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Recently, this blog lauded the PBS Newshour- in advance- for sending its best reporter Ray Suarez to Cuba.
Suarez did 3 reports on Cuba's medical system, seemingly only dwelling on its successes.
Today in the Wall Street Journal, arch conservative and professional Castro family hater Mary O'Grady blasts Suarez for his timid and overly positive reports.
"...Suarez's report, by contrast, is like a state propaganda film. In one segment, an American woman named Gail Reed who lives in Cuba tells him that the government's claim of its people's longevity is due to a first-rate system of disease prevention. He then parrots the official line that Cuba's wealth of doctors is the key ingredient. What is more, he says, these unselfish revolutionary "foot soldiers" go on house calls.
AND: " Given Fidel's habit of making things up, it's hard to know how many competent doctors the government has trained. But there is no disputing the fact that thousands of medics have been sent overseas in large numbers to earn hard currency for the regime. There is also no question that Cubans are paying the price at home."
Having visited Cuba many times and once even married to nursing student there, I must agree with O'Grady.
And that's rare. In fact, it's only happened once before on this blog.
But my esposa always bitterly complained about the competence of the doctors that she worked with in her city. All the good ones, she claimed were in Venezuela or in La Habana servicing tourists for hard currency.
Here's a previous post, praising Suarez when he announced the upcoming report.
I'm now slowly swallowing those words as I write this.
http://thehypervigilantobserver.blogspot.com/2010/12/cuba-americas-best-tv-journalist.html
