Wednesday, January 17, 2007

CNN on Venezuela

Periodically I get annoyed with U.S. media portrayals of Latin America. I wrote yesterday about CNN, and here is another example, from someone who is labeled the “business and financial news anchor and reporter for CNN en Español.” The subject is Venezuela.

From him, we learn that Venezuela is following the “North Korean style” of communism. Readers of this blog know I am very skeptical of Hugo Chávez, but come on. He is not closing his borders, killing thousands of people, or getting a poofed-up hairdo and big sunglasses.

We also learn that “Nestor Kirchner in Argentina and Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil have similar ideologies to Chavez but don't share his statism.” His ideology is based on statism, so if they are not statist, what is their similar ideology?

Further, “like Cuba, Venezuela will remain an economic island, at least in the medium-term.” Countries that pump out large quantities of oil do not become economic islands without outside intervention (e.g. war with the U.S.). They have governments lining up to talk trade. Anyhow, Cuba’s problems with isolation stem from the U.S. embargo, not from anything intrinsic to the Cuban economy.

4 comments:

Anonymous,  11:43 AM  

...getting a poofed-up hairdo and big sunglasses
Think again,

http://venezuela-usa.blogspot.com/2005/12/it-must-be-glasses_02.html

haha, joking aside it is a pretty bad article. If anything, Chavez is just a populist caudillo with a little marxist thought thrown in. Oh well I personally have stopped taking CNN seriously a long time ago. BTW, what is up with these "story highlights" can people no longer be bothered with reading a news story?

Greg Weeks 11:50 AM  

Ha--the glasses need to be bigger, though...

Anonymous,  8:05 PM  

CNN is an embarrassment and is a far cry from what it was in the Turner days. But what should we expect from a network whose star, Larry King, will interview Bill Clinton one night followed by Zsa Zsa Gabor the next night.

Greg Weeks 2:47 PM  

Nonetheless, many people get their news from it. That's why it is extra annoying when the news and/or analysis is such poor quality.

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