The MSM And The Mustache On The Left

Brent Bozell writes, “For decades, this has been an easy display of the media�s foreign affections. Every right-wing dictator, like Chile�s Pinochet, is a �dictator,� while every left-wing dictator is merely a �leader,� or in Castro�s case, a �dashing revolutionary� and a �rock star.� That was ABC�s Diane Sawyer on the morning of Castro�s abdication announcement”:

Throughout Castro�s long history of dominating Cuba, he has also dominated the American media, who have covered him with a sickening parade of ardor and accolades, even after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Consider these morally bankrupt valentines:

1. Barbara Walters on ABC, in 2002: “For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. �

2. Dan Rather on CBS feeling all warm after Elian Gonzalez was ripped away from those �so-called Cuban exiles� in 2000: �There is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba.�

3. Katie Couric applauding communist achievements on NBC in 1992: “Considered one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century….Castro traveled the country cultivating his image, and his revolution delivered. Campaigns stamped out illiteracy and even today, Cuba has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.”

4. Peter Jennings on ABC, in 1989: “Castro has delivered the most to those who had the least, and for much of the Third World, Cuba is actually a model of development.”

5. Even sportscasters darkened their reputations. In a 1991 special covering the Pan Am Games, ABC�s Jim McKay could have been speaking for the media in 2008: “You have brought a new system of government, obviously, to Cuba but the Cuban people do think of you, I think, as their father. One day you�re going to retire. Or one day, all of us die. Won�t there be a great vacuum there? Won�t there be something that will be difficult to fill? Can they do it on their own?”

They always do back the mustache on the left–the MSM’s coverage of Castro dovetailed remarkably well with their equally obsequious coverage of fellow despot-in-fatigues Saddam Hussein.