To be Published  -  Winter Haven News Chief

"Elian and the Media"

As I write this column (Friday Morning) The Elian Gonzales case is still unresolved… and probably will be unresolved when I write the next column.  I have gone back and forth on the issue… so that is not the focus… The case tells us about the media and the lack of real news reporting.

The story has all the elements to make it a delicious story for today’s media.  They can focus on the emotion and the battle rather than to dig for real understanding of the ramifications each of the possible outcomes.  

The story has enough villains for both sides and in many cases has scrambled the conventional wisdom on where each side would normally stand.  

The Democrats are all on the “Family Values” side as in this issue, as in:  “This “wonderful” father need his child.”  You hear such high sounding phrases like “we cannot destroy this wonderful and sacred bond between father and son”.   Never mind that this “wonderful” father abandoned the mother and child for a new honey.  Never mind that this “wonderful” father said nothing about wanting his child until Castro started his ranting.  Never mind that the Democrats generally have found the there is more of a “sacred bond” between government and child when it comes to such items as “parental notification of an abortion” And Fathers? Most liberal feminists deem fathers almost unnecessary. 

The Republican on the other hand have abandon the “family values” issue.  Freedom is more important that parental rights.  

The Republicans have not done anything about the situation.  They control the congress, but conveniently sit on the sidelines. 

The human rights activists sit on the sidelines and do nothing about, in fact encourage sending Elian back to a ruthless regime that crushes human rights through economics and a club-carrying dictator.  

The people generally against immigration, or at least controlling it… see no problem letting little Elian in.  Emotion rules. Thanks to the media we “know” Elian, we see him play, laugh and being a kid.   On the other hand, a boatload of Cuban refugees, each with a monumental struggle to be free are to be turned back without another thought or media moment. 

The media centers on the emotional issue.  All the problems of the people are examined and magnified.  The fathers “anguish”, the little boy being “ripped” from his current family,  the video of the child telling his father that he does not want to go back to Cuba. 

They so quickly report the President saying that he has tried to keep politics out of the situation when in reality it is ALL politics.  It is not about the little boy and the poor father.  It is about the failed policy with Cuba and Castro.  It is all about the President frantically trying to build a legacy out of his failed presidency.  Why does he distance himself from the nitty gritty of the situation and again, like in Waco, let Janet Reno be the bad guy…  He will come in and be the good guy and try to make lemonade of his lemon policy.  

The President pontificates about the “rule of law”.  This President who has skirted and essentially left the  “Rule of  law” trashed in his wake now urges other to “do the right thing”. 

The real problem is that we failed the people of Cuba.  We want to build the economy of Mexico so we don’t have a flood of refuges from Mexico… so we can sell to the “new” middle class of Mexico… trade, tourism with Mexico is great for the US.  But we look at Cuba in an entirely different way.  China is a communist country like Cuba, but we look at China a whole different way than Cuba.  

Mexico and China are growing, becoming more economically strong.  Cuba has gone the other way.  Our policy for 40 years has failed.  

Elian is the product of that failed policy.  Now Elian will be used and probably be sacrificed to the political process.  This is not about Elian… it is about the government and politics. 

So our “news” media will continue to focus on the emotion with little or no insight on what is really happening.  We can’t blame the media… we will do the same thing.  Emotion will rule our thought and the eventual outcome of this situation.  Then we will wonder why we have such a convoluted policy.