Poverty pulverized under Chavez

If you're wondering why the right-wing media hates Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez so much, here's 2 reasons:

1) He's democratically elected.

2) He's reduced poverty drastically.

Based on these criteria, Chavez is kind of like the "anti-Bush", if you will.

Venezuela's National Statistics Institute reports that poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by a staggering 22.6% since Chavez first took office. And the unemployment rate has been nearly cut in half.

The media demonizes Chavez ostensibly because of actions against media outlets. This issue is as phony as the folksy cadence Sarah Palin used in the veep debate.

The Chavez administration did revoke the licenses of TV and radio stations that encouraged his assassination. But if a station in the United States in the '70s had urged listeners to shoot Nixon or Carter, the FCC would have taken as dim of a view of that as Chavez has of stations that called for his death.

The airwaves are a public trust that are obligated to operate in the "public interest, convenience, and necessity" - a phrase every broadcasting student knows. The reason a station can't encourage assassinating the President is the same reason Channel 5 can't show porn on Saturday mornings.

For all the right-wing bias in the U.S. media today, the Venezuelan media has been much worse. They cannot stand having a President who introduced land reforms and reduced poverty. These policies challenged corporate hegemony, and the media just absolutely hates that.

No world leader is perfect, but let's at least give credit where credit is due. Republican officials - just for political purposes - tried blocking Chavez from sending inexpensive heating oil to communities in the United States. This occurred while the GOP refused to rein in fuel costs. Who was showing more leadership? Chavez or Bush?

(Source: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4702)