a series of 'dispatches from South of the Border' that will be filed over the next eight days by the filmmaking team providing insights and color as Oliver fulfills a promise he made to the leaders featured in the film that he would return to share "South of the Border" with the people.
Ah, seven more days of leftist views about one of the world's foremost despots.
Arianna and her readers must feel like they've died and gone to heaven.
