MediaWatch: April 1990
Table of Contents:
NBC Refuses to Learn From Nicaragua
CLAPPING FOR CASTRO
In February, NBC News correspondent Ed Rabel confidently predicted the U.S. invasion of Panama would insure a Sandinista victory. Even before Nicaraguans could count the vote he insisted "the topic of the day is: how will a freely elected Sandinista government be treated by the United States?" Rabel's misreporting must not have disturbed his NBC bosses too much. A month later, when the Bush Administration cranked up TV Marti, Rabel was on the scene in Cuba to champion Castro's popularity.
"Fidel Castro's Cuba is not about to go the way of Eastern Europe, according to Cuba experts in the United States" Rabel began March 30, during the first of two NBC Nightly News stories. "Cubans devoted to Castro far outnumber opponents," Rabel continued. Just one Cuban Rabel talked to said anything negative about Castro. Rabel noted that "many young people freely complain about deficiencies," such as "the lack of consumer goods," but Rabel dismissed the development. "Youthful discontent, diplomats in Cuba say, must not be confused with the dissatisfaction that led to popular change in Eastern Europe. There, they say, socialism was imposed by the Russians. Here, Cubans adopted socialism for themselves." Rabel concluded that Castro "remains Cuba's number one hero: A man who still can challenge the United States and get away with it."
Rabel continued focusing on Cuba's young people on April 1, asserting "they are the healthiest and most educated people in Cuba's history. For that, many of them say they have Castro and his socialist revolution to thank." Again, Rabel insisted: "If they are bored with Castro's rigid Marxist-Leninist doctrine, or if they long for the sweeping changes occurring in Eastern Europe, they are not saying so publicly...There is no movement here for change, they say, because the revolution in Cuba is too strong." A young Cuban declared: "We have the best leader in the world, Fidel Castro. We love him, that's all...Socialism or death, that's our future."
When asked by anchor Garrick Utley whether the revolution could survive after Castro, Rabel replied, "The revolution is 31 years old. It is institutionalized. It can survive Castro." Rabel refuses to learn the lesson of Nicaragua: that despite what they may say in fear to a camera crew, people don't hesitate to oust a communist regime when given a chance. "On a sunny day in the park in the city of Havana, it is difficult to see anything that is sinister," Rabel wistfully reported in 1988. Two more years of repression and the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe still haven't led Rabel to see the light.
