22 December 2011 — Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Left-wing activist and author Noam Chomsky is in the New York Times today:

The American linguist Noam Chomsky, a prominent source of intellectual inspiration for President Hugo Chávez, made a new appeal on Wednesday for the release of María Lourdes Afiuni, a judge arrested two years ago by the secret intelligence police.

If you find it a little surprising that Chomsky’s views on international affairs would be reported in the Paper of Record, and if you’d be inclined to believe the Times finds his views newsworthy only because Chomsky is criticizing Chavez (which they’ve done before)… well, you might  not be the only one. Here’s what Chomsky said about it to the Guardian:

Despite his appeal for Afiuni’s release, Chomsky has been critical of the media’s coverage of the case. On Wednesday he suggested the case had received so much media attention only ‘because Venezuela is an official enemy’ [of the United States]. ‘I am involved in these appeals all the time but I get no calls unless it is an enemy of the US,’ Chomsky said. ‘This is more a comment on the media than on the case.’