Media Willful Blindness on Castro, and Other Related Items
This is a job (mostly) for NewsBusters to chronicle on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s resignation as “President.” I’m sure NB posters will be quite busy today noting faux-rosy descriptions of the Workers’ Paradise and its head thug.
I’ll lead things off, even though NB also mentions it, with an excerpt from Anita Snow’s Associated Press report:
Castro’s ….. detractors called him a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.
The word “dictator” doesn’t appear anywhere else in Anita’s snow job.
Earth to Anita and Old Media: Castro objectively (there’s that word again) is/was “a dictator whose totalitarian government systematically denied individual freedoms and civil liberties such as speech, movement and assembly.”
NB’s current contributions are these:
- Clay Waters — NYT Gives ‘Charismatic’ Castro Credit for ‘Great Social Achievements’
- Ken Shepherd — Castro Headlines/Labeling Watch; AP: ‘Detractors’ Called Him Dictator
- (HAD to add this) Scott Whitlock — ABC’s Sawyer Hails ‘Dashing,’ ‘Rock Star’ Fidel Castro
Others weighing in and/or reporting now (I don’t intend to update beyond this list):
- Michelle Malkin
- Bryan at Hot Air
- CNN — Obama, McCain on Castro’s resignation (I wonder if the hard left is going to give Obama a hard time over what he said?)
- BBC (major gag alert)
- Miami Herald
UPDATE: A mandatory add from NB’s parent, a February 2007 report from Media Research Center — “Fidel’s Flatterers: The U.S. Media’s Decades of Cheering Castro’s Communism.” It recites 20 years of Drive-by Media Drivel.
Let’s not forget how El Jeffe treats journalist!
http://www.canf.org/News/archived/020531newsb.htm
http://www.cpj.org/news/2008/americas/cuba15feb08na.html
New York, February 15, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes news of the impending release of two Cuban independent journalists. Both were imprisoned during a massive crackdown against Cuban dissidents and the independent press almost five years ago.
http://www.cpj.org/attacks01/americas01/cuba.html
In May 2001, for the seventh straight year, CPJ named President Fidel Castro Ruz to its annual list of the Ten Worst Enemies of the Press.
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/74763
Reporter jailed in Cuba after covering government evictions
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/1033/
Cuba – 12 FEB 2008
Student arrested after asking critical questions at public event
more…
Cuba – 18 JAN 2008
Journalist in Combinado del Sur prison on hunger strike; RSF alarmed at deteriorating health of several others
more…
Cuba – 19 NOV 2007
Journalists denied permission to emigrate
more…
Cuba – 24 AUG 2007
Imprisoned journalist Adolfo Fernández Sainz’s health deteriorates
more…
Cuba – 22 AUG 2007
Journalist released after 15 months in prison
Comment by dscott — February 19, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
#1, and the willful blindness goes on, as if they think an equivalent El Jeffe would spare them because their views are pure.
Comment by TBlumer — February 19, 2008 @ 4:43 pm