When I read Les Blough’s critique of Rory Carroll’s Guardian article on the collapse of US sanctions against Cuba, I remembered the young Rory when he was in Caracas and invited to President Chávez’s Aló Presidente TV show two years ago. At that time, Rory tried to make a name for himself by asking Chávez a “difficult question” about term limits and was summarily slapped down by the President. Licking his well-deserved wounds, Rory later complained loudly that President Chavez' was too hard on him.

Now, he comes up with this piece which is based on the implicit assumption that Cuba, or any other “underdeveloped” country for that matter, needs the blessing of US trade, financial services, loans, culture and so on in order to make “progress”. Some trade aspects and the increase of remittances, as well as easier travel for US citizens to the island may be interesting but possible “loans and financial services”? Just look at the current state of the US financial scene; rotten to the core and stinking of contagion. “Culture”? In the U.S. culture of greed and rampant consumerism kids have learned that they can’t be happy without latest iPod, games console or an all-singing-and-dancing cell phone.

The angle of Rory Carroll’s article is that Cuba should be grateful for Obama’s possible loosening of the blockade. The fact is that the Obama regime is doing this for the sake of US trade, its corporate and geopolitical expediency so as to shore up its waning influence south of the Rio Grande.

Now, these reasons, the real reasons, without mentioning the recent oil finds offshore, are valid reasons for the US to want to reestablish links with Cuba. This is what Carroll should have reported on, objectively, and not sprinkled his text with the Miami Cuban contention that, in the recent cabinet reshuffle, “Fidelistas” were being replaced with “Raúlistas”. The implication here is that there is somehow a crack in relations and/or policy between the Castro brothers, the only evidence of which is in the corporate press - not exactly the biggest fans of the “Cuban dictatorship”. By extension, it also implies that Cuba could somehow change and cuddle up to the US’ “generous offer” and in this way undermine the revolutionary spirit of the Communist Party and the Cuban people.

In other words, Rory simply does not comprehend the Cuban will or spirit. The stance of his article reflects his inner needs and values spawned by his life in the “civilized western democracies”  (oxymoron). This is what his keyboard betrays when he tries to write about a value system in Cuba that is diametrically-opposed to that of the United States.

To get a clearer handle on Rory’s mission as a journalist, Google him and read some of his articles. You will discover a young mind, born, bred and conditioned by the precise values which are currently collapsing the world economy. Rory Carroll’s mediocrity stands in stark contrast with the ethics and hard work of a real journalist like John Pilger. Google his name and read how a master journalist analyses and writes about events taking place in the world. See his humanitarian values shine through the text like a bright light. In April, 2006, Pilger addressed the Heyman Center for Humanities at Columbia University in New York on the subject of journalism. In his presentation at Columbia, John Pilger stated (source removed from internet):

“… I refer to journalists, of course, a small group who hold privileged sway over the way we think, even the way we use language … censorship by omission, the product of a parallel world of unspoken truth and public myths and lies: in other words, censorship by journalism, which today has become war by journalism. For me, this is the most virulent and powerful form of censorship, fuelling an indoctrination that runs deep in western societies, deeper than many journalists themselves understand or will admit to. Its power is such that it can mean the difference between life and death for untold numbers of people in faraway countries, like Iraq. “We now know that the BBC and other British media were used by MI6, the secret intelligence service. In what they called Operation Mass Appeal, MI6 agents planted stories about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, such as weapons hidden in his palaces and in secret underground bunkers. All of these stories were fakes. However, that is not the point. The point is that the dark arts of MI6 were quite unnecessary, because a systematic media self-censorship produced the same result…. “If we journalists are ever to reclaim the honour of our craft, we need to understand, at least, the historic task that great power assigns us. This is to “soften-up” the public for rapacious attack on countries that are no threat to us. We soften them up by de-humanising them, by writing about "regime change" in Iran as if that country is an abstraction, not a human society. Currently, journalists are softening up Iran, Syria and Venezuela.”

The views Pilger presented at Columbia explain the difference between the cookie-cutter articles of reporters like Rory Carroll and the courageous, penetrating, investigative reporting that is nearly extinct in the corporate media today.

Some US policy changes towards Cuba may be welcome, but articles that genuflect to the Obama administration are premature, naïve and in the context of Cuba, demonstrate no real appreciation of the human dignity inherent in this nation of 11 million people. It would be interesting to know if Rory Carroll, as an Irishman, was out in the streets of Dublin protesting the government’s response to the financial crisis two weeks ago. As Ireland goes from boom to bust in less than a decade, it’s doubtful that he was there - unless his Guardian boss briefly sent him to put the best possible pro-establishment spin on the debacle.

The article in question, on the collapse or the "Lifting" of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, is the “pinko” stuff the Guardian loves to publish. It is swallowed whole by the toothless armchair lefties sitting in the leafy suburbs of Southern England, sipping a pink gin and tonic on a balmy afternoon.

Reporters like Rory Carroll and their corporate sponsors are becoming increasingly pathetic with their obvious attempts to create something positive from the imperial rubble in the wake of military, economic and social failures that eclipse those of any empire in history.

© Copyright 2009 by AxisofLogic.com
This material is available for republication as long as reprints include verbatim copy of the article its entirety, respecting its integrity. Reprints must cite the author and original source including a live link.