A lot of us that live here in South Florida have serious issues with the Miami Herald’s tone as it relates to its coverage of Cuba’s totalitarian regime and Cuban exiles. Many times, the Herald’s online edition carries ridiculous AP and Reuters fluff pieces that parrot the propaganda put out Granma and Prensa Latina and their columnists and reporters, like Menendez and Corral for example, are well, hostile to Cuban exile community.
Today, in a Miami Herald editorial, we are told that the Cuban regime tells SO many lies that “as a practical matter”, they can’t “set the record straight” every time the Cuban government tells a whopper.
But the practical has collided with the pragmatic today. And so the Miami Herald has put aside its journalistic practicality to refute the latest “whopper” from (r)aúl the pragmatic:
But sometimes the lie is so blatant, so malign, so far removed from the painful reality of life in Cuba that it must be refuted, for the sake of common decency if nothing else.
The big lie they are referring to is (r)aúl (c)astro’s recent claim that there has not been ”one sole case of torture” in Cuba.
The truth according to the Miami Herald:
The truth, of course, is that torture and the humiliation of government opponents is a way of life in Cuba. The abusive legal and institutional mechanisms of the state deprive the people of Cuba of their most basic rights on a daily basis, and that extends to the practice of torture in Cuba’s jails for both common criminals and political prisoners
Usually, the Herald and most of the MSM represent the truth as a multiple choice where they give the regime’s version and then what the critics, (that would be us), say as if they have no empirical way of discerning which side is right. Today they have admitted that the truth can in fact be arrived at by using “testimonies and documentation compiled by exile groups, human rights organizations and international bodies over half a century,” but that they don’t do it as a matter of practicality because one assumes it is too time consuming. I guess its more practical to let the lies go unchallenged.
The editorial also goes on to quote Antúnez’s letter to (r)aúl (c)astro’s on that very same lie. Marc posted Antúnez’s letter here.
On Antúnez:
It took unimaginable courage to write the letter. ”Antúnez” is still in Cuba, still subject to the whims of its ruthless police agents, corrupt courts and venal jail wardens — yet still willing to speak out. Cuba remains a captive nation, but as long as some of its brave men and women dare to speak truth to power, there is hope for the future. Such people will not stay silent in the midst of evil.
Wow! “ruthless”, “corrupt” and “venal”. Those kinds of adjectives are usually reserved for Cuban exiles. Too bad the Herald still chooses to refer to (r)aúl as Cuba’s “leader” rather than dictator. Oh well, you can’t have it all, I guess. One has to be practical.
Maybe the Miami Herald has finally seen the truth and the light at the end of their downward spiraling circulation as a practical matter, of course.
Read the Editorial HERE
I tell you, Gusano, the worm is turning, pardon the pun.
Even if the MSM eventually changes its tune, it will only be because it can no longer stick to the old one, not because it’s suddenly “seen the light.” The light was always quite visible to anyone who cared to see it or look for it without an ulterior agenda to promote or protect.
And of course, the MSM will NEVER admit to any significant wrongdoing regarding Cuba coverage, especially deliberate wrongdoing. At best it will claim ignorance or confusion or misunderstanding, but like the NYT with Herbert Matthews, it will never apologize or truly come clean.
As much as I’ve grown to hate the Herald, I have to admit that using “leader” is better than calling him “President”, which is what everyone else does. Hell, even among US Government bureacrats, the title President is standard when referring to the Castro dictators. On the other hand, poor GEN Pinochet was always a ‘dictator’, never a President or leader of his country. The hypocrsiy and double standards make me want to puke!
Sadly, many people are far more afraid of seeming even slightly right of center than of being inaccurate, biased and/or enabling evil (as long as it’s left-wing evil). When it comes to media types, the slightest whiff of “conservatism” is usually avoided like the plague. And of course, looking too sympathetic to “those Cubans” is absolutely forbidden. Kiss of death by MSM standards.