Cuba

NBC’s Chris Jansing Gushes Over ‘an Energized, Combative President’; Scolds Boehner for Inviting Netanyahu
By Curtis Houck | January 22, 2015 | 7:28 AM EST

NBC News senior White House correspondent Chris Jansing did her best to provide some White House spin during Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News, hailing President Obama as “an energized, combative President” whose policies made for a “carefully choreographed, populist message with the details generally panned by Republicans.”

Also within her report, Jansing found time to chide House Speaker John Boehner for “an unprecedented breach in protocol” in inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without White House consultation.

ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News Stage Full-Fledged Cuban Tourism Infomercials
By Curtis Houck | January 21, 2015 | 11:00 PM EST

In conjunction with the U.S. diplomatic delegation arriving in Cuba on Wednesday for talks with the Communist regime, ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News went out of their way to all but again ignore the brutal past of the Castro government  and instead stage unapologetic promotions of the country that lies 93 miles to America’s south.

All told, NBC Nightly News spent a whopping nine minutes and 19 seconds of its airtime to Cuba over the course of three teases and segments each. For ABC, with three teases and segments of its own (plus another that predominantly discussed Cuba), it devoted a total of eight minutes and 53 seconds of World News Tonight to fawning over the subject.

Kos: Obama’s Worst Mistake Was ‘Believing His Campaign Bullsh*t’ About Working With Republicans
By Tom Johnson | January 21, 2015 | 12:07 PM EST

The Daily Kos founder and publisher argues that the recent jump in Obama’s approval rating shows that Obama should have governed as a staunch liberal “from Day One, instead of wasting years of his life trying to make nice with an intractable and hostile Republican Party…Republicans are on a holy war to destroy everything that is good and noble about government. They have no interest in peace.”

Chuck Todd on NBC Nightly News: Obama ‘Got the Post-Election Honeymoon, Not the Republicans’
By Curtis Houck | January 20, 2015 | 8:29 PM EST

While previewing President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, NBC Nightly News had on Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who told viewers that the President will set out to “do a little victory lap about the state of the economy” and opined how Obama “got the post-election honeymoon, not the Republicans” thanks to his moves on illegal immigration and Cuba.

Following the move of fellow networks ABC and CBS, Todd touted the positive numbers for Obama in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll after having largely ignored the negative ones in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections.

ABC’s Jim Avila Promotes Obama’s New Cuba Policy Ahead of SOTU
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 20, 2015 | 10:59 AM EST

On Tuesday, ABC’s Good Morning America previewed President Obama’s 7th State of the Union address and the network did its best to play up President Obama’s recent unilateral actions aimed at normalizing American relations with Cuba. During a brief report that sounded more like a White House press release, ABC’s Jim Avila insisted that “tonight at the State of the Union President Obama will tell Congress that he has done all he can do to normalize relations with Cuba.” 

Viva Obama's Exec Order! NBC's Snow Serves Up a Travel Promo for Cuba
By Mark Finkelstein | January 16, 2015 | 9:32 AM EST

Interesting: Cuba's Bureau of Tourism sponsored a three-minute promo on today's Morning Joe. Oh, wait, no.  That was NBC itself, in the person of Kate Snow, with a smiley, unrelentingly upbeat segment promoting the glories of tourism in Cuba that will now be possible for Americans under President Obama's executive order relaxing former restrictions.

Snow's segment—entitled 'Bienvenidos a Cuba' just like a travelogue—had it all: beaches, dancing in the streets, cigars, rum, beer and all those nifty vintage cars potentially available to collectors. So, you ask, what did Snow have to say about the repressive Communist regime that continues to rule Cuba?  Nada, naturally.  Don't harsh the Cohiba mellow, compadre!

Andrea Mitchell Hails Changes in Trade & Travel with Cuba as ‘the Cold War Will Be Over’ on Friday
By Curtis Houck | January 15, 2015 | 10:25 PM EST

During Thursday’s NBC Nightly News, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell enthusiastically promoted the new and “dramatic changes” set to go into effect on Friday that will allow Americans to more easily trade with and travel to/from Cuba as causing the Cold War to end.

In leading off her report, Mitchell announced to viewers: “In Havana, dramatic change after more than a half-century. Tomorrow the Cold War will be over. A huge opening for U.S. and Cuban travel and trade.”

Marco Rubio Schools CBS's Charlie Rose on Cuba
By Kyle Drennen | January 12, 2015 | 3:51 PM EST

On Monday's CBS This Morning, as Florida Senator Marco Rubio denounced President Obama's decision to reopen diplomatic relations with Cuba, co-host Charlie Rose attempted to push liberal spin on the topic: "But what about the argument that in fact – if in fact Cuba is opened up, it will change? Vietnam changed." Rubio quickly shot him down: "It did not change politically. Nor has China, for that matter."

WSJ Columnist: Cuba Isn't Living Up to Its End of the Bargain by Releasing Prisoners
By Ken Shepherd | January 5, 2015 | 5:59 PM EST

The Castro regime is NOT living up to its end of the bargain it cut in mid-December with the Obama administration to release more than 50 political prisoners, Wall Street Journal op-ed columnist Mary Anastasia O'Grady noted in her January 5 column, "Where Are Cuba's Political Prisoners?"

Hurry to Cuba While It's Still 'Unspoiled', Eleanor Clift Exclaims
By Jack Coleman | December 22, 2014 | 4:43 PM EST

This helps explain those countless boatloads of desperate refugees fleeing Florida for Cuba over the last several decades. Oh wait ...

Paleo-lib columnist Eleanor Clift was in fine fiddle on The McLaughlin Group yesterday and did not disappoint when the conversation turned to Cuba.

'This Week' Uncovers Anti-Castro Protesters Displaying Really Bad Spelling in Public
By Jack Coleman | December 21, 2014 | 3:10 PM EST

It would have been more honest had ABC News simply stated its opinion that those opposed to the communist regime in Cuba are unreconstructed ignoramuses, but that would be asking a bit much.

Instead, a photo was shown on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" this morning that said as much without coming out and saying it.

NY Times' Inequality-Obsessed Damien Cave on 'Venerable...Leader' Fidel Castro vs. His 'Stiff-Necked Critics'
By Clay Waters | December 20, 2014 | 11:11 PM EST

New York Times reporter Damien Cave reported from Havana that Obama's liberalized policy shift toward Cuba meant that that country was finished with its "venerable....leader" (not ruthless dictator) Fidel Castro, and also took a shot at "stiff-backed critics of Fidel’s government." As Miami bureau chief, Cave fostered a bizarre obsession with hypothetical inequality that might transpire in a freer Cuba.