The Ghost of Snapped Shot

Do you notice anything odd the focus of the Associated Press in this "International Human Rights Day" series from Cuba?

Don't worry if you didn't catch it the first time around—Let me make it a little bit more obvious:



That's odd—I thought it was customary to take pictures of people protesting the abuse of human rights on "Human Rights" day, yet the AP seems to prefer that we see the "unanimous" bloc of Castro supporters that they insist are totally happy under his, well, totalitarian control. And here I thought the AP was a "champion" of "global justice" and all that—yet it seems that there's not a dictatorship in existence that they aren't in a huff to defend. Odd, isn't it?

I'll be tracking the wires to see if they ever decide to transmit those "mythical" opposition activists, or if they continue to sing to the tunes of the dictator.

Update: As always, if you want the truth of the dire situation down in Cuba, you need to read what the press WILL NOT tell you. Babalú's got a lot going on related to these protests as well, so be sure to go check out their series as well.

Update: Some words of wisdom from Babalú's Val Prieto, via e-mail. I think this puts the above photographs in context quite succinctly:

The protesters were beaten by these mobs. These mobs are called "rapid response brigades" and they are bused in from all over Cuba specifically to do what they just did. AP has not and will not show photos of the dissident protesters because they were beaten and if they do, the cuban government will make them close the Havana bureau.

Val

For one, I offer the above as yet another illustration of what a true dictatorship looks like, so those of you who insist that "George Bush's America™" is dictatorial can hopefully recover your sanity with a bit of perspective.

Also, I think this illustrates very well the true problem of "Multi-national" corporations: To whom does the Associated Press owe its allegiance? They certainly don't owe it to the United States, the country which the association was born in.

They also don't seem to owe it to the citizens of Cuba, as they're more than happy to parrot whatever the Cuban government demands that they parrot, caring only about maintaining their farcical presence on the island archipelago, as if somehow, they're acting as a legitimate player in international affairs.

Seriously, there's got to be a better way to collate the news than this. You don't actually require the assistance of the Cuban government to know what's happening in Cuba, do you?

Food for thought, if nothing else. I'll continue to watch the wires, but as Val says above, it's not likely that we'll be seeing much more from today.

 Tags: javier galeano AP #Dictatorship

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