The One-Dimensional Chavez

Though short, this article caught my eye:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-10-16-anti-chavez_N.htm?csp=34

"Anti-Chavez TV channel could face fines."

Though doubtless everyone enjoys a moment to righteously frown at the ongoing chaos in Venezuela, this article was way too superficial for that sort of thing. Oscar Wilde's Harry contends that "details are vulgar" and this author seems to have taken the extrapolation religiously. The summary of events was direct, succinct, and very well done, however, it assumed far too much knowledge from the reader about Venezuelan history. As someone who has followed the rapid descent of this country when Chavez came to power, I already had enough starting information to understand first, why it should be true that one can be fined or taken from the air for speaking against Chavez in the Venezuelan media, and second, why this matters at all. However, as I read, I realized that these details were simply not given. There was no so much as a: "oh yeah, and by the way, free speech doesn't exist anymore in Venezuela," or "hey, and Chavez has slowly been removing TV channels from the air and newpapers from the presses for saying the wrong thing." It was simply a quick summary of the salient facts, a small and sad comestible (ha) with no nourishment or flavor. Though the summary was good, the lack of depth was very dissappointing and could have been quite confusing or meaningless to another reader.