When Did The AP Become the Daily Worker?
If there's any doubt in your mind about media bias, read this puff piece published in the AP as "news" about Venezuelan dictator president Hugo Chavez. For example:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has become so firmly enshrined in the national psyche, so adored by followers who see him as their savior, that his personality has become the predominant issue of his re-election campaign. Love him or hate him, Venezuelans agree that his crusading, magnetic persona is at the heart of what Chavez calls his socialist revolution.

"He gives the impression that he truly cares for the poor, that he would do anything to help us," says Anita Lopez, 32, a single mother who carries a photograph of "El Comandante" in her wallet.

Such loyalty among Venezuela's poor frustrates Chavez opponents, who have yet to come up with any force capable of countering him.

Or this later in the article:

The idolization of Chavez carries echoes of like-minded figures, from Cuba's Castro to Argentina's Juan Peron and his famous first lady, Eva. Just as "Peronistas" decades ago displayed framed portraits of "Evita" in their homes, today's Chavistas often put up posters of him on their walls.

This heartfelt glorification contrasts sharply with the fearful attention once commanded by right-wing dictators like Gen. Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic or Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile.

Chavez's government bears no resemblance to the right-wing dictatorships in Chile and Argentina in the 1970s, with their mass killings and disappearances of dissidents. Chavez is an elected leader whose opponents generally feel free to call him a menace to democracy who props up his government with heavy spending on propaganda.

Perhaps the reporter neglected to consult with the normally fellow-traveling Human Rights Watch. As their executive director has written in the past:

Human Rights Watch [has] deep concerns about credible reports we have received that National Guard and police officers beat and tortured people who were detained during the recent protests in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities. Such cases were not unusual or exceptional. The abuses allegedly committed were widespread and appeared to enjoy official approval at some level of command in the forces responsible for them.

- posted by Base10 @ 3:53 PM