Posted on 08/01/2006 5:22:32 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
view edit Posted by Mark Finkelstein on August 1, 2006 - 08:09. In Miami, Cuban-Americans were literally dancing in the street at the prospect that the repressive regime of Fidel Castro might finally be drawing to an end. But back in Cuba, people greeted the news of the great liberator's illness with dismay. At least they did according to CBS News' woman-on-the-spot.
On this morning's Early Show, CBS ran a brief clip of a phone interview with Portia Siegelbaum, a CBS News producer based in Cuba. Here is the entirety of her report:
"The news of Castro's illness was most unexpected. I spoke to half-a-dozen people last night and they seemed most shook up by his handing over power, even if provisionally, to his younger brother Raul."
Note that Siegelbaum said the people she spoke with were 'most' shook up - not 'mostly.' In other words, it was unanimous: all the people she spoke with were 'most,' i.e, very disturbed.
That was it. Not a hint that some in Cuba are as overjoyed as their brethren in Miami at the notion that this brutal dictatorship might finally be coming to an end. Nope. Every single person Portia spoke to was 'shook up' at the news that, even if just temporarily, Fidel has had to turn over his totalitarian reins, albeit to brother Raul.
I'd say there are three possible explanations of Siegelbaum's report:
1. She moves exclusively in pro-Castro circles;
2. People realize that expressing anti-Castro sentiments to a journalist could be inimical to their health. Siegelbaum never raised that possibility; or
3. Siegelbaum intentionally chose to ignore anti-Castro sentiment to paint a portrait of an island distressed at its dictator's possible demise.
Portia, the cigars are in the mail.
CBS Early Show/NewsBusters luv-ya-Fidel ping to Today show list.
Will Dan Rather or Steven Speilberg be taking his place?
Are tears rolling down Dan Rathers cheeks yet ???????
Wouldn't expect less from the Communist Brodcasting System.
I bet she just talked with fellow journalists instead of actual people on the street. More than a few tears will flow in the journalistic community when their hero Fidel becomes tobacco fertilizer.
Here's my scenario:
Castro dies in a few months. The freshly minted Katie Couric will be on the job and will travel to Cuba to weep at Castro's funeral. Book it.
Is this a joke name? Like "Sillius Soddus" or "Biggus Dickus"??
Hopefully, he'll *expire* on the table and do the world a real favor.
El Jefe is dead, Jim.
4. She's a socialist... who admires totalitarian-communists.
Castro had an "intestinal crisis" so they had to send him for emergency surgery to remove Dan Rather from his colon.
Al-Katie will not be the only one there.
Add:
Dan Rather
Jimmy Carter
Cindy Sheman and other code pinkos
Colypso Louie
Harry Bellowfonte
"... I spoke to half-a-dozen people last night and they seemed most shook up by his handing over power, even if provisionally, to his younger brother Raul."
SIX PEOPLE?!?
It was a small and exclusive reception at the Cuban Ministry of Press Affairs ;-)
When I heard that,I shouted at the radio..."I THINK THAT'S WHAT THEY CALL A DICTATOR,GEORGIE!"
Wonder what the fallout would be if we iced Castro's brother just after big brother goes night night on the operating table ...... then simply annex KOOBA into the United States.
Maybe we can get Miami back?
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