. . . and maybe Walter Duranty?

The New York Times today gets chills up its legs over Hugo Chavez’s “resilience” and the “fresh vibrancy” of his “socialist-inspired revolution.”

Chávez Decisively Wins Bid to End Term Limits
By SIMON ROMERO
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez handily won a referendum on Sunday that will end presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely and injecting fresh vibrancy into his socialist-inspired revolution.
The results, coming after voters had rejected a similar effort by Mr. Chávez just 15 months ago, pointed to his resilience after a decade in power, as well as to the fragmentation of his opposition, which as recently as November had won key mayoralties and governorships.
The vote opens the way not only for Mr. Chávez to run for a new six-year term when his current one expires in 2013, but could also bolster his ambitious agenda as an icon of the left and a counterweight to American policies in Latin America.
It also creates a new foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration, strengthening a leader who has made a career of taunting and deriding the United States, even though Mr. Chávez just this weekend seemed to open the door for a different relationship.

Me: Give credit where it’s due: Below is the much more objective AP report (which Times editors should read and, perhaps, learn from — unless they want to continue to evolve into a broadsheet version of The Nation).

Chavez calls Venezuela vote mandate for socialism
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Writer Christopher Toothaker, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 16, 3:31 am ET
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez says a referendum victory that removed limits on his re-election is a mandate to intensify his socialist agenda for decades to come. Opponents warn of an impending dictatorship.
Both sides had called the outcome of Sunday’s vote key to the future of this South American country, split down the middle between those who worship the president for redistributing Venezuela’s oil riches and those who see him as a power-hungry autocrat.
“Those who voted “yes” today voted for socialism, for revolution,” Chavez thundered to thousands of ecstatic supporters jamming the streets around the presidential palace. Fireworks lit up the Caracas skyline, and one man walked though the crowd carrying a painting of Chavez that read: “Forever.”
Josefa Dugarte stared at the crowd from the stoop of her apartment building with look of dismay.
“These people don’t realize what they have done,” she muttered.