Conan O’Brien Proves ‘Useful’ To The Castro Regime
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Miami Herald
By A.J. DELGADO
3/10/2015 6:26 PM
Excerpt:
In 1959, Jack Paar, then host of The Tonight Show, interviewed Fidel Castro in Havana. That was the last time an American late-night host filmed in Cuba — until, that is, Conan O’Brien hightailed it down to Havana recently.
The one-hour episode, aired last week, featured the Harvard-educated comedian in a variety of hilarious — and predictable — fish-out-of-water scenarios: a rhythmless O’Brien at a dance class; freestyling with a Cuban band; dining at a paladar; touring a rum museum; learning to roll cigars; and, my favorite, hanging with teens at El Malecón, smoking cigarettes and swigging rum out of a box.
Viewers no doubt laughed out loud, cheered as O’Brien (twice) exclaimed “Viva Cuba!” and came away with a fuzzy feeling.
And therein lies the problem.
While no one expects O’Brien, an entertainer, to stealthily interview dissidents — that would be ridiculous — presenting the happy-go-lucky view of Cuba, reduced to rum, music, and dancing, is, however, equally ridiculous.
Sure, O’Brien issued a quickie disclaimer that Cuba has “many complicated social and political problems,” but he then commences what PJ Media called an “80-minute infomercial for the Western hemisphere’s longest running and bloodiest dictatorship.”
Some of it seemed carefully staged by the Cuban regime, right down to the curiously English-fluent Cubans O’Brien repeatedly encountered and the well-dressed, well-fed bystanders milling about. Even the brief historical information was straight out of a regime-approved book, with O’Brien explaining: “In the 1940s and ’50s, [Cuba] was the Las Vegas of the Caribbean, but in 1959 Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, which led to a U.S. economic blockade that has lasted for 53 years.”
Close, but no cigar.
“Las Vegas of the Caribbean”? What an interesting way to describe all of pre-Castro Cuba. A large land (roughly the size of England) abundant in natural resources, Cuba was much more than just the nightlife in Havana. Sure, glitzy casinos in the capital helped its riches, but so did an enormous economy of sugar, tobacco, textiles and cattle. In 1950, the Cuban peso was worth as much as the U.S. dollar.
Yet the notion of Cuba simply as a playground dominated by the mob is a myth long pushed by the regime and its sympathizers to illustrate nonexistent Batista-era ills. Chicago and New York were far more mob-ruled than Havana ever was.
O’Brien’s remark also implies the embargo was simply a reaction to Castro ousting Batista. He even uses the regime-favored term “blockade” rather than “embargo.”
*snip*
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