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March 24, 2004
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
March 11, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Bedtime
for Democracy
Bill Kauffman
Hey,
Ralph! Why Not Another Party of the People?
James Hollander
Slaughter
in Madrid: Consolidating an Ally?
Norman Solomon
They
Shoot Journalists, Don't They?
Patrick Gavin
The Salvation of Dan Quayle: Family Values Return
Becky Burgwin
You're
Messing with the Wrong Generation
John Sugg
The FBI is on My Trail
March 10, 2004
Hammond Guthrie
Read
This Book!: "Who the Hell is Stew Albert?"
Chris Floyd
Operation Enduring Sweatshop: Another
Bush Brings Hell to Haiti
Elizabeth Corrie
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
Mike Whitney
US Press Torpedoes Aristide
M. Junaid Alam
An Anti-Civilizational War?
Bob Feldman
The Occupation of Haiti: Recalling 1915-1934
John L. Hess
An Overload of Crises
Gary Leupp
On Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Uses of al-Qaeda "Links"
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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March
24, 2004
Taxidermy from the Revolution
Media
in Cuba
By BENJAMIN DANGL and
APRIL HOWARD
Havana, Cuba
A few regulars dragged their chairs over to the
small community television in the park. But this evening, instead
of the standard soap opera, Cuba's bearded leader took over the
screen to begin what would be a two hour speech on education,
healthcare and international relations. Amidst moans of indignation,
someone changed the station, and then changed it again. Fidel
Castro was on all three Cuban television channels.
Perhaps nowhere else in Cuba is the revolution
more present than in its media. Every day, Cuban citizens are
bombarded with a campaign of pro-government propaganda. Even
the most mundane local news takes on a revolutionary guise when
reported through the lens of Cuban media. But what does media
look like on the socialist island and do the people there buy
it? Does state control of the media have any redeeming factors?
And in the end, is it that much different than corporate controlled
media in the U.S.?
Granma and Rebellious
Youth: Daily News Resources
Fortunately, Cuban public opinion regarding
national media varies more than the media itself. "All
news sources here are controlled by the state. The government
uses what is convenient for them to show in the news and nothing
else," Sarai, a young mother in suburban Havana, told us.
On the other hand, one middle-aged landscaper from Havana commented,
"Our government is very dedicated to keeping us informed
and everyone thinks so. Cubans know everything about what is
going on in Cuba and in the rest of the world."
The national daily newspapers in Cuba
are Juventud Rebelde (Rebellious Youth), Trabajadores (Workers)
of the national workers union and Granma, the official communist
party newspaper, named after the boat on which Castro and others
rode from Mexico to Cuba to start the revolution. Though Juventud
Rebelde caters to youth groups and street parties, Trabajadores
discusses worker's issues and Granma takes a more staid approach,
all three papers are consistently under ten pages long and cover
similar topics.
In a recent issue of the eight-page Granma,
the most popular of the three publications, the front page consisted
of articles dedicated to Che Guevara's contributions to mining
technology, and the history of a battle in Santa Clara that took
place during the Cuban Revolution. Other main articles in the
issue included coverage of the successful potato production in
a Cuban province, the tenth anniversary of Zapatistas in Mexico,
a few pieces on Iraq and Colombia and then another interview
and article on the same battle in Santa Clara. Ironically, a
special interest article which filled the last page was entitled,
"A Grand Eye Watches the City," describing an aging
periscope turned tourist attraction looking over Havana. The
article ended with a description of the viewing of a woman sunbathing
on her balcony.
While some Cubans prefer one newspaper
to the other, many joke that the publications are more useful
as toilet paper, and cheaper. Still, even the most critical
readers point out that though the media publishes the news that
it finds convenient, avoiding other controversial issues, it
does not lie, a sentiment that is not shared by many critics
of U.S. media. On the other hand, it is rather difficult to
obtain a realistic idea of events from the bits and pieces of
information provided by Cuban media. "For that reason,"
commented sociologist Juan Valdez Paz in Havana, "as investigators,
we have to speak with hypotheses, instead of affirmations."
Professor Zelia Perez spoke about the
most popular newspaper. "Granma is bad. Very bad. It is
bad for the government, bad for Cuba, bad for the communist party,
and it would be bad for capitalism. Cubans know this but they
read it anyway. People learn to read between the lines. You
can read an announcement of an event and then go and find out
what really happened, if you know the variables of the issue.
Just like in The New York Times." However, many U.S. citizens
don't feel like they have to read between the lines of their
newspapers and it seems that many Cubans don't either. For example,
Ernesto, a middle aged construction worker, reads Granma every
day. "It is a great supplement to TV news with coverage
about everything, international and national news. I like it,
it is sufficient." Many other Cubans concur.
In addition to the national newspapers,
other daily publications in Cuba include a local paper, specific
to each province, similar in content to the national publications,
and The Orbe, a weekly "international newspaper edited by
the Latino Press." Though filled with the same rhetoric,
The Orbe is probably the closest thing to a "normal newspaper"
to be found in Cuba. Its sixteen pages include sections entitled
"weekly news, economy, politics, variety, culture, science
and technology, and sports." However, as a weekly publication,
it can not fill the void of a good daily newspaper, nor can the
multitudes of cultural and literary magazines that exist in the
country.
According to Professor Perez, the web
publication La Jiribilla
(www.lajiribilla.cubaweb.cu) played an important role during
the recent detentions of dissidents and executions of boat hijackers
during April, 2003. In coverage of these controversial events,
La Jiribilla published international defenses and criticisms
such as Eduardo Galeano's commentary "Cuba Duele" or
"Cuba Hurts." The more accessible paper edition of
the website, La Jiribilla de Papel, is a sixteen page bi-monthly
publication with selected pieces from the website, and manages
to publish constant criticisms of censorship and propaganda in
other countries without touching similar issues within Cuba itself.
Living in the Bubble
The single evening news program in Cuba
is widely popular, as most Cubans, even those living in rural
areas, have televisions. The TV news program is forty-five minutes
long and focuses on the same topics and issues as the newspapers,
with the same propaganda and motives. Footage for the world
news is often borrowed from news conglomerates such as CNN and
BBC, but commentary is always voiced over by a Cuban newscaster.
Every night, after the studio presentation of the evening news,
a "news analyst" explains the government's interpretation
of international issues such as the war in Iraq. Other sources
of political information include "Mesas Redondas",
or "Round Tables" which are discussion forums in which
topics are debated within the limits of official government standpoints.
Aside from news programs, soap operas and cartoons, one of the
three channels on Cuban television is dedicated solely to educational
programs such as science, language and history lessons.
Surprisingly, some of Hollywood's more
moralistic movies are also a staple of Cuban television. "If
there is no American movie on TV on a Saturday night, people
would take to the streets," one Havana resident said, only
half-joking. Often the selected movies exhibit communist values
such as team work, social equality and solidarity.
In the U.S., regardless of how deficient
the local or national news is, one can almost always go on the
internet to read news from other countries or choose from a variety
of alternative news sources. Cubans don't have that option.
The exorbitant rates for what little internet access there is
limits use to primarily tourists. Furthermore, it is illegal
for Cubans to have computers or internet access in their homes
unless for work authorized by the government.
Articles published in Cuban media regarding
the benefits and dangers of the internet have been largely critical.
One article in Juventud Rebelde discussed whether internet users
are in turn being used by the technology, (12/30/03). An article
in La Jiribilla debated whether the internet was immoral or not,
and cited the difficulty of censorship on the net as one of its
dangers (9/8/03). While the rest of the world connects in ways
that were never before possible, Cuba's decision to remain off-line
has left the island more isolated that ever.
As a twenty-seven year old book seller
said, "We are living in a bubble. Most people know it,
but can't do anything about it. It's just like in Orwell's books."
He went on to add that he owned a boxed copy of his favorite
book, 1984, illegal in Cuba. Yet in Cuba, like anywhere else,
there are plenty of people who are too busy working and taking
care of their families to concern themselves with news and politics.
Other citizens simply don't care. Maria Valdez, a single mother,
said, "Fidel takes care of me, what happens in the world
outside doesn't affect me. I have my rights within Cuba and
that is what is important."
The Only Alternative
The absence of corporate control and
advertisements in Cuban media, while making funding more difficult,
allows for a media which does not have to prostitute itself to
big businesses in order to survive. In a recent speech, Castro
even cited the lack of ads on TV as an important success for
the revolution. This would be an amazing achievement if there
wasn't a plentiful amount of nationalist propaganda ready to
fill that space. However, the lack of ads and corporate influence
does allow for a greater focus on constructive local news, often
presenting educative information about the country, its industries
and institutions.
The anti-US slant and humanistic coverage
of international news in the Cuban press is often comparable
to the perspectives of alternative media in the U.S.. Articles
on Hugo Chavez's achievements as the president of Venezuela and
updates on the Zapatistas in Mexico are common in Cuban media.
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, Cuban media has been
ceaselessly critical and anti-war and coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is consistently pro-Palestinian.
Still, nothing can be considered to be
"alternative" if it is the only option. Right or left,
no one point of view is sufficient to satisfy an intelligent
public. In this light, inadequate news sources are not the
biggest problem in Cuban media. Weak and narrow minded newspapers,
television and radio news programs exist all over the world.
What Cuba lacks is variety in media, partly due to a shortage
of internet access and partly because of state control, which
results in a lack of competition for quality in reporting or
in-depth information.
In nearly every country in the world
the media is primarily controlled by those in power. While U.S.
media is largely controlled by corporations and businesses, in
Cuba, the government takes on that role. News sources are controlled
in each country depending on how much of a threat they pose to
those in power. There is an enormous amount of critical, intelligent,
and alternative journalism in the U.S., but often it doesn't
pose a serious threat to the objectives of the mainstream media,
and so is not censored. In Cuba, because of the history of tensions
with the U.S., any form of dissent, including opposition publications
are immediately accused of being U.S. conspiracies against the
Cuban government.
However, as Rafael Hernandez, the editor
of the cultural magazine Temas, explains:
"You cannot write anything against
the revolution, but within the revolution you can be a critic.
The interpretation of where this line is has always been an
object of discussion. The artists and intellectuals of Cuba continue
to win spaces of expression for themselves. We have not been
given this liberty, we have won this liberty."
Media Crusades: Reading
Between Regimes
For years, the greatest threat to the
U.S. Empire was the "bad" example of communism. Now
it is supposedly terrorism. In Cuba, the threat, or enemy, has
always been imperialism, and the personification of that enemy
has and will be Uncle Sam. As one of the last socialist countries
in the world, the diminutive island of Cuba is fighting with
its teeth and fingernails against its closest and most radically
different neighbor to maintain its sovereignty. Control of the
media is only one of the manifestations of this struggle.
Recently, patriotism in the U.S. has
reached a fevered pitch, at times comparable to the extreme nationalism
of places like Cuba. Overuse of the word "Terrorism"
in the US has come to be as hollow as the word "Imperialism"
in Cuba. The "War on Terrorism" has given the Bush
administration an excuse to clamp down on civil liberties due
to the "threat" these terrorists pose to U.S. society.
The U.S. trade embargo and the five Cuban prisoners in the U.S.
give Castro an excuse to clamp down on civil liberties and control
of freedoms of expression. Cuba detains possible dissenters
in their jails and the U.S. detains possible terrorists in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. Though the political perspectives of these two countries
are opposite, their ways of demonizing "the enemy"
are the same. Both governments depend upon their respective
vague and omnipresent enemies in order to create fear, solidarity
and remain in power. Media is the fundamental tool for these
objectives. Though the manipulation of Cuban media is less subtle,
media crusades in both countries glorify and over simplify, making
news mean what those in power want it to mean, and leaving the
discerning citizen trying to read between the lines.
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard are freelance journalists. Their website
is www.UpsideDownWorld.org
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
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