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September 18, 2010

'We Will Get Fooled Again (by Castro),' Chants the MSM

By Humberto Fontova
You'd really, really think half a century of Castro pronouncements might make the MSM a tad skeptical about them. Take this one from 1959.

For months by the time of his above denouncement of Communism, Fidel, Raul, and Che had been repairing to their respective (stolen) Havana mansions nightly and conferring with Soviet GRU agents to button down the Stalinization of Cuba. Raul Castro had been supervised by a KGB handler since 1953, and when arrested in Mexico in 1956, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was found to have, in his very wallet, the calling card of the KGB's top Latin American agent, Nikolai Leonov.

Now take the MSM (the same people who erupt in cynical snorts rather than allow any Republican to finish a sentence)'s reaction to that Castro pronouncement:

"This is not a Communist Revolution in any sense of the term. Fidel Castro is not only not a Communist, he is decidedly anti-Communist."
 - Herbert Matthews, New York Times, July 1959
"It would be a great mistake even to intimate that Castro's Cuba has any real prospect of becoming a Soviet satellite."
 - Walter Lippmann, Washington Post July, 1959
"Castro is honest, and an honest government is something unique in Cuba. Castro is not himself even remotely a Communist."
 - Newsweek, April 1959
"We can thank our lucky stars Castro is no Communist."
 - Look Magazine, March 1959

Fast-forward to more recent Cuba headlines:

Cuban workers no longer guaranteed a meal ticket for life in state industry ... Self-employment may be answer to Cuba's problems ... A total of some 500,000 Cubans could end up being moved from their current jobs amid Cuba's drive to cut state costs.
Economists have put the number of Cubans who would be shunted out of their jobs at 1 million or more. Some say this implies a need for more radical reform, including allowing small private businesses and not just self-employment. ... some 160,000 Cubans have obtained licenses to provide authorized goods and services in about 140 categories. ... This could rise to half a million people. ...

All the above dates from Reuters, which is actually not so recent. In fact, it's dated February 23, 1995.

"But wait!" some readers react. "Didn't I just read virtually the identical 'scoops' in the MSM this very week?!"

You sure did.  Here's the MSM's "scoops" on Cuba from this very week. Take the Washington Post's:

... Cuba embarks on a bold new experiment -- firing 500,000 state workers and letting them plunge into freer markets ... It's a big breakthrough, because for the first time the government acknowledges that the private sector, the small-business operators, are not bit players but a strategic part of the Cuban economy.


In perhaps the clearest sign yet that economic change is gathering pace in Cuba, the government plans to lay off more than half a million people from the public sector in the expectation that they will move into private businesses.

Just for fun, I call your attention to the beginning of this article, where a few years back, the New York Times and the Washington Post waxed sagacious on Fidel Castro.

You'd really, really think the "Cuba Experts" habitually sourced for their sagacity by such as the New York Times and the Washington Post might have advised their Cuban case-officers: "Aw come ON! ...you guys are even using the same numbers as fifteen years ago! 'Half a million'...'one million'! Come on! -- what would your KGB and STASI instructors have to say about such sloppy work? ...We'll be a laughingstock if we try to run the same identical stuff again! ...Sheesh!"

Naturally, they needn't have feared. Those "gallant crusaders for the truth!" (Columbia Journalism School's term for their students), the MSM, are reciting their insights (i.e., the Castro propaganda ministry's handouts) right down to the "ands" and "thes," and to the exact numbers -- like trained seals. As usual.

And oh, before I forget....here's what became of those earth-shaking and permanent reforms announced by Castro's propaganda ministry in 1995 and dutifully parroted by the MSM.

Cuba's communist government has tightened official supervision and control of self-employed workers, increasing the state's bureaucratic squeeze on the island's very small private sector. ... The government's decision to open up and expand the self- employed sector in late 1993 was initially interpreted as a clear sign that communist-ruled Cuba was moving toward a more market-orientated economy ... But since then, many foreign analysts have expressed disappointment at the barrage of regulations and taxes imposed by the authorities on the sector.

And so it goes. Given his record with the MSM, who can blame Fidel Castro for this expression? And who can blame his DGI (Directorio General de Inteligencia) officers for this one?

Humberto Fontova is the author of four books, including Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant and Exposing the Real Che Guevara. Visit hfontova.com.
on "'We Will Get Fooled Again (by Castro),' Chants the MSM"