It's one of the first war profiteering corporate news monopoly stories that even attempts a bit of old-fashioned, journalistic "objectivity"--at least regarding some of the parties involved in the hostage negotiation (but not all). Maybe they realize that their extreme propaganda about South America--particularly about the huge, peaceful, democratic leftist movement in South America--is starting to wear thin, many people are just not believing them, so they have to take a smarter tack.
But I think this effort to seem objective has another motive, perhaps the primary motive: To give more credibility to certain Bush-CIA baldfaced lies about this situation (the Bush Junta actively tried to sabotage Chavez's hostage negotiation)--for instance, to cleverly hide the ridiculous tale that the FARC "lost" the child Emmanuel--to try to downplay credit to Chavez for the 2-hostage release last week--and, above all, to blackhole certain basic facts of the situation (which makes the whole situation--the existence of a huge leftist insurgency in Colombia, for instance---incomprehensible), namely the horrendous atrocities of the Uribe government against union organizers*, small peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and real journalists (thousands tortured and slaughtered for peaceful political activity), and what's really at stake: Occidental Petroleum oil fields (FA RC controls a third of Colombia, where the oil is), billions of dollars in U.S. boondoggle funding of the Colombian military, big drugs/weapons trafficking by RIGHT-wing forces (no doubt including the Bush Cartel), and, if Donald Rumsfeld is to be believed**, Bush Junta/oil corporations' plans to use Colombia as a launching pad for economic and military warfare against the resource-rich Andes democracies with leftist (majorityist, human rights oriented, social justice) governments: Venezuela (oil), Ecuador (oil) and Bolivia (gas). It enrages the Bush Junta that these resources are being used to help the poor. It may also be in their contract with their corporate puppetmasters that they have to regain some ground in South America, for global corporate predators, or their immunity for their war crimes may be withdrawn.
People need to re-read this article with these points in mind. Then all will be clear (or clearer):
1. The Bush Junta lusts after the oil and other resources in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia. FARC is denying access to these resources in Colombia. Democratic governments are controlling the resources in the other countries, and are using profits from the resources, not to buy multiple yachts and private jets and mansions, and to torture and kill for greed, but for a just and rightful purpose: local development and bootstrapping the vast poor population.
2. Fomenting war in Colombia serves the Bush Junta purpose, thus, their puppet, Uribe, opposes a peaceful settlement, and the Bush Junta directly pulls his strings: For instance, when it appeared that Chavez would achieve a larger hostage release (circa 12/1/07**), including the child Emmanuel (whom FARC had entrusted to a foster care family in Bogota, for his safety and welfare), Uribe abruptly halted Chavez's efforts, using a lame excuse, and then ARRESTED the 3 FARC negotiators, who were in transit to Caracas with "proof of life" documentation--a serious act of bad faith--likely learned the child's location that way, seized the child, and announced to the world that FARC and Chavez were LYING that FARC had custody of the child and would release him. (It never made any sense whatsoever that FARC would lie about this--a lie that would be imminently exposed.)
3. The stakes for the Bush Junta and their fascist allies in South America are very high, and include vast profits from oil, from slave labor, and from bilking the American people of billions of dollars for the phony, failed and vastly corrupt "war on drugs," drugs/weapons trafficking on a large scale, specific profiteering in Colombia by Occidental Petroleum, Chiquita, Monsanto, Blackwater (training camps for Iraq) and others, and the interests of Exxon Mobile, Bechtel and other global corporate predators in neighboring countries.
Rep. Jim McGovern deserves kudos for his efforts on the hostages' behalf--part of a larger effort, I'm sure. to negotiate a peace settlement in Colombia's civil war. But this Houston Chronicle article about him has different purposes, and we need to learn to "read between the lines" to know what they are--especially when the writing is clever, and not the obvious fascist crap that we normally get. This piece is quite devious. Notice how long it takes for the article to give Chavez any credit for last week's hostage release (11 paragraphs) - and even then they they try to make him look like a "terrorist" for his effort. ("But Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's socialist president who is deeply admired by the FARC..."!) Chavez had to brave a Bush Junta target on his back, to get this humanitarian job accomplished. The hostages families, the president of France, and, really, everybody else in the world, credits Chavez, and Chavez alone, for persisting in this effort, and he did so despite its obvious dangers to himself--both physically and as to his reputation. Rumsfeld and co. tried everything they could to smear him for his effort, and to foil it. But he succeeded anyway.
Also notice the reference to the hostage release negotiation in Rumsfeld's first paragraph**. Yup, this was a nasty bit of black ops they were trying to pull--at the risk of the hostages' lives, including the life of a child.
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**"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html*Amnesty International Report documenting massive human rights violations (torture, death) by Colombian security forces and associated paramilitaries, against union leaders:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/26e626d7-a2c0-11dc-8d74-6f45f39984e5/amr230012007en.html 
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