From the horse's mouth
First in a (hopefully) regular series.
Here is Fidel Castro, speaking in 1965 about why the Cuban media would never publish or broadcast "positive" news from capitalist countries:
"True, everything that we say about the United States here [in Cuba] refers essentially to the worst aspects of the United States, and it is very rare that things in any way favorable to the United States will be published here … We always try to create the worst opinion of everything in the United States, as a response to what they have always done with us. We emphasize the worst things. We omit things that could be viewed as positive."
Source: Fidel Castro, Interviews with Lee Lockwood during 1965-1966, in Lee Lockwood, Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s Fidel (New York: Vintage Books, 1969), p. 113
posted by Luis M Garcia at 2:37 pm
2 Comments:
In my few years checking out the Cuban press, I'd agree that this is perhaps where the censors probably rear their head most. I have read many articles about various problems in Cuba - housing, transport, electricity, ect. But I've never seem a good article about the current US Adminstration. Of course, there are many articles about those fighting Bush... and heroes of US art, music, culture, etc.
But for the sake of argument, has the mainstream US press ever published anything "good" or "positive" about Iran, Iraq, Libya, Cuba, Syria, Zimbabwe, Belarus. etc? Do they write about Cuba's succcess stories in regards to AIDS, homelessness, or when UNESCO released it regional education test scores a few years back?
And let me also ask you, what good things do you think the Cubans need to know about the US, that they are being denied today? What foreign policy success stories? What domestic policies?
My own view is that everything Cuba does well, the US is horrible at and vice versa. It depends on your priorities. If you're wondering, yes I happen to believe more strongly in the values of the Cuban Revolution than capitalism. Those values are too important to give up to the savagery of the market... despuite the loss of economic efficiencies socialism creates.
The reverse is also true, they don't print anything negative about Cuba as I analyzed in this recent post.
http://www.babalublog.com/archives/003373.html
By the way I see that you have now been exposed to Matthew Glesne, who is an apologist for the castro regime and a general all around internet troll. He'll argue that Cuba is a democracy just like (or better) than any other country and that it's the US that is to blame for all the world's ills. He's persona non grata on most of the Cuban blogs, not because we can't handle dissent but because the guy is a propagandist.
And Matt to answer your question the U.S. government doesn't control the press in our country. There are plenty of left wing publications that write all kinds of stuff about those countries you spoke of. If you have problems with the way things are reported you can take it up with the editors. In Cuba there's only one version, the official version.
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