Another pronouncement about Castro’s dedication to the children of Cuba and the quality of life under his regime: "Part of what the [Cuban school] children talked about was their fear of the United States and how they felt they didn’t want to come to the United States because it was a place where they kidnap children, a direct reference, of course, to Elian Gonzalez...." -ABC’s Cynthia McFadden…
Frightening new governmental censorship powers are not being reported by the liberal media. MRC Founder and President L. Brent Bozell III's special message to MRC Action team speaks about the new threat to Free Speech - the "Durbin Doctrine".
On an April 2000 NBC Nightly News, reporter Jim Avila touted the "Cuban good life" Elian Gonzalez could have under Castro: "...Elian’s future here likely to be the Cuban good life, lived by Communist Party elite with perks...plus, invitations reserved for the party elite to cultural events, sports, discos and restaurants..."
In a May 26, 2000 report, CNN quoted just four sources — two 13-year-old girls, a camp official, and a father — all of whom praised Cuba's practice of sending young teenagers to work as forced farm labor. Newman declared the program instills "respect" for "hard work" and that while students "say at first they were homesick," they soon boast that they "are having a great time"...
Rachel Maddow and guest Rick Earle, reporter with NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh, on her March 2, 2009 show on MSNBC.
In January 1998 on CNN’s The World Today, Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman even managed to put a positive spin on Castro’s rigged one-party elections: "...No dubious campaign spending here, no mud slinging...there are as many candidates as seats to be filled, all of them by supporters of the Communist government — a system President Castro boasts is the most democratic and cleanest in the world…
For a May 2002 Special Report, MRC analysts examined five years of CNN’s Cuban coverage. They found only about three percent of CNN’s Cuba coverage focused on Cuban dissidents, and less than one percent dealt with the harassment and intimidation of independent journalists in Cuba. Fidel Castro himself was treated more as a celebrity than a tyrant, with stories about his 73rd birthday party and an…
In October 2002, ABC’s Barbara Walters traveled to Cuba for an exclusive interview with Castro. She fawned, "For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth. The literacy rate is 96 percent." The quote "won" Walters first prize in the "Media Hero Award" category of the MRC’s Best Notable Quotables of 2002.
In May 2002, CNN sent correspondent Kate Snow to anchor an hour-long prime time Live From Havana, timed to the visit of ex-President Jimmy Carter. Snow fretted about the "hard line" policies and views of President Bush and exiled Cubans in Miami while hoping Carter’s visit might "moderate" the Cuban-Americans. She also touted the "successes" of life under Fidel Castro.