[HoniSoit]

HS - I find it kind of shocking that he is apparently considered untouchable by the majority of news media, no column or whatever, even as he considered among the most influential intellectuals in the world (if not the single most influential living intellectual).

I find it both shocking and understandable. Chomsky has spent quite a bit of time in the past five decades criticising the liberal intellectual class for their complicity and collusion with state power. He certainly doesn't make many friends in the liberal circle which makes up much of the mainstream media establishment like the New York Times and the Guardian among others. So it is understandable that you either do not get to read him in the mainstream press or read slanders against him by otherwise perfectly nice liberal intellectuals (and I happen to have just read one yesterday in a liberal monthly magazine in Australia). But as you have said, if you actually read him - even if you do not always necessarily agree with his views - you cannot help but feel how sharp his mind is and how penetrating his insights in foreign affairs are. You may ultimately draw different conclusions about what to do depending on one's political persuasion, it is just difficult to dispute his - admittedly often shocking and radical - arguments because they are backed up by documentations and by reference to respected, mainstream sources and quite impeccable reasoning.

[Revolutionary Mind]

Viva Chavez! He wouldn't need to be so strict media-wise if the oligarchical media wasn't on such an assault on Chavez when he originally ran for pres. They literally went to the point that he actually had to clarify that he did not, in fact, eat children. If the mainstream media actually presented facts I'm sure he wouldn't mind, as he allows the smaller neighborhood radios and news channels to report. The media in Venezuela, as far as I've heard, is like Fox news on steroids. The people literally launched fireworks and partied in the street after his landslide election in i think 06, he isn't a dictator. Many of the human rights abuses attributed to his govt existed previously, and are being combated. He literally put the slums on the hills... who's official name escapes me... on the map. previously they were just a green spot, even though hundreds of thousands of people live there. He allocated 203 mil for communal programs and said they should be done outside of the bureaucracy, which doesn't seem to dictatorial. And like another poster said, Chomsky said the article was misleading.