Absolution and the Press

As I contemplate just how or when the pigs became human, I cannot avoid the role of the press. I have always believed and still do believe in the importance of a free press. From childhood, I regularly read the newspapers, watched Huntley and Brinkley et al. In those days, perhaps in my innocence, I had a great respect for the media. Today, the press is one of my greatest sources of despair.

I'm watching the news and hear that they are going to be reporting about Cuba. Inwardly, I cringe. I don't have to watch it, although I do. I know what is coming- a glossy rendition of Castroite propaganda based on the assumption that the natives are poor but happy and a heck of a lot better than they used to be. The exiles in this country are just a bunch of angry, rapacious lunatics who, my God, have the nerve to wave Cuban flags. They are not to be taken seriously. Invariably, the report will feature some portion of that script.

Why, I wonder. I suspect that there are many causes, but the one that burns me is that they don't do their homework. What happened to factual reporting? What happened to investigative journalism? Is it limited to the private lives of Republicans? Why don't they apply the same skepticism to the assertions of the Castro regime that they apply to those of the Bush Administration? All it would take is a trip to the internet. Investigate Moore's claims about Cuban healthcare. Look at the pictures on The Real Cuba. Then contact them. Find out their sources. Visit a pharmacy in Miami. Ask them how much medicine they send to Cuba? Ask them why.

Could it be that these journalists didn't start out sweeping the pressroom floors and work their way up? That they are for the most part pretty talking heads, products of our journalism schools with all their attendant political leanings? Don't believe me. Do an experiment. Just watch all three major cable news networks, as I used to. I no longer regularly watch MSNBC, as they veered into MoveOn territory. Any network that allows and vaunts the ugliness of Olbermann's rants against Bush and loads its panels with liberals is not for me. Gee, can it be that I like my news with at least the pretense of objectivity? Fox is often too opinionated for me, but it does counter MSNBC. Anyway, forget Cuba. Just listen to the reports. You will find, just on the basis of your watching all three, inaccuracies from network to network. You will hear errors unworthy of any college graduate. Often, I find myself correcting the anchor at home, and I'm just a viewer.

So what happens when your average viewer who doesn't have the time, inclination, or knowledge to question the company line ingests this tripe. You've got it. Let's see, the embargo is the cause of the disastrous state of the Cuban economy, no mention of open trade with the rest of the world or that we are one of their largest food suppliers or the nearly one billion dollars of American property seized by the same government or the unpaid millions they owe other governments. Cuba is a hot tourist spot that Americans are not allowed to enjoy because of that nasty Bush administration and those crazy Cuban Americans, not an enslaved society where the people are nearly forced to prostitute themselves to the Europeans et al in order to lessen their deprivation.. Che is a mythic revolutionary hero, a freedom fighter, not a butcher who died trying to foment revolution in someone else's country, one that apparently didn't want it.

The state of the media these days is truly depressing. It is still our last best hope to combat totalitarianism, but one that is increasingly tenuous. And I haven't even touched on the Paris factor. Ouch!