Posted on 06/09/2002 6:58:14 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:37 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
HAVANA
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
But his is going to be a viewpoint that will be very prevalent in Cuba in the aftermath of Castro's fall.
A hybrid of sorts.
Scrambled signals for Cuba - Myriam Marquez - Orlando Sentinel - Published June 9, 2002
[Full Text] Just as Radio Free Europe gave hope to Eastern Europeans under Big Brother communism during the Cold War, Radio Marti and TV Marti seek to inform Cubans about what's really happening in Cuba and the world. That's the goal, but the reality is TV Marti is a phantom station with virtually no viewers and Radio Marti no longer holds Cubans' attention like it did a decade ago.
The U.S. government spends $25 million a year on the radio and TV operations, but several members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, want to end the TV broadcasts, which the Cuban government jams with the help of Chinese-built equipment. They would use $10 million now wasted on TV Marti for other more productive means to help Cubans. It's about time.
Yet President Bush wants to spend even more American taxpayers' money to try to un-jam the TV signals and improve the radio signals, which now reach Cuba by short-wave radio or sporadically can be heard on AM stations. What's really needed is a revamping of the radio broadcast's content to more straight news and less ideological gibberish.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami calls Radio Marti "the most popular radio station in Cuba's history." In Miami, it sure is, because the exile community has demanded control of the operation. That simply feeds into Castro's own propaganda that exiles want to rob Cuba's people and impose a right-wing dictatorship. That's rubbish, of course, but perception is everything, and right now many moderate Cubans' perception of Radio Marti is that it doesn't deal with their reality.
After 43 years of a one-party state in Cuba, two generations have grown up with communist government propaganda spoon-fed to them since pre-school. They've learned on their own to read between the lines of the propaganda of the left and -- now, thanks to Radio Marti -- of the right. Most Cubans I talked to during my recent three-week visit there lamented that Radio Marti was too consumed by an ideology that they simply cannot relate to. Cubans want less passion and more facts in their news.
During testimony last week in Congress, critics of the U.S. broadcast operations pointed to questionable news judgment by Radio Marti on several occasions. For instance, it waited until the day after Jimmy Carter's historic speech in Cuba on human rights to air the former president's message. Philip Peters, of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said he believes the delay was caused by some of the radio operation's staff who "opposed President Carter's [anti-embargo] views on Cuba policy and his dialogue with Cuban authorities."
Radio Marti officials said it was simply a matter of logistics because the dictatorship controlled the broadcast feed of Carter's speech. But Radio Marti could have put public pressure on the Cuban government to make the feed universally accessible. Or used a second source to piggyback on the feed.
Then there's the infamous Elian Gonzalez case. Radio Marti didn't announce that the shipwreck survivor had been taken by the U.S. government to his Cuban father until four hours after the raid.
"These are colossal journalism failures," Peters told the congressional panel Thursday. "When you blow a major news story, you lose your audience."
Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, makes a compelling case for reorganizing Radio Marti and ending the TV signal that gets nowhere. "We're spending $10 million a year on a TV station that few, if any, Cubans can watch," he said. "Let's take that money and actually spend it on something that will undermine Fidel Castro. Perhaps we can divert it to Radio Marti or use it to purchase and distribute radios to Cubans."
Precisely.
Cuban officials already have blasted Vicky Huddleston, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, for distributing about 200 short-wave radios to Cubans. It's to the Bush administration's credit that the distribution occurred. But letting the programming slip into a newscast mired by exile political machinations is not doing Cubans any favors. After 43 years of dictatorship Cubans have learned the hard way to distinguish between the facts and political poppycock from both sides of the Florida Strait.
Cuban officials already have blasted Vicky Huddleston, the head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, for distributing about 200 short-wave radios to Cubans. It's to the Bush administration's credit that the distribution occurred. But letting the programming slip into a newscast mired by exile political machinations is not doing Cubans any favors. After 43 years of dictatorship Cubans have learned the hard way to distinguish between the facts and political poppycock from both sides of the Florida Strait. [End]
Myriam Marquez can be reached at mmarquez@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5399. or use it to purchase and distribute radios to Cubans." Precisely.
I obviously don't agree with some of his views, but I am encouraged by free political thinking, and the signs of the loss of fear of government reprisals by a portion of the Cuban people, who with things like this man's Radio Marti show, and the realization of Project Varela, are starting a quiet revolution in Cuba.
I hope and pray that this quiet defiance becomes a nation-wide roar soon.
Like Willy Chirino sings: "Nuestro dia, ya viene llegando."
Luis
Bump!
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