Clips from the Rachel Maddow show, March 16, 13 and 12, respectively.
"Considered one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century....[Fidel] 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."
— Katie Couric reporting on NBC’s Today, February 13, 1992.
In 2006, after Fidel Castro’s declining health forced him to turn power over to his brother Raul, many members of the U.S. media fell over themselves in describing the dictator in poetic terms. On Fox News’s Geraldo At Large, host Geraldo Rivera went overboard in a commentary about Castro’s legacy, using flowery descriptions such as "romantic revolutionary," and even "charismatic commie."
In a July 27, 1991 special, Fidel Castro, One on One, ABC’s Brent Musburger gave Cuba a positive review: "There are many Cubans who find their lives much better here than before the Revolution..." And in his interview with Castro, ABC’s Jim McKay flattered Fidel: "...the Cuban people do think of you, I think, as their father...." (ABC’s sports commentators covering the 1991 Pan Am Games in Cuba)
"They are the healthiest and most educated young people in Cuba’s history. For that, many of them say they have Castro and his socialist revolution to thank....If they long for the sweeping changes occurring in Eastern Europe, they are not saying so publicly..."
— NBC reporter Ed Rabel, April 1, 1990 Nightly News.
"He [Fidel Castro] said he wanted to make a better life for Cuba’s poor. Many who lived through the revolution say he succeeded....Today even the poorest Cubans have food to eat, their children are educated and even critics of the regime say Cubans have better health care than most Latin Americans." — Reporter Paula Zahn on Good Morning America, April 3, 1989.
"...there is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba. And, I recognize this might be controversial, but there’s little doubt in my mind that Fidel Castro was sincere when he said, ‘listen, we really want this child back here.’" — Dan Rather, live on CBS the morning of the Elian raid, April 22, 2000.
"To be a poor child in Cuba may in many instances be better than being a poor child in Miami and I’m not going to condemn their lifestyle so gratuitously." — Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift on The McLaughlin Group, April 8, 2000 commenting on Cuban life under Castro's reign.
"Why did she [Elian’s mother, a maid] do it? What was she escaping? By all accounts this quiet, serious young woman, who loved to dance the salsa, was living the good life, as good as it gets for a citizen in Cuba....An extended family destroyed by a mother’s decision to start a new life."
— Jim Avila from Havana on NBC Nightly News, April 8, 2000.