Which would be funny if Chavez had indeed said Chomsky was dead. He did not. He referrenced John Kenneth Galbraith who died in April of this year and regretted that he never had a chance to meet him. I'm sorry to see Stewart fall in line with the NYT's in repeating this lie. It isn't Chavez who is displaying ignorance with his foot in his mouth in this instance.
What part his criticism did you find tame? Have you read the translated transcript? It is a very forceful critique of imperialism and capitalism. Very little about it was tame. The devil comments were unnecessary hyperbole in my opinion but they do not reflect most of the content of the speech.
Can anyone confirm that Chavez was interrupted by applause several times and then received a 5 minute standing ovation when he finished? My sister is a translator at the UN and this is what she told me happened. Knowing her I would guess this means he was interrupted once or maybe twice with applause and then received a 2-4 minute standing ovation. 5 minutes is a very long time to clap.
The NYT's article also compares Chavez outburst to Khrushchev's "shoe-banging outbursts" but when I met his son Sergei he denied his father ever did this. He did bang his fist on tables and podiums and he did have a shoe on his desk at one UN meeting but he never banged his shoe on the desk. No photo's of the shoe banging exist either. The NYT's apparently needs better fact checkers.
John Thornton