It is admirable that the network newscasts expose war crimes committed by Vladimir Putin (ex-KGB agent) against Ukraine. However, we must not forget the long history they had of supporting communist dictators. This week, it was 33 years ago. World News Tonight gushed over the brutal Fidel Castro for “Giving the greatest to those with the lowest resources”
Peter Jennings was then an anchor and portrayed the nation in which dissidents are imprisoned, or even killed as a place with a high literary rating. Here’s Jennings on April 3, 1989:
Castro gave the best to people with the lowest resources. Cuba has been a beacon of hope for many third world countries. Once education was only available to those who were wealthy and well connected. Now, it is free for all. Only a third could read or write when Batiste, the Cuban dictator, fled the country on January 1, 1959. Today the literacy rate stands at 97 percent. This was once the exclusive domain of the few. Nowadays, every Cuban has access to it and it’s free. Some of Cuba’s health care is world class, in heart disease, in brain surgery, for example. Health and education are the revolution’s great success stories.
— Peter Jennings reporting from Havana on ABC’s World News TonightThis article was published on April 3, 1989.
ABC journalists sure seemed like PR tools to the communist Castro. On October 11, 2002, Barbara Walters gushed, “For Castro, freedom starts with education. Cuba ranks among the world’s most liberated nations if literacy was the only yardstick. The literacy rate is 96 percent.” Of course, if one were to use freedom as the yardstick for freedom, Castro’s brutal legacy would fail miserably.
Castro died on November 25, 2016, at the age of 59. The December 4, 2016, NBC Nightly News Morgan Radford appeared caught up in the drama of the funeral, recounting, “Tears of sorrow and cries of patriotism. Thousands lined the streets to greet the caravan of Fidel Castro’s ashes.” She touted, “His remains arriving in the city where his revolution was born.”
For a March 14, 2022 MRC study, I wrote about how, while the media rightly and consistently highlights the brutality of Putin now, they loved the “mighty” Soviet Union back then. You can read the full study here.
For more examples from our FLASHBACK series, which we call the NewsBusters Time Machine, go here.
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