The mainstream media has been attacking Chavez, so Chavez must be one of the good guys.
John Pilger wrote, on 13 May 2006 in The Guardian: "Fact-deprived attacks on Chávez in the Times and the Financial Times this week, each with that peculiar malice reserved for true dissenters from Thatcher's and Blair's one true way, follow a travesty of journalism on Channel 4 News last month..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1773966,00.html
Channel 4 News is dangerous because it appears to be liberal. But Channel 4 News is very much part of the Establishment.
C.P. Pandya and Justin Podur, at zmag, 21 November 2003, wrote:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=4544
Despite attempts by the Venezuelan opposition and the US business press to paint the Chavez government as the cause of Venezuela's economic problems, the economic crisis in Venezuela, and indeed throughout the poor countries, is more widespread, deeper, and longer-running than anything that can be attributed to a single regime.
A quick look at the economies of Venezuela's neighbours - Colombia, or Brazil - shows that Venezuela has no monopoly on problems like poverty, inflation, unemployment, and social problems like violent crime.
Gregory Wilpert recently published an assessment of the Chavez government's fight against poverty. He argues that Chavez, on coming to power in 1999, inherited an economy that was undergoing a long-term trend towards increasing poverty, misery, and inequality.
He argues, further, that Venezuela under Chavez has managed to achieve some success in fighting poverty through redistributive policies like rural and urban land reform, micro-credit lending, public education, food distribution, and health clinics.
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