UPDATE: The Miami Herald has now taken down their ACN articles. Full report from McClatchy Watch.

Want to know what is going on in Cuba? Well, the Miami Herald is feeding its readers propaganda printouts from the Communist government's Cuban News Agency (ACN) and passing them off as legitimate news. What also makes this practice especially insidious is that the pages on which these stories appear makes it seem as if they are Associated Press stories (AP). Note the prominent capitalized "AP" in the URL of the Herald's most recent ACN story: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/AP/story/969447.html. And despite that "AP" this is not an AP story. It is strictly a copy and paste story from ACN or, more accurately, ACCN, Communist Cuban News Agency. So let us now take a look at a couple of the recent ACN propa...uh, news stories that have appeared in the Miami Herald including the most recent tender account of President/Dictator Raul Castro happily celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban secret police aka State Security Services:

ACN  [psst! try not to notice us.]

HAVANA -- -- Cuban President Raul Castro today presided over the main ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the founding of Cuba’s State Security Services.

The Cuban head of state also attended the inauguration of monumental complex dedicated to martyrs of the Security Service, which is being raised in the Havana locality of El Cacahual.

Also present were Vice President Esteban Lazo, Informatics and Communications Minister Ramiro Valdes, Interior Minister Abelardo Colome, other Cuban officials, and relatives of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly incarcerated in US jails for over 10 years now.

The Cuban president toured the area surrounding the Cacahual Mausoleum, which treasures the remains of Cuban independence hero Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo.

The ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Cuban State Security Services also counted on a cultural gala that included the performance of local artists and members of the National Performing Arts School.

The Investigation and Information Department of the Cuban Armed Forces was set up March, 26, 1959. The entity changed its name to Information Department G-2 later that same year. In June 1961, the Cuban Council of Ministers created the Interior Ministry (MININT) which included the G-2 and the Department of State Security.

In Oceana such a ministry is known as the Ministry of Truth. And in the Miami Herald building it is known as a "news source."

So how go things in the area of Cuban petroleum production? Absolutely splendid according to an "unbiased" story appearing in the Herald:

ACN [move along. just pretend we're an AP story.]

HAVANA -- -- Oil workers in the wells of Matanzas have extracted 205,000 tons of the crude in the first two months of this year, nearly 9,000 tons more than in the same period of time, in 2008.

At this rate, workers expect to obtain, for the 15th time, more than a million tons and to increase the current daily production average per well (21 tons), reported Radio Rebelde on its website.

The Cuban well drilling and repairs enterprise working on 160 active wells along the north coast of the province of Matanzas has a rate of exploitation of more than 98 %, the international average for the crude that is processed is about 95 to 96 percent.

The company, whose office are based in Boca de Camarioca, is involved in the challenge of drilling a 6-km long horizontal well out to sea for the first time without the help of foreign experts or without using a sea platform. This represents important savings of foreign currency to the island.

—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.