ABC Touts Elian Gonzalez Interview: He 'Still Supports Fidel Castro'

[See NewsBusters for more.] ABC on Monday eagerly touted an "exclusive" interview with Elian Gonzalez. Jim Avila, appearing on Good Morning America and World News with his scoop, never mentioned that the now-21-year-old might have been brainwashed with Cuban communist propaganda. Instead, he parroted, "Elian still supports Fidel Castro, who has routinely visited him since his return, with his classmates, at his birthday and national events."  Avila, who traveled to Cuba for the interview, noted that "pictures of Castro line Elian's modest home." Recounting how the six-year-old was dragged out of his Miami family's home, the journalist translated, "He says, 'I'm willing to forgive [Florida relatives who sheltered him], as long as they acknowledge they made a mistake.'" Anchor David Muir hyped this as a "new message" for his family in the United States.