Hugo Chavez

If form holds, the Democratic Party's presidential candidates in the U.S. will continue to spout various forms of socialism and class warfare as the answers to this nation's woes in hopes of buying enough "free stuff" votes to hang on to the White House. Venezuela's apparent imminent economic collapse poses a problem for this strategy. The country's problems are the direct result of 15 years of…

En un evidente intento de facilitar un mejor entendimiento de su teleaudiencia a la popularidad de Donald Trump entre el electorado estadounidense, el principal noticiero vespertino de Univisión consultó a dos académicos de tendencia izquierdista, radicados en Washington, que compararon a Trump con líderes populistas de Latinoamérica, quienes también recientemente han apelado al amplio…

In an evident attempt to help their viewers get a handle on the popularity of Donald Trump among the U.S. electorate, Univision’s principal evening newscast recently consulted two left-leaning, Washington-based academics who compared Trump to outsider, populist leaders in Latin America who have also recently successfully appealed to widespread voter dissatisfaction with politics as usual,…

It's amazing how any reporter can cover the deepening economic crisis in Venezuela without saying a word about how the country got there. But Associated Press reporter Hannah Dreier was up to the task. In a bizarre, sickening November 20 report on how its people are having to get "creative" in the face of chronic shortages of basic goods to get by, she acted as if those shortages — and the over…

On April 1 for its April 2 print edition, the New York Times allowed Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro to hold forth in an op-ed about how wondrously the country has been ruled since 1998, mostly by the late Bolivarian thug Hugo Chavez and during the past year by himself. Maduro's piece made the Times's print edition. The Times posted letters objecting to Maduro's characterizations of his…

Sean Penn usually throws punches at paparazzi, but Kevin Spacey may want to watch for him on the Red Carpet, even though they've starred together in "Hurlyburly." On his blog, Kevin Spacey expressed fervent support for the opposition protesters to Venezuelan president Maduro, the successor of Penn's favorite dictator, Hugo Chavez. Spacey met for three hours with Chavez in Caracas 2007.

Pushed back from the headlines, massive protests against the repressive Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela continue. So do the killings by the "colectivos." If this group of thugs enforcing Maduoro's Chavista socialist nightmare were instead right-wing paramilitary types, they would long since have been christened "death squads" and garnered international attention. A story about the…

In a mild shock -- mild because it's mentioned before the elections, but probably won't be when it really matters after the polls close -- Frank Bajak and Jorge Rueda at the Associated Press, in a story about how the last opposition TV station in Venezuela is being sold to an insurance magnate who is reportedly "friendly with government," noted the extraordinary handicaps that Venezuela's…

Our left-wing media’s somber, mourning coverage of Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez once again demonstrates the double standard journalists reserve for dictators. Seven years ago, the left’s greatest South American hate object, Augusto Pinochet, passed away. Never mind how he used free-market reforms to modernize Chile. Never mind that after 15 years of rule, he allowed a national plebiscite to…

On Friday, the PBS NewsHour featured a story titled "A 'Celebration of Immortality' for Hugo Chavez." This is an odd title for liberals who believe in science and would know when Hugo Chavez has assumed room temperature. But it grew worse: the segment from former BBC correspondent Matt Frei (now with ITN) actually put Chavez in a "top three" of immortality with Jesus Christ:

Introducing a brief report on Friday's NBC Today about the funeral proceedings for socialist Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez, news reader Natalie Morales announced: "In Venezuela, a hero's send-off today for Hugo Chavez, a harsh critic of the U.S. who ruled for 14 years." The headline on screen during the segment read: "Saluting Chavez; World Leaders in Venezuela for President's Funeral."…

"Hugo fed the hungry. He lifted the poor. He raised their hopes. He helped them realize their dreams." So said Jesse Jackson at the funeral of Venezuelan despot Hugo Chavez Friday (video follows with transcript and commentary):

While even the left-wing outlet ThinkProgress finds it necessary to discourage fellow Democrats from eulogizing Hugo Chavez, propaganda for the late dictator keeps popping up in strange places in the New York Times. Thursday brought a couple of oddly placed propaganda pieces for the late left-wing strongman of Venezuela. In Thursday's Metro story "In the Bronx, Memories Of Chavez And His Aid…

Gee, why would anyone get the impression -- GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, for example -- that Harvard Law School is fertile wetlands for left-wing politics? In Cruz's case, his suspicions are well-founded -- the man graduated from the school in the mid-1990s. For those of us who aren't Harvard alum, its faculty members often supply evidence to bolster that perception. (audio clip after page break)