The same day CNN’s Allison Flexner, an one-time producer of Cuban stories, apparently issued a memo instructing how the "resignation" of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was to be covered, CNN’s chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour neatly matched one of the points made in the memo during two segments on Tuesday’s "American Morning."
During the first segment, which was six minutes into 7 am Eastern hour, Amanpour heralded Cuba being "a leader in many things such as education, health care -- all of those things that it has been able to bring to its people, but not the fundamentals" such as "openness, freedom, the ability to have enough wherewithal, and, you know, the same kind of bread and butter issues that everybody all around the world wants."
At the beginning of the 8 am hour, Amanpour noted that "there’s a lot of difficulty in day-to-day living," and focused on the jailing of political dissenters. She immediately followed this by saying, "that offsets some of the genuine progress that he's made, in terms of education, health care. People have talked a lot about that. But day-to-day life for them is very decrepit and very hand-to-mouth and, obviously, they want change."
Amanpour’s talking up of Castro’s "progress" followed the second point in Flexner’s memo. "Please note Fidel did bring social reforms to Cuba – namely free education and universal health care, and racial integration, in addition to being criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech."
The only other occasion on February 19 that someone on CNN used language from Flexner’s memo was during the 1 pm Eastern hour of CNN’s "Newsroom." CNN International’s Isha Sesay commented on the sparse coverage of Castro’s resignation on Latin American television. "And the interesting thing to point out to our viewers is, despite the fact that Fidel Castro is seen by many in Latin America as a hero, these networks are largely going the course of business as usual. This story is hardly dominating from what we've seen. We're not seeing wall-to-wall coverage of this story." This lines-up with the last point in the memo - "while despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States."
Audio available here (265 kB).
—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Comments Policy
Yeah right, Castro's health
February 20, 2008 - 12:45 ET by ForeverOnTheRightYeah right, Castro's health care is in such shambles I would not put even a dog through. What was the heath care before Castro? Where hospitals dirt floor hovels or what? I doubt that the schools are much better. Amanpour must think socialism is a utopian political system. She's been exhibiting such poor judgment lately she should be fired for incompetency.
Duh? Ms.
February 20, 2008 - 13:42 ET by johng45Duh? Ms. Amanpour.
Didn't Castro have to leave Cuba for Spain because his own health care system failed him?
Since this is a known fact, can you imagine the health care that is available to the common man?
Cuban health care
February 20, 2008 - 13:57 ET by KC BeachI seem to recall that the health care in Cuba is so good that after going through surgery in Cuba, Castro then had to be flown to Spain to fix what was messed up. I am sure ALL Cubans are afforded this service.
Which health-care system would SHE go to?
February 20, 2008 - 15:34 ET by planetrepublicanIf this woman gets cancer or some other dreaded disease, can you guess where SHE would go for treatment? Cuba? Not a chance! She would go to the very best medical system in the world, and that is in the USA.
Praise Castro
February 20, 2008 - 12:48 ET by iveseenitallPraise Castro, never President Bush. PUKE. I wonder how Michelle Obama feels about Castro? Maybe she and Amanpour can compare notes.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Michelle Obama feels about Castro?
February 20, 2008 - 13:43 ET by ThisnThatDon't know. The only evidence we have is of Obama not placing his hand over his heart; declaring he will not wear an American flag lapel pin; and pictures of the Cuban flag in one of his campaign offices. If I was to try to answer this on evidence alone, I'd say she is more inclined to embrace Castro than President Bush.
If someone comes up with contrary evidence, I will factor that into my opinion.
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
libs
February 20, 2008 - 12:49 ET by iveseenitallNEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Only C.N.N
February 20, 2008 - 12:49 ET by American TaxpayerOnly C.N.N would promote Fidel Castro as a hero to be worshiped. ATTENTION C.N.N FIDEL IS A KNOWN KILLER!!! Profesional Media must be code for Giant Stupid Ass...
I get healthcare, but not
February 20, 2008 - 12:51 ET by EdhenryI get healthcare, but not freedom.
I get education, but no ability for expressing dissent.
Castro has ruined lives of all Cuban citizens, but keeps them alive longer to suffer the misery longer.
Lesson to MSM, nothing is worth having without basic freedom.
Nothing.
Analogy
February 20, 2008 - 16:14 ET by planetrepublicanI am a great leader, I have empied all the hospitals of all the sick people...I have executed them. This was done for the good of "the people" but now we have an excellent medical system that is so good, it has no patients.
progress in healthcare and education?
February 20, 2008 - 12:52 ET by szampCastro's progress in healthcare was so big that when he needed help, he called a doctor from Spain.
Also, what is the point of having a good education system if there are no jobs and it's not possible to start a business to put that nice education to use?
Being hard on Castro... I
February 20, 2008 - 13:01 ET by Clear thinkerBeing hard on Castro...
I think folks are being a little hard on Castro. Over the years he has improved healthcare. Just the other day he mandated that his citizens were now allowed 1 full Aspirin per month. In the past people could only get half an Aspirin per month and this created a huge blackmarket in Cuba for Excedrin.
Set the GOP back on the right course. http://gopteaparty.com/
Huh?
February 20, 2008 - 13:04 ET by FreakyBoyDo you really need a free education to earn $19.00 a month?
Superb
February 20, 2008 - 13:48 ET by ThisnThatThis is the best comment of all. You put it so succinctly.
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
Stolen Boat Report
February 20, 2008 - 14:23 ET by pagar"
Do you really need a free education to earn $19.00 a month?"
All one needs to know about Cuba can be found in the Stolen Boat Report--Hundreds stolen in Cuba in the past 50 years to get to the US. None stolen in the US to get to Cuba for the free health care and $19 per month.
What the MSM always fail to
February 20, 2008 - 13:05 ET by Pete WilsonWhat the MSM always fail to mention about Castro is that his revolution was to overthrow a dictator. Little did the people of Cuba realize that they only traded one dictator for another.
Amazing, that the American
February 20, 2008 - 13:20 ET by Chris NormanAmazing, that the American media can find so much to praise in a third world dictator-run dump, like Cuba, and so much to criticize in their own country. The only thing Cuba offers it's citizens are the Three Rs: reading, 'riting, and rationing...
You forgot
February 20, 2008 - 14:01 ET by KC BeachRetaliation
Rafting. My bad.
February 20, 2008 - 14:18 ET by JerryRafting.
My bad. Castro's schools don't teach this, they learn it on their own in a home schooling class called: "101 Ways to Get Out of this He## Hole".
When asked if he went to war with Iraq to derail the impeachment vote: “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).
"openness, freedom, the
February 20, 2008 - 13:27 ET by WhoIsJohnGalt"openness, freedom, the ability to have enough wherewithal, and, you know, the same kind of bread and butter issues that everybody all around the world wants."
You know...like actually HAVING bread and butter.
GACK
February 20, 2008 - 13:27 ET by owlpelletsThe left really wants a workers paridise for everyone but them. It shall be financed by all of the evil oppressive private S Corps. that do nothing except make unions and the public sector look stupid and inefficient.
I always wanted to get into politics, but I was never light enough to make the team.
Amanpour is right about Castro...
February 20, 2008 - 13:29 ET by ThalpyAmanpour is right about Castro; the Cubans he had executed had no further need for health care or education. This approach removed some stress from his revolutionary programs. Certainly some of the despots before Castro were no better, but Castro has been anything but a saint.
Castro is a murdering thug
February 20, 2008 - 13:30 ET by jdhawkCastro is a murdering thug who should be tortured slowly until dead. The world will rejoice when he assumes room tempature. It can't come soon enough nor for his many henchmen.
Note it is always the "compassionate" liberals that love the thugs. CNN has a long history of telling lies about them.
Meanwhile, President Bush is touring to throngs of people in Africa attempting to thank him for his vision and the American peoples' blood and treasure expended on their behalf. But, of course, little or nor word from the drive bys on this subject.
I won't turn on or read anything the drive bys have to say or print. The sooner they go out of business for their boostering thugs and failed liberal policies the world over, the better.
He made alot of progress in
February 20, 2008 - 13:41 ET by mattmHe made alot of progress in murdering dissidents, too.
The fact that so many Libs love this guy plus the fact that this guy is completely evil, sheds serious doubt on the entire philosophy of liberalism and should cause thinking liberals to reconsider their views.
misnomer
February 20, 2008 - 13:48 ET by pagar"the fact that this guy is completely evil, sheds serious doubt on
the entire philosophy of liberalism and should cause thinking liberals
to reconsider their view"
There are no thinking liberals. The liberals simply accept the propaganda handed out by the enemies of America, add their hatred of America to it and pass it on.
the real Health scare in Cuba
February 20, 2008 - 13:43 ET by bigpapamake sure you look at the pics.
http://therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
"a leader in many things
February 20, 2008 - 14:48 ET by Jack BauerAnd so did Hitler and Mussolini -- and we all know what humanitarians they were! How can you parody this crap?
Christiane Amanpour has a
February 20, 2008 - 15:30 ET by fitzfongChristiane Amanpour has a real authenticity problem. She has always been able to get away with blatant bias and dishonest reporting because she packages herself as an authority figure. Beneath the phony exterior (e.g. the greasy, unwashed hair when she's out in the field, the hand-wringing self-importance of her delivery) and proper know-it-all affectation, she's just another garden variety hack...and an elitist snob, to boot. And being married into the Clinton inner circle doesn't help.
Amanpour has been so
February 20, 2008 - 15:33 ET by pocomocoAmanpour has been so disgraced by her biased news reporting she is nothing more than a cartoon character akin to Daffy Duck.
My apologies to Daffy Duck.
She is just plain ugly
February 21, 2008 - 00:31 ET by jefflebowskiI've always thought this Englishter looks like a ugly man. Make that a stupid, ugly man.
Nice to see the intelligent
February 21, 2008 - 00:34 ET by balboaNice to see the intelligent part of the argument now being made...
Christian Amanpour to
February 20, 2008 - 15:56 ET by BritcomChristian Amanpour to Fidel: "Muwah-muwah-muwah! <3<3<3"
---
Huckabee/Hunter '08
George Soros & John McCain >>
Now now Christiane, before
February 20, 2008 - 16:46 ET by rbosqueNow now Christiane, before you completely swallow that red pill, you might have to ask yourself one question; If free healthcare and gun-control were so great, why do so many people want to LEAVE Cuba? Could it be that it's a brutal communist dictatorship? That might have something to do with it. But your twisted thinking is nothing new. Last night, ABC's NIGHTLINE called Castro a "patriarch". You people on the left are psychotic.
Education and Medicine?
February 20, 2008 - 17:01 ET by LCT688More closely akin to indoctrination and vetinary care but then Castro's dog probobly gets better health care than the average Cuban.
"A nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one."
Alexander Hamilton
Christiane Amanpour is nothing more than a useful idiot.
February 20, 2008 - 19:08 ET by R D Helm"while despised by some, he is seen as a revolutionary hero, especially with leftist in Latin America, for standing up to the United States."
Which is the reason that the America-hating MSM considers him a hero, as well.
The MSM useful idiots like Christiane Amanpour care not a whit for the unfortunate souls who have been forced to live under Marxist tyranny over the years. They care even less for the one's these tyrants, including Castro, have imprisoned and/or murdered.
As far as I am concerned, the blood of the untold millions who have died is all over the hands of the liberal MSM, both here and abroad, who have done nothing but cover up or explain away the crimes of the the worst dictators of our time.
Swimming to Havana
February 20, 2008 - 20:25 ET by w0tmWho could have possibly guessed we'd ever swap forms of government with
Cuba? As the most liberal senator in the Senate heads for the White
House and the house of cards that is Cuba is soon to tumble, we'll have
political refugees swimming from dictator-run socialist Key West U.S.A.
to free capitalist Cuba in not too many years. "Have we taken leave of
our senses?" some are heard to say.
Nah, we never had any.
WHY does the left so relish admire and praise the ------?
February 20, 2008 - 21:10 ET by w0tmWhy does the left so relish, admire and praise the dictators, thugs, terrorists and generally all around evil people who hold absolute life and death power over the people they control? They cannot be THAT dumb not to see the many millions who have died at the hands of the murdering scum of the earth who attained power by force or by trickery.
They relish, admire and praise them because THEY WISH THEY WERE THEM! Inside every milk toast brainless media type or MoveOn.Org airhead blogger lies a Che Guevara yearning to be free anxious to rule by sword and worshipped as a God. Just like many fiction writers, they can't live the life of their dreams, so they write it!
They really believe their Walter Mitty fantasies will come true some day and they'll then be a Caesar of today with his thumb up or down deciding the fate of those who live or die.
Unlike the poor Jews of Europe in WW2 who obediently went to their deaths following orders to quietly remain in straight lines marching to the gas chambers, I don't believe it will happen so easily this time.
The final line will soon be drawn in the sand. God help us all.
Health care?
February 20, 2008 - 23:44 ET by AjtlawyerMy father has been to Cuba three times on Christian missions trips, the first one made just a week after Pope John Paul II was in Havana. My father noticed a number of interesting things on the trip. 1) while they brought medical supplies to give out to the people, they had to give 1/2 of the supplies right to the communist gov't; 2) they weren't officially allowed to proseltyze but had great success---the Cubans though immediately going elsewhere as soon as any secret police showed up; 3) Many of the villages he visited had no electricity at night; 4) when the locals learned that an American physician was in my father's group they flocked to him seeking care. The man was an anesthesiologist and did what he could with his general medical knowledge; 5) my father visited a couple of pharmacies which had virtually no drugs or medical supplies available. Yes, you get free health care---no, you can't get an Rx filled if your doctor gives you one. My father actually gave away some of his own pain medication to some of the neediest Cubans. 6) as far as he could tell, my father reported that the largest cash industry in Cuba seemed to be the sex trade. He didn't indulge in it---but he didn't have to see how pervasive it was. The plaza that the Pope had visited the week before was filled with more hookers than my father had ever seen in one place before. It was well known that North Americans and Europeans would fly in to Havana for the sex trade and their foreign currency was one of the biggest parts of the Cuban economy.
The great health care system of Cuba is a myth; the elites no doubt get good care. The masses get the dregs and the media is shown what the communists want them to see.