Thursday, September 22, 2005

A post castro Cuba: how will the mainstream media cover it

And the role blogs will play.

Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath have been very revealing in exposing tactics of the mainstream media. These supposedly unbiased outlets went out to find every miserable person they could that would blame the president, if not for the hurricane, then for global warming, not funding the levies, not mobilizing FEMA, etc. Notice they didn't interview anyone that was saved on that first day, though we know there were scores of them. I'm not pointing out anything new here. Journalists and editors have a lot of power to influence opinion and despite their claims of being unbiased, their ideology is apparent. For years and years we've seen how the MSM treats Cuban issues. They ignore anything that makes fidel's regime look bad and sensationalize anything the exile community does. That's if they mention Cuba at all.

So I'm left wondering what will happen when the media's favorite dictator is finally gone. Our friend Howard Morseburg thinks there will be a movement to "canonize" castro in the media. He may be right. But I think the jubilation in Havana and throughout the island will mute any such reports. Just as the media had to hold its tongue while the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad, they'll have to do it again in Cuba's case. But as Cuba transitions from 46 years of communist dictatorship there will be a period of adjustment. A period in which many will be unemployed, trying to see how they fit into a capitalist environment. That's where the media will step in. We'll get reports about the disenfranchised people with no work and social safety net. They will complain that although it wasn't much, before they were assured of having their basic food and healthcare taken care of. They'll say that "even though things were bad, they were better than they are today."

So I don't think the job of the Cuban American Pundit will ever be "done". We need to be right here setting the record straight. Reporting the stories the MSM ignores. Once the regime falls there will be so many revelations of human rights abuses, terrorism, and plans of armed aggression against the United States so as to dwarf what's been written thus far.

I love technology.

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