Major mainstream television networks in France and Brazil have both taken aim at the odious regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. And I don’t mean something small. They’ve put out huge high-advertising long programs out, firing a unusual cannonade at the dictatorship. This has never happened before.

These TV programs document Cuba’s long lines, miserable shortages as a way of life, bureaucracy, commissars, vaunted health care that is nothing but a failure, monstrous communist indoctrination that passes for “education,” secret police surveillance, jailing of dissidents, and complete lack of freedom. It’s realistic programming on Cuba that no one in either country has ever seen before, because the news has always been laudatory in the past.

Can you imagine the impact of this programming in the slums of Brazil where the locals have been told Cuba’s a paradise for all their lives? Or in the salons of Paris, where the local denizens snack on canapes and speak of the ‘superiority’ of the Cuban health care system? Those perceptions are being blown to bits.

Daniel at Babalu blog is currently in Paris after a long absence. He turned on the French TV, and could not believe his eyes at this programming. In particular, he notes the emphasis of the show on racism in Cuba, something that has never been presented as news before. He also notes the realistic portrayal of Miami Cuban exiles, who are ordinarily depicted as nuts here on U.S. TV. His post is here.

Meanwhile, Daniel in Brazil (another Daniel down there with the lions!) tells me the same thing, except that the Brazilian network put a peculiar twist on it. In an email, he writes:

GLOBO, which is the largest, most watched network in Brasil (and by the
way, the largest network outside of the states) has been doing pieces on Cuba all this week… every piece has shown the “supposed” triumph of socialism in a very cynical way, they’ve shown the lines, they’ve shown the lack of supplies, the misery, it’s VERY interesting to see this type of
reporting!!! Yesterday they dedicated some time to dissidents, the Ladies In White, and others.

I love the mockery approach.

This is truly amazing and unexpected, because Castro-praising has been the order of day in both countries for many decades. Not only that, this was the week that supposedly should have been one of Castro’s greatest glory, the week of the non-aligned conference, which the regime turned into a festival of terrorism equivalance, Israel-bashing, and anti-Americanism. It was just like the 1970s. For a superb roundup of that, see Fausta’s post here.

But the cultural winds seem to be blowing the other way, and the intelligentsia in two vast countries, which have always taken Castro’s self-praise at his word, are now showing the real side of his evil regime, the real one.

I honestly don’t know what this means – it’s only TV after all – but it may mean something’s in the air, or that Castro has badly alienated the media. Either way, Castro is finished. Even the TV stations are going after him. If only the U.S. ones would catch up.