By Samuel L. Blumenfeld. © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com . April 18, 2000
Dan Rather's interview of Juan Miguel Gonzalez, father of Elian, was a masterful example of how liberal journalists manage to cover for the communist regime in Cuba while appearing to be objective. Rather asked all the expected questions about his feelings. How did Juan Miguel feel when he saw
Elian on television telling him that he did not want to return to Cuba? He cried, he said. He felt betrayed. When Rather brought up the charges that have been made by a former neighbor that he beat his wife, he asked Juan Miguel if they were lies. Juan Miguel obliged. Yes, they were lies.
When Rather raised the issue of the mother's escape from Cuba with Elian so that the boy could live in freedom, the father asked Rather what he meant by freedom. But Rather then asked Juan Miguel what he meant by freedom. The father said that in America, Elian might be killed in an American
school, but in Cuba he would be safe. In Cuba they had free health care and free education. That was freedom. Rather did not follow that up with any question about Cuban school children being forced to work in the fields as slave labor.
When asked whether he were a puppet of Castro, Juan Miguel said that he was just a father trying to gain custody of his son. Rather didn't ask him why he was a virtual prisoner in the home of the Cuban emissary, not free to go anywhere on his own. There was some mention of the poor conditions in
Cardenas, the small town where the Gonzalez family lives. And there was mention of how politicized all of this has become. But the aim of the interview was to gain sympathy for this poor father who only wanted to be reunited with his son. But, as we know, Castro is obsessed with Elian, and wants him
back in Cuba for his own purposes. It's Juan Miguel's job to bring the boy back.
In a way, the Elian affair has lit up the political-cultural radar screen, which permits us to wonder in amazement how certain liberals can be so adamant in wanting to see Elian returned to Cuba. It isn't as if Dan Rather doesn't know what Cuba is like and why every day ordinary people risk life
and limb to escape the island in almost anything that will float. The State Department recently released its Human Rights report on Cuba, which condemns Castro's regime as one of the world's most repressive tyrannies.
Yet, one finds such enlightened journalists as Ted Koppel and Daniel Schorr prattling about the need to return the boy to his father and, inevitably, a fate worse than death in Cuba. Koppel is the child of German-Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany. He knows better. Daniel Schorr is certainly
old enough to know better. Yet on Scott Simon's Saturday special on PBS, Schorr remarked scornfully how coached little Elian was by those making the video in which he told his father emphatically that he did not want to return to Cuba. Schorr remarked that the boy's video reminded him of the videos
kidnappers make of their hostages. Rather also had the father accuse the Miami relatives of kidnapping Elian.
The inference is that Elian is a hostage being brainwashed by his Miami captors to say what they want him to say. But kidnappers usually kidnap people for a ransom. What are the relatives in Miami gaining by "kidnapping" Elian? What they've gained is a big problem with the U.S.
Government. And since when do thousands of people surround a house to defend kidnappers? Would Gloria Estefan defend a kidnapper?
Schorr did not mention the fact that the real hostage is Elian's father, and that the statement he read at the airport when arriving in the U.S. was written by his communist mentors. During his entire stay thus far, Juan Miguel Gonzalez has not been free of his controllers. They know where he is
at all times. They can't afford to let him escape. Castro is so determined to get the boy back to Cuba that any Cuban official who lets Elian's father get away would probably wind up in front of a firing squad.
Meanwhile, Juan Miguel knows what would happen to the family hostages in Cuba should he decide to seek asylum. Janet Reno assured us that Juan Miguel could defect if he really wanted to. All he had to do was whisper in her ear. But who in his right mind believes that Reno would let him defect?
Greg Craig, the lawyer who defended Clinton during the impeachment trial, is Juan Miguel's lawyer. He knows that his client can't defect even if he wanted to. Juan Miguel is a total prisoner who can't be trusted on his own. That is why he is living in the home of the Cuban emissary.
As for Elian's video, no doubt he was coached by his Miami relatives to send a message to his father which would leave no doubt as to what Elian wanted. After all, the purpose of the video was to send a message, and a six-year-old requires as much direction from a cameraman as anyone who's being
filmed.
Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, and Daniel Schorr are professional liberals. They get paid to be liberals and to put on the best show they can. In other words, they have risen to the top and enjoy all of the financial security and perks that go with their jobs because they know how to please their
bosses. Were any one of them to begin to talk and think like a conservative, he would be quickly replaced by another professional liberal. That is why Rather is more than happy to manipulate the truth, and Koppel is more than glad to be a hypocrite, and Schorr willingly behaves like an ass, because
the rewards are so great.
Backing up the Rathers, Koppels and Schorrs are billion-dollar liberal foundations and communications empires. Yes, there are some conservatives, like George Will and William F. Buckley, Jr., who manage to get a word in now and then so that the media doesn't seem to be totally controlled by
liberals. You might even find a conservative now and then on Lehrer's News Hour. But most of the time, the commentary panels are made up of the same old group of familiar journalists and historians, mouthing the same old liberal opinions. All of these professionals have attained their fame and
fortune by simply being good liberals.
On the other hand, there are no billion-dollar foundations or media empires backing conservatives at the top. Most conservative journalists and writers must struggle mightily to achieve a voice in the media. They are not paid to be conservatives. Indeed, there is no need to pay conservatives
because so many of them will practically work for nothing.
And that is why many conservatives eventually give up, because it really doesn't pay to be a conservative. In other words, conservatives are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to advancement and monetary reward. The simple truth is that the road to power and glory is greased for smart,
talented liberals. You can become an anchorperson, a Dan Rather, a Ted Koppel. Do you know of any true conservative at that pinnacle of power and influence? Look at the crew that runs 60 Minutes!
As a conservative, I am not complaining. Just making some observations about how liberal journalists behave. What the Elian affair has done is highlighted the hypocrisy and amorality of the liberals. Their credentials as honest reporters disintegrate before our very eyes because we know that no
one in his right mind would send a six-year-old refugee back into Castro's hell. Such so-called journalists simply arouse our contempt. We know that they can never be trusted to be honest or objective. They are no better than whores. They don't sell their bodies. They sell their intellects.
But why do they so willingly protect the Castro regime from the wrath of the American people? It's because they would rather have Castro in charge of Cuba than the anti-communists now living in Miami and elsewhere in the world. An anti-communist Cuba would be like having a Taiwan in the
Caribbean. That's the last thing the liberals want.
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