Press Determined Not to Blame Venezuela's Social and Economic Calamity on Its Chavista Government

As Venezuela's Chavista economy under Nicolas Maduro continues to crumble, the Associated Press and others in the media continue to describe its problems as if they came out of nowhere instead of originating with its statist, oppressive government. Examples follow the jump. On August 19, AP reporter Hannah Dreier, in an item describing the arrest of two men in a "grisly slaying," noted that Maduro was attempting to tie the men involved to the country's political opposition. She brought up the country's out-of-control crime rate and one of the government's key economic policies without assigning blame for either. More…