Brent H. Baker.
CyberAlert. Thursday
June 28, 2001 .
Fidel Castro got what he wanted in picking NBC’s Andrea Mitchell as the
one U.S. television reporter allowed to check up on Elian Gonzalez a year after
he was snatched by INS agents: a portrait of a happy Elian in Cuba who has
forgotten all about his Miami relatives and now lives with his father who is
sure he made the correct choice to live in Cuba.
Mitchell promised on the NBC Nightly News: "A year ago, the boy
was the center of an international tug-of-war. Now he appears to me to be a
typical kid, playful, even mischievous" with "his only apparent
concern...winning at games like musical chairs." As for Elian’s
father, "he told me he never second-guesses his decision to raise his son
here instead of in the United States. A Communist Party loyalist, up front at
Castro rallies, he insists the decision to stay was his, not Castro’s."
No mention by Mitchell of any food shortages or of any lines Elian may have to
wait in with his father.
Talking to Katie Couric on Today, Mitchell insisted she was granted
access because she had met Juan Miguel, Elian’s father, "and had met
and interviewed the grandmother when they were in Washington and New York. So
there was at least a relationship. And we promised to be respectful and not to
interfere too much with the child."
I’d offer another possibility: The Castro regime appreciated her
last visit to the island when Mitchell’s story sounded more like a
promotional spot for Castro as caring grandpa and protector of a nation than a
report from a supposedly hard-edged reporter. In her December 15, 1999 piece
from Cuba Mitchell worried that the boy might want to stay in the United States
if he’s "seduced by all of these toys and trips to Disney World."
She oozed in awe: "What’s astounding is how much Castro is personally
micro-managing the Elian case. He’s not just the country’s head of
state, he’s the CEO." She even described Castro as "old-fashioned,
courtly -- even paternal."
For
more on that Mitchell story.
Now some excerpts from her June 27 Nightly News and Today reports as
taken down by the MRC’s Brad Wilmouth and Geoffrey Dickens:
-- NBC Nightly News. From Havana, Mitchell asserted: "This is the
first time that Juan Miguel Gonzalez has permitted an outsider to visit his son.
Clearly, we could not have even approached Juan Miguel for this interview
without the government’s approval. It does serve the Castro government’s
purpose to show Elian’s readjustment, but up until the very last minute,
Juan Miguel would not even consider, had serious doubts about letting an
American camera close to his child. So we agreed not to question the boy
himself. Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has not let reporters visit his family since
their return home, took me to Marcelas Salado Elementary School where we found
Elian in the middle of morning recess. A year ago, the boy was the center of an
international tug-of-war. Now he appears to me to be a typical kid, playful,
even mischievous...
After noting they "still live in same modest house," Mitchell
assured viewers of Elian’s welfare: "Then only five, shipwrecked for
three days, the center of a media circus in Miami, finally removed at gunpoint
by federal marshals. He looked so scared when they took him out of that house.
Does he ever talk about that?"
Juan Miguel Gonzalez [through interpreter]: "He never mentions it.
Nor has he ever been afraid."
Mitchell made Cardenas seem quaint: "Their hometown, Cardenas, a
small fishing village two hours from Havana, where people still get around by
horse and carriage."
She relayed the viewpoint espoused by Elian’s father: "Despite
this simple life, he told me he never second-guesses his decision to raise his
son here instead of in the United States. A Communist Party loyalist, up front
at Castro rallies, he insists the decision to stay was his, not Castro’s."
Gonzalez: "He said I could do whatever I wanted."
Mitchell: "And that was your decision?"
Gonzalez: "Yes."
Mitchell: "His father says the boy never asks about the Miami
relatives, not even Elian’s so-called surrogate mother, cousin Marisleysis."
Gonzalez: "No, he never mentions it."
Mitchell: "Most surprising, after all Elian has survived, his
father says the boy’s readjustment has been relatively simple."
Gonzalez: "Because he returned to what he has always been. He was
not born to be a symbol."
Mitchell concluded: "If Juan Miguel Gonzalez has his way, this
will satisfy the public’s curiosity about the boy, and Elian Gonzalez can
finally become just another seven-year-old."
-- Today. Katie Couric opened the broadcast: "Good morning. Elian
Gonzalez has been home in Cuba for one year now. The little boy at the center of
so much emotional controversy is now graduating from second grade. We'll hear
from his father Juan Miguel in an exclusive interview today, Wednesday June the
27th, 2001."
Mitchell checked in from Havana, interspersed with clips of Juan
Miguel: "Well one year after Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba he is taking
his final second grade mathematics exam today. And at least according to his
father is a normal seven-year old. In the middle of the schoolyard during recess
the child who spent seven months at the center of an international custody war.
His only apparent concern when we saw him Tuesday, winning at games like musical
chairs. His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a waiter at a tourist resort near
their fishing village two hours from Havana says his son has made a good
adjustment. Is doing well in school and at home....
"Juan Miguel says he has no regrets about the decision to bring
Elian home to Cuba. And no second thoughts about Elian being removed from the
Miami family at gunpoint by federal agents."...
"And says Juan Miguel, his biggest concern as a parent is not to
be overly protective. To try to let Elian be as normal a child as possible. Juan
Miguel Gonzalez said despite having been on that raft where his mother, of
course, died that he has no fear, that the child has no fear of water. Goes to
the beach, loves to swim. And two weeks ago a baby half-brother was born and it
was clear to me that Elian dotes on him. He does talk about his mother and there
are a lot of pictures of her around the house but according to his father, at
least, he never asks about his Miami relatives, Katie."
Couric asked: "Well in fact everyone, Andrea, remembers that, that
picture of him being seized in Miami and taken back to Cuba. Given all the
brouhaha that occurred has he, he seems to have adapted well."
Mitchell offered some assurance: "It's very hard for us to tell.
We're not experts. We spent a day with them, in the, in the household he seemed
very normal at school, at play and in, in the home with his family with the baby
brother. But, you know, according to his father when, when I asked about that
scene and that horror of being taken at gunpoint he said that when he talked to
Elian afterwards on the telephone, before they were reunited, he said, 'the man
who took you was a friend of mine and he's going to bring us together.' And
that, that seemed to appease him. The reunion, by the way, which Juan Miguel has
never talked about, he said, when I asked him about it he said I've always been
embarrassed to talk about this. The reunion on the airplane which as you know
was in private. He said the reason he never wanted to talk about it, was because
he, Juan Miguel collapsed and had to be helped back to his feet. He was so
overwrought with emotion at seeing his child again."
Couric soon switched subject: "What about the health of Fidel Castro. I
know that he fainted at a rally there on Saturday."
Mitchell conveyed her amazement at Castro’s stamina: "Well he then
got back up and apologized to the crowd and said that he had been in the sun for
too long. He had been speaking for more than two hours. Later that night he
joked about it on a Cuban television broadcast saying that, that was a rehearsal
to see how people would, would play his funeral. And I did see him on Monday
night. He looked very fit, standing tall and joking and talking to us. So as far
as we know he is well. He said he had just been in the sun too long, up too late
the night before watching sports and doing work. And he told me that, the other
morning he was up watching Cuba defeat the Dutch in volleyball, that was a live
feed from Europe at 5am. So he seems to be back to his old habits of staying up
all night."
Well if Castro says he was up at 5am watching volleyball it must be
true. So much for any journalistic skepticism. And even if true, what does it
matter? Would Hitler be considered a better person if he had gotten up at 5am to
watch Nazi athletes complete their morning workouts? | 
