So it should not be a shock

to anyone to learn that a study by the Media Research Center (MRC) finds

that CNN, which is allowed a Havana bureau, is a "propaganda tool

for Fidel Castro's government" and a "megaphone for a dictator."

Those of us who remember Peter

Arnett reporting from a destroyed Baghdad biological weapons plant, in

front of a sign reading "Baby Milk Factory," while mouthing

the words approved by an Iraqi censor, shouldn't be too terribly shaken

The MRC studied all the CNN

coverage from Cuba since the bureau was opened five years ago, and found

it fails to offer fair and balanced coverage of the island dictatorship.

The Center studied 212 news reports and found that CNN gave "six

times more air play" to Castro or communist spokesmen than to non-communists

such as Catholic leaders or dissidents.

The study also found that CNN

gave six times more air play to Cubans who supported Castro's policies

than to the opposition. "This left American audiences with the impression

that Castro's government is overwhelmingly popular among the Cuban public,"

the study said.

CNN denies the MRC findings,

stating that in the past six months, 20 critical stories had been filed,

and that Vladimiro Roca, just released after almost five years in a Castro

prison for petitioning for real elections, had been interviewed. It also

points proudly to coverage of the mid-May 2002 Jimmy Carter visit, which

itself provided a regrettable platform for a diplomatically-attired Castro.

The MRC also claims that CNN

covers Castro as a "celebrity rather than a tyrant" and shows

Cuba as a charming, normal country rather than one "held in the grip

of a dictatorship's secret security apparatus." Garbage in; garbage

out.

Again the memory hearkens back

to stories CNN reported from Soviet Russia in the 1980s, wherein the strong

environmental efforts of the compassionate Communist Party were showcased

from "pristine" locations where fish and fowl abounded. Now

we know that Russia is more like a sewer, and that the Party never let

environmental concerns stand in the way of industrial growth or military

exigencies.

The MRC recommends that CNN

increase its investigative journalism in Cuba, report on the welfare of

political prisoners, and update the status of Cuba's independent journalists.

Another critic is the Florida-based

pro-democracy group Cuba Libertad, which wrote a May 9 letter to the CNN

chairman accusing the network of becoming "just another tool of Castro's

propaganda machine," according to Jennifer Harper in the May 11,

2002, Washington Times. Cuba Libertad's President writes that "CNN

has failed to live up to its stated commitment to provide comprehensive,

fair and balanced reporting in Cuba...."

And where is CNN with the April

2003 Castro crackdown on dissidents? Missing in action again? CNN's reliance

on Clintonistas in all areas of expertise is transparent at best. With

the advent of Operation Iraqi Freedom, CNN viewers were treated to analysis

to disparage the Iraqi operation, probably to enhance his own presidential

ambitions, which at best fail the laugh test. By groveling to tyrants,

CNN has lost all credibility.

treachery, CNN now reveals it has no shame. By burying the CNN story on

Page A11 in small type under an innocuous headline, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

demonstrates it shares that lack of both credibility and shame.

William Fielder

Peachtree City

[Fielder is a retired Army

officer with 40 years experience in U.S. intelligence.]