Channel One News creates new controversy with Castro report
Channel One’s Tom Hanson misleading American students since 2013.
From Jim Metrock:
I detest Channel One News for a lot of reasons (as do many, many parents, educators, school administrators, and members of the general public). You can go through the many pages of this website to read why.
Today’s Channel One News report on the death of Fidel Castro is just the latest reason to find this company repugnant.
Fidel Castro was a monster.
It appears that Channel One executives don’t agree with that statement. Maybe they should read more. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/26/cuba-fidel-castros-record-repression
He turned his entire country into a virtual prison for 50 years. Castro took away basic freedoms, such as the freedom to leave the country, freedom to practice one’s religion, and freedom to speak against the government. He threw people in jail and kept them there. He silenced his fellow Cubans by killing them.
“Okay, today, we begin with the man who was, for a half-century, the face of Cuba: Fidel Castro died Friday night.”
“Face of Cuba”? The Channel One producer could have written that script to say, “the dictator of Cuba,” but they didn’t.
“Tom: In Havana, Cuba’s capital, the people are mourning the death of Fidel Castro.”
This is pathetic. Tom Hanson is not one of the brightest bulbs at Channel One and that’s saying something. Mr. Hanson actually left CNN to come to Channel One. That’s an absurd career move. Does Mr. Hanson or the producer who wrote the words he is repeating not know that people are celebrating in Cuba just like in Miami?
Look at this screen shot of the mourning Cuban family watching TV. Channel One chose that picture out of many they could have used. They didn’t have to show a family who are apparently devoted to Fidel Castro. Why convey this sense of national solidarity with Castro and his monstrous human rights abuses?
Look at the close up that Channel One producers chose to include in they story. A close up of tears coming down the face of a Cuban citizen on hearing the news of Castro’s death. Why have this picture?
What is Channel One trying to do? How was it arranged to have this video close up of a man crying? Don’t cry for me, Cuba.
This is manipulation of images and words to convey an impression to impressionable young people. The message: Castro was misunderstood. He was considered a great man, even a hero to the majority of Cubans.
“Tom: To supporters, he was a revolutionary hero. To critics, he was a ruthless dictator. But, for better or for worse, Fidel Castro led Cuba for nearly 50 years.”
“To critics, he was a ruthless dictator”? Garbage. “To the world, he was a ruthless dictator” is more accurate. Castro had over 7,000 Cuban citizens murdered. “To critics”?! Mr. Hanson, his producer, and other Channel One employees must not know their history. And these are the people trying to mold the minds of young people.
“Castro also teamed up with America’s communist rival, the Soviet Union. As a result, the U.S. ended its relationship with Cuba and passed a trade embargo, making it illegal for Americans to do business with Cuba for more than 50 years. It has been devastating on the Cuban economy.”
No, Channel One, it was Fidel Castro who devastated the Cuban economy. The U.S. embargo hurt, but Castro and his thugs took over all businesses and farms and ruined the Cuban economy. The Cuban people live in shacks without basic modern conveniences because of Castro and his antiquated Communist policies. Channel One conveys the impression that mean old America is at fault for the economic despair in Cuba. Rubbish.
Channel One chose to show only one graphic with comments about Castro’s death. Only President Obama’s weak “political disagreements” statement is shown to students. Not shown are President-elect Trump’s tougher language: “Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades. Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights. While Cuba remains a totalitarian island, it is my hope that today marks a move away from the horrors endured for too long, and toward a future in which the wonderful Cuban people finally live in the freedom they so richly deserve.”
Schoolchildren forced to watch this nonsense on Channel One News will have a much more favorable opinion of Fidel Castro than they should and that’s a shame.
Check out the full transcript of this story on Channelone.com. Sure they mention negative things about Castro and the plight of the Cuban people, but they don’t get any gold stars for that. Channel One tried to be “balanced” in their story about a major violator of human rights. This is like doing a “balanced” report on the death of Hitler. Channel One if it was around then, might have told students that Germans were mourning the death of Hitler in his bunker. “To his supporters, Adolf Hitler was a hero of Aryan supremacy.”
The sooner Channel One dies the better.
Read the entire Channel One transcript for November 28, 2016 here.
