In the late hours of Wednesday night after the Republican debate, MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews was in his element as he whined about the 2016 GOP candidates being “very ideological tonight” and targeted the Cuban-American heritage of Senators Marco Rubio (Fl.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) for thinking that “they still are fighting a Cold War” and “treat[ing] Obama like he’s Castro.”
On Monday's Rundown, MSNBC's Luke Russert repeatedly touted the supporters of the communist Cuban regime who rallied outside near the newly-opened Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C.: "I would say, from talking to people, those who are in favor of this outnumber those who are opposed to it...probably, at least, five to one – just from my anectodal conversations." Russert also hyped that "this is something that is President Obama's...signature foreign policy achievements in his second term, and at least in terms of people who are here, it's getting rave reviews."
On the heels of President Barack Obama’s announcement on Wednesday that the United States and Cuba will soon open respective embassies in Havana and Washington, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC covered the story on their evening newscasts with ABC and NBC expressing particular enthusiasm at the move and little to no criticism of the President’s Cuba policy. In addition, the networks failed to label Cuba’s government as communist with ABC and NBC further declining to bring up the authoritarian nature of the Cuban government.
On her Monday MSNBC show, host Andrea Mitchell gushed over Cuba's Communist dictator possibly heading "back to Church" and returning to "his Jesuit roots" after a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican: "Cuba's president Raul Castro is praising Pope Francis for helping to thaw relations between U.S. and Cuba....he said that the Pontiff inspired him to consider returning to the Catholic Church."
Hours after President Obama moved to strike Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Tuesday’s NBC Nightly News cheered the decision by the President as “another historic step” and “another remnant of the Cold War” tumbling down. Interim anchor Lester Holt began with the announcement that “[w]e are witnessing tonight another historic step in thawing relations between the U.S. and Cuba” with “[t]he White House announcing that President Obama will remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”
Journalists' and leftists' (but I repeat myself) misguided love for Cuba goes back decades. Y'know, free healthcare (cough), yada-yada.
Now that President Obama is unilaterally changing the relationship between the two nations, and as usual getting nothing in return, you'd think that they'd be happy. Heck no. It started several months ago when Fox News's Shepard Smith fretted about how a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations might "ruin the place," and has been echoed in many quarters since then. Early today, CNN International went over the top, essentially communicating in one picture their concern that the changed situation will "ruin" what has already been ruined:
Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, has been reporting from Cuba since Wednesday, covering the first face-to-face meetings between U.S. and Cuban officials in decades, and has used her visit as an opportunity to promote the country of Cuba. On Thursday, Mitchell interviewed former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray on her daily MSNBC program Andrea Mitchell Reports. The NBC reporter seemed perplexed that her guest would dare compare Cuban President Raul Castro to President Obama because President Obama is a “youthful American president” and Castro is an “elderly Cuban president.”
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.
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.”
On Friday's CNN Newsroom, liberal Rep. Charlie Rangel completely downplayed how the communist regime in Cuba has harbored a fugitive cop-killer for decades. Anchor Carol Costello raised how Joanne Chesimard, who was named to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List in 2013, was "granted asylum by Fidel Castro." Rangel replied, "I haven't heard her name come up in decades," and asserted that on the "radar screen" of "what's in the best interest of the people of the United States from a foreign policy point of view...her name doesn't even come up."
On Thursday night, NBC continued to shower praise in the direction of President Barack Obama’s move to normalize relations with the communist country of Cuba and brush off any criticism of the policy shift.
NBC Nightly News had two additional segments on Cuba that, with a tease in the program’s opening, totaled 5 minutes and 12 seconds, but only 28 seconds of that involved mentioning those against the move.
Those who rail at Fox News for allegedly being a haven of unbridled, uninterrupted conservatism usually and conveniently fail to remember that Shepard Smith is there.
Smith's take yesterday on the potential pitfalls of a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, particularly on the commercial front, was nothing short of astonishing. His primary fear, expressed in an interview with Gerri Willis of the Fox Business Network, is that the new arrangements might "ruin the place." It would be "the last thing they need" to see "Taco Bell and Lowes" locations there. Smith also posed as a market analyst, wondering if the Dow was up 300 points because of President Obama's related announcement. Video (HT Mediaite and PJ Media's Ed Driscoll) and a transcript follow the jump: