Cuba & U. S. Journalism

A Candid Observation
{Thursday, February 4th 2016}

         This beautiful young lady is Katie Pavlich. She is 27-years-old. For years now, or almost since the day she graduated from the University of Arizona, she has been anointed as the face, or at least one of them, of broadcast journalism in the United States. That's important because television news, despite its precipitous decline in quality in recent decades, remains the dominant force in American journalism, long ago eclipsing newspapers and still far ahead of the digital explosion, at least regarding so-called hard news. Katie Pavlich majored in broadcast journalism at the University of Arizona and probably took a government-related class or two. That, plus her stunning looks and her strong opinions, made her an instant hit on network news operations that particularly covet Talking Heads, commentators, and pundits like Katie. The visionary Ted Turner in 1980 founded CNN as the first 24-hour cable news outfit. His idea was to hire the best broadcast journalists and send them out to cover the news. That viewpoint made him and CNN legends, but he sold out to a corporation, which also purchased his vision. Now huge corporations like Disney, General Electric, Comcast, etc., own the networks and their singular vision is money. Thus, Talking Heads and pundits as opposed to real broadcast journalists now dominate the airways...hour after nauseating hour. Talking Heads and pundits like Katie Pavlich are smart, educated, and easy to look at, but they are not broadcast journalists. In other words, they don't report the news as unbiased anchors nor do they go out and investigate the news as reporters. But they save the networks money by being studio pundits who are more than happy to be promoting themselves or their products.

Katie Pavlich happens to be a political conservative tilted to the right.

       She is thus a popular pundit and commentator on Fox News, especially Bill O'Reilly's top-rated program. Networks long ago determined that Talking Heads save them money that should be spent on sending journalists out to cover the news so viewers could be informed and also form their own opinions on issues. But Talking Heads and pundits are propagandists whose prime function is to proselytize the viewers to accept whatever it is they are selling -- their opinions, their books, etc. Katie, straight out of college, chronicled her conservatism or right-wingism with two highly publicized books. Her two books are: "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up" and "Assault & Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women." With books like that straight out of the University of Arizona, Katie Pavlich was sure to get flattering calls from every major conservative or right-wing radio or television newshound. Barack Obama still has eleven months to go in his two-term presidency, so Katie probably has one more anti-Obama book up her sleeve before he leaves office, knowing full-well she would get countless hours of free network promotion as a prime Talking Head. That, in essence, is what broadcast journalism in the U. S. has evolved into -- a capitalist propaganda and promotion machine prioritizing money with scant emphasis on actually covering and reporting the news.

       This beautiful young lady is Cristina Escobar. She is 28-years-old. Cristina is the top broadcast journalist in Cuba and a truly skilled anchor and interviewer in either Spanish or English. Like Katie Pavlich, Cristina is well-educated and opinionated. In fact, Cristina has a very low opinion of broadcast journalism in the U. S. and she has studied it minutely -- from her vantage point in Cuba, at a journalism seminar in California in 2014, in Washington this past summer when she covered the Vidal-Jacobson diplomatic session, etc. Both on Cuban and American soil, Cristina has pointedly made this point: "The lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba hurts everyday Cubans the most." Indeed, on her newscasts in Cuba Cristina will readily criticize the Cuban government if she feels everyday Cubans are being mistreated or could be better served. By contrast, she believes her counterparts in America do not have the broadcast freedom that she has in Cuba. Yes, she understands that broadcast journalists in the U. S. can and do regularly criticize their governments -- local, state and national. However, she believes that "the lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba" is "mostly speaking to the choir, telling the masses what they have been programmed to believe and then using that to make money and improve ratings." Moreover, Cristina seems to comprehend what Americans are not supposed to realize, which is: The stark preference for Talking Head pundits in the U. S. is merely designed to save the corporate owners money so they don't have to go to the expense of covering the news with real reporters. Cristina says, "Broadcast journalists, I believe, should report the news and be able to write it and be able to conduct intelligent and appropriate interviews. But having people on set to fill time and promote themselves or their views is not broadcast journalism. So, yes, I closely study the journalism in the U. S. to learn what not to do. I'm not a propagandist. I consider myself a broadcast journalist."

       Whether or not you agree with Cristina Escobar's views on broadcast journalism and her criticisms of the U. S. media, she is, I think, worth pondering. That's because: {1} broadcast journalism is the most domineering aspect of the U. S. media, because of the visuals and because its easier than reading print journalism; and {2} it is the medium that, as a proven propaganda tool, best proselytizes masses of people. From Cristina's Cuban viewpoint, the lies the U. S. media tells about Cuba results mostly from political correctness as opposed to hateful or punitive lies. "But," she says, "the end result is the same whether the lies are meant to hurt Cuba or meant to tell the viewers what they expect to hear, what they have been programmed to expect." Cristina believes that "lack of respect for journalism also has a capitalist bent -- money. If lies tend to make more network money than the truth, lies win out in U. S. broadcast journalism."

       From the beautiful young broadcast journalists Katie Pavlich and Cristina Escobar, we move to the pedestrian-looking, veteran print journalist Ken Silverstein. He helps explain the declining respect for the news media in the U. S., which is reflected by an approval rating in the single digits, even below class-action lawyers. Ken has earned a reputation as a top investigative journalist. He has worked for a myriad of highly respected organizations -- the Los Angeles Times, Harper's Magazine, and the Associated Press. Because of television and digital competition, many great newspapers have gone out of business, such as the superb Rocky Mountain News in Denver, or been forced to downsize print editions in favor of online coverage. But to this day magazines like Harper's, Time, etc., and print newspapers from the Los Angeles Times on the West Coast to the New York Times on the East Coast to the Kansas City Star in the Heartland remain the best sources to get actual news coverage. Ken Silverstein represents the divide between print journalism today and pundit-driven broadcast journalism. He recently wrote a long, well-researched article about a prime presidential candidate that he depicted as just about the most corrupt person to ever be considered a serious presidential candidate in the United States. Mr. Silverstein is a high-profile journalist and his eminently detailed corroborations were similarly high-profile, amply supportive of his conclusions as he cited incidents, names, and dates -- none of which, to my knowledge, will ever be denied. Yet, the broadcast networks don't dare mention such things because, if they did, that notable candidate and others like him might refuse to become Talking Heads, meaning the networks might have to cover the news.

       This is the graphic that accompanied the aforementioned article by Ken Silverstein in which he eviscerated Marco Rubio's character, which possibly -- unless disputed -- could, or should, be of interest to voters. You can go online to read the article and then judge it, Mr. Silverstein, and Mr. Rubio for yourself.

         Print journalists such as Ken Silverstein and the editorial writers at the New York Times still tell both sides of two-sided stories, something broadcast journalists in the U. S. appear incapable or unable to do. MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program -- featuring anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski -- is one of the most influential political programs. Morning Joe, a former Florida congressman, is more of a pundit than anchor. On the morning a major article in the New York Times revealed major financial mishaps and misdeeds by Marco Rubio in Florida, Morning Joe held up that article to the camera and loudly proclaimed, "This will get Marco elected President of the United States!!" And well it might, if the broadcast journalists have their way. Ken Silverstein's subsequent article was much more detailed in regards to what he called Rubio's unfathomably "corrupt" shenanigans but I don't know if Morning Joe held up Silverstein's article and declared that it would get Rubio elected President. But my contiguous and contaminant mosaic that includes such eclectic and diverse media personalities as Katie Pavlich, Cristina Escobar, Ken Silverstein, and Morning Joe is merely to illustrate a fact of life in the United States: What now passes for broadcast journalism in the U. S. would, I think, be reprehensible or unrecognizable to the great Walter Cronkite.

       The New York Times this week used this perceptive Political Cartoon to show an Anger Meter that aptly defines the growing distaste Americans have for both the money-crazed political process and the money-crazed/pundit-driven media coverage of it, which drags on endlessly to keep the unlimited financial donations and the ad money streaming in. THE PRIME VICTIMS ARE THE VOTERS AND THE VIEWERS.

{Photo courtesy: JSBICXY/Birds & Blooms Magazine}
Birds in winter need seeds/food from humans.

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"Last Vestige of Cold War"

France Fights for Cuba
But Rubio Is Now #1 Republican

         As we have said in this forum for many months now, Josefina Vidal -- Cuba's indefatigable American expert -- has predicted that Marco Rubio will be the next U. S. president beginning in January of 2017. Because her expertise regarding the U. S. has been extremely accurate in the last fifteen years, many top Cuban observers, including those confused by America's prolific punditry, put much stock in Vidal's long-shot prediction. Today -- Feb. 2-2016 -- it is far less of a long-shot. Rubio was the big winner with a strong 3rd place finish in yesterday's first Republican primary voting in the Iowa caucus. Vidal and the Cuban government have embraced President Obama's massive efforts to normalize relations with Cuba but, following Vidal's lead, Cuba is resisting following up on economic and political ties with the U. S. that a Republican-dominated Congress along with a Republican in the White House can easily overrule beginning less than a year from now. For that reason, and because of Vidal, Cuba is stressing the need to firm up relations with all other countries other than the United States. In 2016, a year in which Fidel Castro turns 90 and Raul Castro turns 85, the future of post-Castro Cuba is more than ever in Vidal's hands. She is acutely aware that U.S.-backed right-wingers now powerfully challenge Cuban-friendly governments in Venezuela and Brazil. She is acutely aware that post-Castro Cuba must adopt the Chinese and Vietnamese styles of capitalism. And she is also acutely aware that a Republican, namely Marco Rubio, will defeat the Obama-like Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in America's ongoing 2016 presidential sweepstakes.

        Marco Rubio, the first-term U. S. Senator from Miami, can now seriously point to the White House. In the Iowa caucus yesterday he finished a strong third behind the winner, fellow Cuban-American first-term Senator Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump. But that showing projects Rubio as the strong favorite of the Republican financial and political establishment, which will, in the coming months, easily elevate Rubio.

      The two Cuban-Americans -- Rubio and Cruz -- will now begin to squeeze out the national poll-leader, Donald Trump, for the Republican presidential nomination. That's the way it looks now after Iowa and that's the way Vidal predicted months ago.

        French President Francois Hollande is warmly hosting Cuban President Raul Castro this week in Paris. After a state dinner at Elysee Palace, Hollande spoke profoundly against the U. S. embargo of Cuba, calling it "the last vestige of the Cold War and one the world wants ended once and for all against Cuba." 

Cuban President Raul Castro was given full military honors in Paris.

Presidents Hollande and Castro have met in both Havana and Paris.

        This AP photo shows Cubans enjoying internet connections thanks to one of the 50 wireless connection points in Havana. This week Cuba announced it will open 17 more wi-fi hook-ups in Havana and it is now launching broadband internet service in homes in two Havana neighborhoods and will later extend it to cafes, bars, and restaurants. The BBC says 150,000 Cubans now use Havana's wi-fi hook-ups.

     The makers of Bacardi Rum are furious at President Obama. Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, the Bacardi family has been one of the many who have benefited massively from exiting the island to embrace American capitalism and decades of U. S. efforts to recapture what it had in Cuba during the Batista-Mafia years from 1952 till 1959. Bacardi Rum was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862. Now based in the tax-haven of Bermuda and making its rum in the U. S. Territory of Puerto Rico, Bacardi has multiple buildings in the Miami area. Bacardi for decades has enjoyed having the Bacardi trademark and a monopoly on rum sales in the U. S. and the massive areas it most influences. Also, historians have noted that considerable Bacardi money has supported numerous anti-Castro enterprises. In 1996, for example, Bacardi's highly financed lobbyists in Washington, led by anti-Castro zealot and Bush-connected Otto Reich, pushed through the infamous anti-Cuban Helms-Burton Act that has mightily enriched a few Cuban-Americans but massively harmed millions of Cubans on the island. But last month President Obama, in his continuing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, bravely renewed the famous Havana Club trademark for Cuba's Cubaexport company. Bacardi, not surprisingly, has sicced its vast lobbying effort in the U. S. Congress on Obama.

     Except for the U. S., Cuba's famed Havana Club trademark is recognized by the rest of the world. Havana Club was officially introduced in Cuba in 1934 but it dates back to 1878 when Jose Arechabala founded a distillery in Cardenas, Cuba. It is now distributed via a propitious long-term deal with the French alcoholic giant Pernod Ricard. Havana Club is considered the only authentic Cuban rum and has earned a reputation as being a superior product to Puerto Rican-produced Bacardi. Thus, if President Obama's overture prevails and creates a level playing field, Havana Club could overtake Bacardi's huge multi-billion-dollar advantages in the U. S.

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Cuba & U.S. Politics

Obama's Successor Will Be Crucial

       Jose Mujica -- the very, very popular former President of Uruguay -- had a long and very pleasant visit in the Havana home of Fidel Castro this past weekend. Mujica, a huge revolutionary friend who was Uruguay's President till March of 2015, has visited Fidel each of the last four Januarys -- 2013, 2014, 2015 and now 2016. At a news conference in Havana Saturday -- January 30, 2016 -- as reported by Fox News Latino and others -- the 80-year-old Mujica said these interesting words: "I had a pretty long meeting with Fidel and we talked about an infinite number of things. He remembered perfectly well our last conversation, and I confess he looked better than he did when I was in his home last year -- always scintillating, with the most diverse concerns. He is concerned about the spreading Zika virus. And he is direly concerned...alarmed, really...by the need to breed livestock as an important food category." Fidel Castro, who has surprised a lot of people for a lot of decades, now plans to celebrate his 90th birthday on August 13th of this year. 

     Cuban President Raul Castro arrived in Paris yesterday -- Sunday, the last day of January, 2016 -- and he will receive all the Bells & Whistles now accorded to major heads of state. That includes a state banquet in his honor at Elysee Palace. This photo shows French President Francois Hollande on his important state visit to Cuba in May of 2015. Hollande was the first of the leading Western Presidents to take full advantage of U. S. President Barack Obama's overtures to Cuba, including the opening of embassies in Havana and Washington for the first time since 1961. Prior to Castro's return visit, Hollande's office said, "Cuba is a country that is opening and we want to be a significant part of that opening." The statement also expressed France's recognition that "good relations with Cuba improves France's with all of Latin America." Even prior to Obama's brave efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, major French companies have been doing business with the island for years. Accor is involved in Cuba's hotel industry and Air France has regular flights to Cuba; the French alcohol beverage giant, Pernard Ricard, distributes Cuba's prized Havana Club, etc. Cuba owes France $4 billion but the French appear willing, even anxious, to reinvest most of that debt back into Cuba. Like all of America's best friends, France adamantly opposes the embargo of Cuba, which has been in effect since 1962. On his visit to Cuba in May, France's President Hollande said, "Few nations, large or small, could have withstood over five decades of intransigence from superpower America, with the embargo just one element. But now that Cuba has withstood it, the end of the embargo should stop hurting other nations too."

       President Obama's two-term presidency began with him supposedly marching to defend a Cuban policy that the prior ten U. S. presidents -- including Democrats Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton -- had neither the courage nor the ability to change. But Obama, realizing the negative image it casts worldwide on America, has done all in his power to alter the abomination, changes that France this week is following up on.

        Obama's legacy as President will note that he was the only U. S. President since the 1950s with the guts and decency to extend a warm hand to Cuba. He understood that Cuba's revolution in 1959 didn't overthrow a U.S.-backed Mother Teresa dictatorship in Cuba; he understood the ill-advised Bay of Pigs attack in 1961 only added to the Castro legend, as did countless U.S.-aided Exile and Mafia assassination attempts; he understood that such things as the terrorist bombing of the civilian Cubana Flight 455 and the embargo greatly harmed both everyday Cubans on the island as well as America's international reputation; and he understood that having a Cuban policy designed to sate the revenge, economic, and political motives of a handful of extremists had maligned the image of American and democracy long enough.

      The gutty brilliance of Mr. Obama regarding Cuba highlights the fact that none of his predecessors -- not even Kennedy, Carter and Clinton who tried -- could compete with a bought-and-paid-for Congress when it came to mandating Cuban policy. In the final months of his two-term presidency, Obama is forced to confront belligerents in Congress led by two first-term Cuban-American extremists -- Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- who happen to be prime Republican presidential contenders in 2016. Yet, Obama continues into this new month of February-2016 to use his Executive Powers to chip away at the abysmal Congress-mandated Cuban policy that all other U. S. presidents lacked the courage and intelligence to utilize.

       America's most enthused democracy-lovers, such as Sarah Stephens, have walked in stride every step of the way as President Obama has tried to normalize relations with Cuba. Ms. Stephens is the Founder and Director of the influential Washington-based Center for Democracy in the Americas. In her latest "Cuba Central" update on the CDA website, Ms. Stephens wrote: "President Obama is making it easier for U. S. actors and producers, writers and musicians, to work and perform in Cuba, and engage with Cubans in the process of creating their art. We have come a long way since the days when Cuban artists of the caliber of Latelbrahim Ferrer...were barred by the Bush administration from picking up their Grammy Awards."

       Unfortunately, the two-term George W. Bush presidency directly preceded President Obama's two terms. The Bush dynasty, dating back decades, has benefited massively from economic and political standpoints with its tight alliance with only Cuban-exile extremists as opposed to Cuban-exile moderates. For example, over and beyond the strident bought-and-paid-for Cuban policies of the U. S. Congress, the George W. Bush presidency mandated such anti-Cuban dictates as an expensive, for both taxpayers and America's image, program to entice Cuban doctors and nurses working in poor foreign nations to defect to the U. S., one of the last-minute Bush directives that President Obama inherited and tried to correct.

        During his eight years as President, George W. Bush appointed only anti-Cuban zealots such as Carlos Gutierrez {above}, Roger Noriega, Otto Reich, Mel Martinez, etc., etc., to direct his Cuban and Latin American policies. It was in line with his father's {George H. W. Bush} extreme anti-Cuban policies during a long political career and his brother's {Jeb Bush} extreme anti-Cuban policies during two-terms as Governor of Florida, policies that certainly will be resumed if Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or any other Republican claims the White House in January of 2017 succeeding the decent Mr. Obama. During the preceding George W. Bush presidency, for example, the U. S. executed its last Latin American regime-change, strongly and embarrassingly supporting a coup that overthrew -- for about 72 hours -- Cuba's friend Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. While such a return to abysmal U. S. policies in Latin American still alarms and roils the entire region, the Bush dynasty has always been assured that nothing it does in regards to Cuba will cost it any votes or support from sufficiently proselytized and propagandized Americans who have been primed to think that such abominations as the Bay of Pigs attack, the terrorist bombing of Cubana Flight 455, the Venezuelan coup, etc., etc., were pro-American, pro-democracy acts.

        If Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush -- or any Republican, for that matter -- becomes President of the United States in January of 2017, they will immediately begin rolling back all of the positive overtures President Obama has made regarding Cuba. Yet today -- February 1, 2016 -- as the armies of television pundits analyze the results of the first primary caucus voting in Iowa -- the Cuban issues, as far as the media is concerned, are totally off the table although, in essence, the Cuba issue has a dramatic effect on the overall image of America and democracy. And, sadly, propagandized Americans will merely sigh and not utter a whimper regardless of what any anti-Cuban zealot as President or Commander-in-Chief does.

           Cubana Flight 455 resonates throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and the world. Yet, Americans have been successfully propagandized into believing it never happened, or at least that it was/is insignificant. Whether goaded by incompetence or intimidation, the U. S. media navigates through an entire presidential campaign cycle, obsessed with such things as today's vote in Iowa, without ever mentioning the vastly significant difference between President Obama's Cuban policy and the Cuban prospects of the would-be Republican presidents, a contest that includes yet another Bush and two Cuban-American anti-Castro extremists. And so, what is the significance of Cubana Flight 455?? Well, if Americans were proselytized to have no reaction to Cubana Flight 455, what could a Republican Commander-in-Chief do regarding Cuba that they would react to? {The operative word being...react}.

Meanwhile:

       Meet a very important Cuban named Odalys Rodriguez del Toro. She is the Director of ETECSA, the island's networking effort. On this very first day of February of 2016, Odalys has a big announcement: She is launching broadband internet service in two Havana neighborhoods as a pilot project aimed at bringing home access to the island. Then she will allow cafes, bars and restaurants to begin ordering broadband services. To bring that about, Odalys says she is working with Huawei, China's giant telecom operator.

       Cristina Escobar, Cuba's highly regarded and superbly talented television news anchor, reminds her attentive audience that the island "has many friends around the world, including Americans like Mr. Obama, and as you will see this week...like France and China. To move forward, we must work with our friends, the ones we can trust the most." At age 28 and the most influential Cuban among the crucial young-adult generation of Cubans, Ms. Escobar clearly does not trust the U. S., for these reasons: "Miami, Republicans in Congress, and the possibility of a Republican president who will try to undo what Obama is accomplishing."

         During the above session, Cristina cracked up her two guests with this comment: "Your viewpoint gives me a revolutionary thought -- WHY DON'T CUBANS ON THE ISLAND DECIDE THE FATE OF CUBA'S FUTURE!"

Cristina Escobar is very much A CUBAN ON THE ISLAND.

Even Washington now pays attention to her viewpoints FROM HAVANA.

Even in her leisure moments, Cristina Escobar fights for Cuba.

And, I might add, with a revolutionary fervor.

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What Cuba Says About America

Far More Than Americans Are Told

Photo courtesy: Doug Mills/New York Times.

        Friday, January 29th -- after Thursday's 7th Republican presidential debate -- the New York Times used the above photo to illustrate its major article by Frank Bruni. The article was entitled: "G.O.P Debate Stars the Ghost of Donald Trump." The first line was: "Donald Trump's Absence, of course, Was the Most Compelling Presence." It was also compelling, I think, that the debate, with the absence of poll-leader Trump, centered on Trump's two primary rivals -- Cuban-American, bought-and-paid-for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Cuban-American, bought-and-paid-for Senator Marco Rubio from Florida. There are countless other moderate Cuban-Americans who are not bought-and-paid-for by the Tea Party and an array of anti-democracy billionaires, but in today's money-crazed political arena in the United States, if you are not bought-and-paid-for than you do not have the money to be a viable contender.

        The serious presidential bids of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio say a lot about a lot of things, namely the overwhelming influence of money on America's political landscape and the drastic decline of the money-crazed, pundit-driven U. S. media. For example, most Cuban-Americans -- along with most Americans and most people in the world -- agree with President Obama's plans to normalize relations with Cuba. But there is zero chance a moderate Cuban-American who feels that way can get elected to a national office in the United States of America.

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        One of the most important developments in America in recent decades has been President Obama's bold, legacy-defining attempts to normalize relations with Cuba. In fact, in the annals of recent American history it could rank as the most important event, and not just in the eyes and minds of Cuban aficionados. Since 1952, U.S.-Cuban relations have persistently defined the image of America and its democracy perhaps more than any other single involvement or relationship. President Obama's Cuban policy contrasts sharply with the U. S. theft of Guantanamo Bay in 1903, the U. S. teaming with the Mafia to support the vile Batista regime in Cuba in 1952, the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 that resulted in the reconstitution of the Batista-Mafia dictatorship on U. S. soil, the U.S.-Cuban exile attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 that remains the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear holocaust, the Bush dynasty alignment with anti-Castro zealots that came to dictate a self-serving Cuban policy that benefits or sates the revengeful appetites of a few while harming everyone else, and control of the U. S. Congress by a handful of Bush-aligned Cuban-Americans that legalized a Cuban policy opposed by most American and most Cuban-Americans. Thus, Mr. Obama's "NEW CUBAN POLICY" has corrected or ameliorated some of the most flagrant anti-democratic Cuban policies of the past, but not all...NOT YET!!!

        The U. S. broadcast media is currently obsessed with the unending, money-crazed election process that will determine the next President of the United States beginning in January of 2017. In particular, the televised Republican debates have cast a paradoxical anomaly on the U.S.-Cuban conundrum. First off, two prime anti-Obama/anti-Castro, first-time, Cuban-American U. S. Senators -- Marco Rubio from Florida and Ted Cruz from Texas -- are serious Republican presidential candidates, along with former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a key component of the powerful Bush dynasty alliance with only the most zealous of the anti-Castro Cuban-American zealots. Secondly, the moderators of the televised Republican debates have consistently asked the candidates a plethora of questions -- ranging from the pertinent to the silly to the sublime. BUT NARY A QUESTION ABOUT CUBA. That reveals the incompetence, the cowardice, and the biased tenets of the U. S. media. Three prime Republicans seeking the presidency -- Rubio, Cruz, and Bush -- are all tightly tied to the Batistiano-directed congressional laws regarding Cuba that President Obama is trying so hard to correct...AND NOT ONE QUESTION TO THEM ABOUT CUBA? Such media cowardice and political chicanery proves yet again that Cuba says a lot more about the U. S. than it says about Cuba.

For example:

            Americans unfamiliar with Ann Louise Bardach are also unfamiliar with today's U.S.-Cuban relations, especially how they evolved over the past six decades. Not to know Ms. Bardach probably means you have formed your opinions about Cuba based on the narrative espoused only by the most extreme remnants of the overthrown Batista-Mafia dictatorship, which immediately reconstituted itself in January of 1959 on U. S. soil, mainly Miami, New Jersey, and then Washington. The best chronicler of all that is Ms. Bardach. As an investigative journalist, essayist, and author, she is nonpareil when it comes to Cuba. It is therefore safe to assume that if you have not read and comprehended her two seminal books -- "CUBA CONFIDENTIAL: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana" and "WITHOUT FIDEL" -- you don't have a clue how the island of Cuba is so intertwined with America's worldwide image. In 1976 Emilio Milian was the top Cuban-American newscaster in Miami. He voiced opposition to rampant Cuban-exile terrorists harming innocent Cubans, views that got him car-bombed. Jim DeFede, the top columnist at the Miami Herald at the time, wrote a famous column in which he excoriated Miami members of Congress -- especially the Havana-born Jeb Bush prodigy Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- for so lavishly supporting and protecting Miami's most famed Cuban-American terrorists. Needless to say, DeFede knowingly put his job on the line when he wrote that article. With the exceptions of Milian and DeFede, few U. S. journalists have had the courage or integrity to write or speak truthfully about U.S.-Cuban relations. That's why Ann Louise Bardach is so important. And, unfortunately, that is why you will seldom, if ever, see true and unbiased experts like her discussing Cuban issues on network "news" programs in the U. S. while pro-Miami and pro-Bush propagandists such as Ana Navarro, Nicole Wallace, Jose Diaz-Balart, etc., verily saturate the American airways with their lucrative and  biased "expertise." But there are exceptions. In rare instances when the broadcast media in the U. S. tries to project fair and balanced Cuban coverage, you might read or hear the true expert opinions of someone like Julia E. Sweig, Sarah Stephens, Wayne S. Smith, Peter Kornbluh, or...Ann Louise Bardach.

In fact:

      Lo 'n behold, The World Post & The Huffington Post recently conducted a major Question & Answer session with Ann Louise Bardach, the greatest chronicler of U.S.-Cuban relations. And the article asked her some of the pertinent questions that the network anchors during the Republican debates don't have the guts or the integrity to ask. For example, Ms. Bardach was asked this very salient and extremely brave question: "It has been known, though rarely reported, that Jeb Bush helped free a Cuban terrorist accused of blowing up a passenger jet carrying 73 people. Should people still care that the 2016 Republican presidential hopeful did this?" Now study that question posed to Ms. Bardach and decide for yourself if it should be asked of Mr. Bush on the campaign trail or in the debates. In any case, Ms. Bardach answered it, as she is prone to do, without bias and with her facts in order. This was her exact reply:

                 "I think it needs to be discussed. He played a huge role. He saw to it that the Justice Department was overruled, that then-Attorney General Dick Thornburgh -- and I wrote about this in Without Fidel and other pieces -- that's a remarkable thing he was able to get his father {the President} to overrule the Attorney General. And I interviewed Dick Thornburgh. He was not happy about this. Very unhappy about it. He thought Orlando Bosch was big trouble and needed to get out of the country, and was a convicted terrorist. That was the opinion of the Attorney General and somehow that got overruled after a lot of back and forth between father and son. People forget that Jeb Bush was the Campaign Manager for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen at a very critical time at the peak of power in Miami. And that Ileana's mentor was not just former head of the Cuban American National Foundation Jorge Mas Canosa but also Enrique Ros, her father, was one of the 'militantes.' He believed passionately in 'la lucha' {the fight} against the Castros. This was at the top of their agenda -- free Orlando Bosch. And they did. And they couldn't have done it without the help of Jeb Bush."

          That Q & A session with Ann Louise Bardach was published Dec. 26-2015 in an article entitled: "Why The Cuba Trade Embargo Still Isn't Going Anywhere." You can go online to read it in its entirety. But no one in the mainstream American broadcast industry has the courage or integrity to ask someone like Ms. Bardach such a question, although Americans surely need to hear her expert, important answers. 

         This 1989 photo illustrates what Ms. Bardach discussed in the aforementioned Q & A session. It shows Jeb Bush forming a halo around the head of Havana-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen after he, her Campaign Manager, had used the Bush dynasty to help get her elected to the U. S. Congress. It, of course, helped Jeb establish his political roots in Florida on his way to becoming a two-term Governor of Florida.

       Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has remained in the U. S. Congress since 1989 as a leading anti-Castro zealot. She has been followed on the Miami-to-Congress path by Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, the sons of former Batista Minister Rafael Diaz-Balart, as well as by Marco Rubio and Carlos Curbelo. Although numerous recent polls show that the majority of Cuban-Americans even in Miami support President Obama's efforts to normalize relations with the island, Miami's democracy seems only capable of sending Cuban hardliners to the U. S. Congress...and hopefully to the Presidency as Commander-in-Chief. The mainstream U. S. media, of course, wouldn't dare to mention such things, or dare not to promote whatever Ros-lehtinen, the Diaz-Balarts, Rubio, and Curbelo say about Cuba. Thus, for the most part, regular Americans, who have not had the freedom to visit Cuba, form their opinions of U.S.-Cuban relations almost exclusively based on what hardliners like Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen tell them to think.

     The Bush dynasty -- starting long, long ago with CIA operative, Vice President, and President George H. W. Bush -- is the prime reason only Cuban hardliners have forged the Cuban policy that President Obama is trying to mollify. This photo shows President George H. W. Bush handing out souvenir pens after signing anti-Castro legislation into law. On the left of this photo gleefully receiving souvenir pens are two Cuban-born top-tier hard-liners -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Jorge Mas Canosa -- mentioned in Ann Louise Bardach's Q & A answer about the Jeb Bush question that mainstream U. S. journalists don't have the courage to ask. It was as President that George H. W. Bush, at the behest of his ambitious son Jeb in Florida, made Orlando Bosch a life-long and very renowned citizen of Miami as opposed to an imprisoned terrorist.

      As products of the Bush dynasty, the Tea Party, and bought-and-paid-for cash from billionaires, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are serious contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. That's a serious problem for America. Yet, the time is ripe for a non-extremist Cuban-American in the White House, one who cares more about 11 million everyday Cubans on the island than he or she cares about money and power.

And rough times for America.

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P.T. Barnum Was Correct

So Was Thomas Jefferson

       P. T. Barnum was a Connecticut dandy who lived large from 1810 till 1891. He founded Barnum & Bailey Circus and made a lot of money -- by not underestimating the taste {or the intelligence} of the American people. All these decades later, in 2016, the U. S. media and the U. S. political circus have decided to heed P.T.'s advice. And, like P.T., they are raking in the cash while also making a joke of the U. S. democracy.

 Proof that P.T. Barnum was correct.

TV pundits replaced Mr. Jefferson's newspapers.

Pundits prove both Mr. Barnum

and Mr. Jefferson were correct.

That's the way the post-Cronkite media is.

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