Stop Selling, Andrea: We're Not Buying

On Friday's Hardball on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell said the following about Hugo Chavez: "Venezuela is rich in oil. And that is, of course, what props up his government."

Look, say what you want about Chavez---and I'm obviously not a fan---but can we at least feign interest in reality? Chavez has been elected twice, and won a referendum on his presidency. He's also survived a coup attempt. He was elected no less legitimately than Bush was in 2000. Nothing "props up" his government except the overwhelming support of its citizens. He is stunningly popular in Venezuela; some polls put him at greater than 70% approval, which historically is unheard of in Latin America. Do we need to contrast this with our own President Bush's approval numbers?

If we're going to talk about "propping up" let's apply the term accurately: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, and Jordan, among others. All allies of ours, all governments or regimes propped up by oil and/or tyrannical repression, where citizens can only dream of the democracy that exists in Venezuela.

Perhaps because of her unflagging zeal for hawking her book, Andrea seems to have forgotten where salesmanship ends and objective reporting starts. Didn't we get enough of the journalist-as-advocate charade with Judy Miller?