Oh, that’s just great: CNN inadvertently threatens Chavez

The whole thing with Hugo Chavez is a disgrace. Even into this year some American liberals could be found who were still holding out some hope of redemption in Venezuela’s socialist pseudo-revolution. And, I suppose, there still are a few.

In the meantime, though, CNN just isn’t helping things along:

Chavez used much of the news conference for foreign reporters to criticize the media, singling out CNN in particular.

He pointed to an on-screen caption on its Spanish-language network earlier this week that he said was an incitement to assassinate him.

On Tuesday, CNN en Espanol showed a picture of Chavez with a caption saying, “Who killed him?” at the bottom of the screen. The caption was meant to be used on a story about Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor, who was killed last Monday. CNN has apologized for the error.

In a statement responding to Chavez’s comments, CNN said, “We are committed to continuing to cover the current situation in Venezuela in a fair and objective manner. For example, we’ve frequently offered live, extended coverage of President Chavez’s speeches and news conferences, even when he uses our air to voice his criticisms of CNN.”

Chavez has threatened to sue the network and expel CNN employees from the country.

Good one, guys. That’s … that’s just great.

Be proud. It’s not every day your incompetence becomes an international incident.

You’re not helping.

Famous hookers

Seriously, what’s going on here? Dan Popkey reports for the Star Tribune:

Four gay men, willing to put their names in print, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s guilty plea. Two said they had sex with Craig, one said he made a sexual advance and the fourth said he paid him unusual attention.

They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig’s denials, including his now famous statement, “I am not gay, I never have been gay.”

David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington who says that Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex.

Mike Jones is a former prostitute who last year told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005.

Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa, Idaho, resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Idaho’s Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area in the early 1980s.

Now just … just … okay, look. It’s just that Benjamin Nicholas, the hooker who got some attention last week as rumors swirled around his possible connections to retiring Senator Trent Lott actually wrote The Stranger, a Seattle newspaper, last year to chastise Mike Jones for violating the Reverend’s confidence.

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears.
It’s a world of hopes, and a world of fears.
There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware
It’s a small world after all!

I hate that song. But it managed to be useful at least once before I die.

Clockwise from top left: Jones, Haggard, Craig.