Hacker News Reader

He's also a Fellow of the George W. Bush Presidential Center: http://www.bushcenter.org/people/joel-hirst.html

He tweeted a link to this blog post, blaming Venezuela's collapse on "commies": https://twitter.com/joelhirst/status/723921894479675392

He also wrote an op-ed for Fox News Latino blaming Chavez's death on Cuban doctors: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/opinion/2013/02/28/cuban-me...

View on HN

Is the fact he has political opinions supposed to invalidate the decade of experience / work?

Am I supposed to mindlessly parrot 'oh, he's related to the GWB center, baaaaaaaaaad'?

I'm not sure what your point is. Well, I do see what you're trying to do, but it's not honest or relevant.

Pointing out a likely bias does bring objectivity into question.

Hirst is a flack. He's paid to promote an idea.

When Chevron pays Barbour, Griffith & Rogers $80,000 to tell everyone that global warming doesn't matter, (https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021679) you don't cry about bias.

If Hirst says communism is bad, it's because he's being paid to say so.

Well, the Cuban doctors thing might have some grounds (is like a widespread rumor type of thing) . He decide to treat himself there instead of in Venezuela, so none really knows what went down in Cuba in his final days.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com