News of Cuba
Determining what is newsworthy is "the most crucial decision in journalism"
(Bagdikian, 1971, pp. 104, 105). Yet a news report also suggests how to make
sense of its topic: In reporting on an occurrence, journalists presume that they
and their audience share "a range of known social and cultural identifications"
(Hall et al, 1978, p. 54).[1] Much of the power of this arrangement lies in
people readily understanding the terms of this discourse. Meaning is conveyed by
the use of a "deft metaphor, catchphrase, or other symbolic device" (Gamson &
Modigliani, 1989, p. 2). For example, Gans (1979, p. 41) notes that when the
news "reported that Stokely Carmichael had 'turned up' somewhere, while the
president had, on the same day, 'arrived' somewhere else. . . the appropriate
values were not difficult to discern, if only because neutral terms were
available but were not used."
The news's seemingly "natural" use of language reflects the fact that, as with
most members of a society, journalists observe a "hierarchy of credibility: In
any system of ranked groups, participants take it as given that members of the
highest group have the right to define the way things really are" (Becker, 1967,
p. 241). A news report typically will offer more than one perspective, in
deference to the U.S. journalistic convention of balancing divergent quotations.
Yet a dominant or "preferred" reading of the text is present, almost invariably.
In turn, the language of news is part of a larger "structure of knowledge
production" (Said, 1981, p. 145) which socializes people as to the appropriate
ways of thinking about a particular issue.[2] For example, currently news
embraces a strong belief in the "free market," while "nonmarket options seem
utopian" (Herman, 1998, p. 202). In earlier eras, the news strongly supported
tariffs and other expressions of the nation-state's sovereignty.
Public discourse is shaped by those with "habitual access" (Molotch & Lester,
1974, p. 107) to the news media. In the United States, the purposes of the state
and the corporate sector "underlie the strategies of creating one reality
instead of another" (Ibid., p. 111). Conflicting strategies reflect different
worldviews, since ruling elites are not monolithic (Domhoff, 1996). Thus the
news media are a "contested area" (Gitlin, 1979, p. 11) in which elite
strategies compete for legitimacy and acceptance. This competition is most
evident in the constucting of meaning, over time: In order to "remain viable"
(Gamson & Modigliani, 1989, p. 4), a dominant reading must be able to
"incorporate new events" (Ibid.) into its explanantory scheme. For instance,
nuclear power's "safe and reliable" theme quickly lost its legitimacy, after
Three Mile Island.
Shifts in public thought also may be initiated and developed by ruling elites,
without a precipitating occurrence. For instance, in transforming China's public
image from Red Menace to valued U.S. trading partner, the corporate sector
defeated cultural reactionaries. This research studies a similar struggle, one
that is in progress. The corporate sector's global pursuit of capital (Amin,
1997) is pressuring to end what is now a nearly 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo
of Cuba (Azicri, 1990; Brenner & Kornbluh, 1995a; Falk, 1996; Smith, 1996; also
see Gordon, 1997; Radelat, 1997; Stokes, 1994).[3]
This study assesses how Cuba has been portrayed in the "paper of record," The
New York Times, from the revolution to the present. It uses a "news frame"
(Gitlin, 1979, 1980) model which studies metaphors and euphemisms, i.e.,
"condensing symbols" (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989, p. 2), combined with
selection, emphasis and omission of news sources and background information. It
focuses on coverage of the exodus of the balseros, or boat people, in the summer
of 1994, and on the Pope's visit in January 1998. All of the news stories from
August 1 - September 15, 1994, and in January and February 1998 were studied.
Apart from some initial indecisiveness (Lewis, 1960), the mainstream U.S. news
media have been hostile to the Cuban government since Fidel Castro's January
1959 ascent to power (Biancalana & O'Leary, 1988; Francis, 1967; Houghton, 1965;
Lenart & Targ, 1992; Matthews, 1971; McCaughan & Platt, 1988). The tone is well
summed up by the Times's James Reston, after the Bay of Pigs invasion in April
1961. Reston wrote that the United States "may yet have to redeem the promises
to chase the bearded bully-boy into the Caribbean" (quoted in Houghton, 1965, p.
424). The Soviet Union's disintegration in 1989 ended the U.S. government's
ability to depict Cuba as an outpost of a hostile superpower. So, Cuba's image
has been changed to that of "the last 'Stalinist' holdout" (Lenart & Targ, 1992,
p. 359).
The Balseros
In July and early August, 1994, Cubans hijacked several government boats and
sailed to the United States. A Cuban officer was killed, yet the U.S. government
refused Cuban government requests to return the hijackers. In response the Cuban
government announced that it no longer would prevent people from leaving the
island. A massive exodus resulted: From early August until mid-September, when
Cuba and the United States signed an immigration accord, some 30,000 balseros
left the island (Lewis, 1994b). The initial coverage was minimal, and its focus
was clear: "371 Cubans landed in Florida over the weekend, the largest three-day
total since the Mariel boatlift in 1980" ("14 Detained," 1994).
The exodus grew until the U.S. government agreed to "limited" talks with the
Cuban government. During this time period, the coverage was voluminous. The
first front page story was accompanied by a large photo of balseros at a refugee
center in Key West ("Concern Rising," 1994). This story identified the basic
themes of the coverage: local officials' concerns about handling the influx, and
Florida and federal officials' concerns about how to stem it. There was no
mention of the U.S. embargo and little reporting from Cuba. The focus was on
official U.S. sources, as in a quote from a "senior State Department official"
that, unlike Haitian refugees, Cubans were fleeing in rafts and small boats
because "Cuba did not have free enterprise, (and so) it was harder for Cubans to
build medium-sized boats" (Greenhouse, 1994a, p. A-14).
In all the coverage, there was one reference to race: A report on
Cuban-Americans' ambivalence about the balseros noted that, as with the Mariel
refugees, "many of the new refugees are dark-skinned." It referred to recent
refugees' difficulty in assimilating, but its only explanation was given by
"Cubans who had arrived earlier," who attributed the new refugees' problems to
"their conditioning under Communism" (Nordheimer, 1994a, p. 10). There was some
modest criticism of the Clinton administration's tactics: A report that U.S.
patrols had been increased in the Florida Straits, to accompany new sanctions
against Cuba, observed that "neither strategy appears to be working"
(Nordheimer, 1994b, p. A-1).
The Cuba-U.S. talks were covered in three ways. The negotiations themselves
were reported in detail (Greenhouse, 1994g-n; Lewis, 1994a). Second, grim
feature stories reported on the living conditions of those balseros who were
being held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba (Treaster, 1994; Navarro,
1994b), and on balseros who were being held in Florida (Navarro, 1994c;
Nordheimer, 1994c). For the first time during the exodus, the Times ran regular
reports from Cuba, on those who were leaving, and their reasons (Golden,
1994a-c; Newman, 1994a-c). Finally, perhaps the most unusual pieces were two
stories from Miami. One addressed the fact that "the political spectrum in the
(Cuban) exile community does include organizations that support Havana"
(Navarro, 1994a, p. A11), a point previously largely omitted in U.S. political
discourse. The other story, on Miami's effort to downplay its crime problems,
especially the shooting of tourists, quoted a Canadian tourist: '"Our agent
advised against flying into Miami. Much too dangerous, she said. Why didn't we
consider flying to Havana for our holiday? Much safer there"' (Nordheimer,
1994d, p. A16). The Times reported the accord (Lewis, 1994b), and then its Cuba
coverage faded.
The Pope
The Pope's visit, from January 21-25, 1998, was reported largely as a contest
of wits, between the Pope and President Castro. Prefacing the visit, the Times
reported that the Pope would bring his "personality and charisma" to help "gain
solid ground for the Church in Cuba." Castro "was looking for the Pope to rescue
him from the pariah status imposed by the United States" (Bohlen, 1998a). This
set the template for the subsequent coverage. The church "has been trying to
expand the limited space available to it in a one-party state" (Rohter, 1998a,
p. A-1). Meanwhile, "thousands of. . . Catholics. . . are walking around.
. . somewhat giddy and still incredulous over the events they are about to
witness" (Ojito, 1998a, p. A-1). But the Cuban government had other aims: "In a
country that has operated under Communism for nearly 40 years, the law of supply
and demand is suddenly being applied with a vengeance" (Rohter, 1998b, p. A-1).
Reporting on the Pope's arrival continued the game metaphor: Each leader spoke,
"Mr. Castro speaking for a Communist ideology that in the last decade has been
rejected in most other parts of the world, and John Paul for a religion that is
soon to enter its third millenium" (Bohlen, 1998b, p. A-1). "To the rest of the
world," the Pope's visit "seems a direct challenge to Fidel Castro and
everything he stands for." Yet Castro "is using every means at his disposal to
convince his 11 million people that he and the beleaguered Cuban revolution"
would "be the ultimate beneficiaries" (Rohter, 1998c, p. A-14). A feature story
on a visit of several Cuban emigres evoked pathos, while including the Times's
increasingly prominent message: While some emigres remained virulently opposed
to visiting Cuba, "others viewed the journey as an opportunity to bridge the gap
between the Cuban people" (Swarns, 1998a, p. A-15).
Subsequent coverage impassively reported the Pope's denunciation of "abortion
and sexual promiscuity." Yet his support for parental authority was reported as
being an "oblique attack" on a "society that has lived under Communism for 39
years" (Bohlen, 1998c, p. A-1). The next report emphasized the Pope's call to
Cubans to "find their Christian roots;" later in this story, the Times reported
that "the Pope warned young people against the lure of materialism." Still
farther down, this same piece briefly reported the Pope's "first public critique
of the United States embargo of Cuba" (Bohlen, 1998d, p. A-5). The next report
lead with the Pope's "challenge" to Castro "for the release of Cuba's political
prisoners" (Bohlen, 1998e, p. 1). An accompanying story reported that "the
majority of Cuba's 11 million people, including many who consider themseves to
be good Catholics, are now believed to follow Santeria," a religion originating
in West Africa (Rohter, 1998d, p. 8).
The Pope's parting address called on Cubans to seek "new paths." Later, at the
airport, he made "his most critical reference yet" to the embargo (Rohter,
1998e, p. A-1). In this same story, in the 24th of 26 paragraphs, came this
quotation from the Pope:
Various places are witnessing the resurgence of a certain capitalist
neo-liberalism, which subordinates the human person to blind market forces and
conditions the develoment of people on those forces.
After the Pope's departure, a Sunday magazine essay referred casually to "when
the embargo comes down" (Codrescu, 1998, p. 35). The next day, a report's focus
was summed up by one of the diplomats whom it quoted: "Fidel has finally begun
to prepare for the day when he will no longer be on stage" (Rohter, 1998h, p.
A-3). A lead story two weeks later, datelined Miami and was based on telephone
conversations, reported that the Cuban government would release "more than 200
inmates" (Rohter, 1998i, p. A-1). Vatican officials "described [this] as a
welcome response" to the Pope's visit; the report noted that "Cuban officials
routinely maintain that there are no political prisoners in the country's jails,
only criminals who have broken national security laws" (Ibid., p. A-9).
Discussion
The balseros exodus was a "critical discourse moment," a disruptive situation
which has the potential to "contradict the rights or beliefs or values or either
the speaker or hearer or both" (Chilton, 1987, p. 12). By contrast, the Pope's
visit was, to use the Times's words, "choreographed and scripted" (Bohlne,
1998a). Yet in each case, the reportage offered the same perspective. The
balseros coverage followed the contours of official debate within Washington,
D.C., in two ways. First, it framed the exodus primarily as a crisis for the
United States, built partly on the familiar theme that the country could
ill-afford more immigrants (Ocasio, 1995; Fix & Passel, 1994). The first report
referred to "the specter of another Mariel boatlift" ("27 Cubans," 1994, p.
A14); 16 of the first 19 stories cited Mariel. The Times soon began to refer to
the balseros exodus as a "crisis," a term used throughout the rest of its
coverage.
Omission was a key part of this "self-blinding" (Said, 1981, p. xxvii):
Compared with 30,000 balseros, many more people leave "free world" countries for
the United States.[4] Amid more than a thousand paragraphs of coverage, the
Times noted this point once, very briefly and obliquely, in paraphrasing a
remark by Castro (Rohter, 1994b, p. A-15). It did not note that immigration is
basic to world history (Harris, 1995; Hobsbawm, 1994).[5] It did not note that
attributing Cuba's problems solely to Castro and communism tends to overlook the
grinding poverty which was the lot of most Cubans for centuries of Spanish rule
(Rowan & Ramsey, 1896), as well as during some 60 years of U.S. suzerainty
(Bethell, 1993; Perez, 1994).[6] Several stories cited criticism of the embargo
by Congressional Democrats, scholars, and former government officials (Apple,
1994; Greenhouse, 1994c,e,f; Jehl, 1994c). But the Times did not note the
world's longstanding condemnation of the embargo, nor the fact that only the
United States has such a policy. Nor did the coverage link the balseros'
conditions in Cuba with the embargo.[7]
Local, state, and federal officials, along with U.S. experts and Cuban emigres,
made up 80 percent of the Times's sources. Cuban officials comprised less than 9
percent, and other Latin American officials were 2 percent.[8] Once, in 83 news
stories, did the Times turn to domestic experts and activists not hostile to
socialism in general and Castro in particular (Navarro, 1994a).
Second, the balseros coverage continued a theme which successive U.S.
administrations have used to justify their Cuba policy: All of Cuba's affairs
simply are part of a larger game of wile and will, played between President
Castro and the U.S. President. The Times quoted Florida's governor: "'We are not
going to allow Castro to dictate our immigration policy'" (Greenhouse, 1994a, p.
A1). Referring to the 1980 Mariel exodus, U.S. attorney general Janet Reno said
of Castro, "We're not going to play his game anymore" ("The U.S. Pulls," 1994,
p. 2). The policy of taking balseros to Guanatanamo "may also set in motion a
risky endgame" (Jehl, 1994, p. 28). Contending that a naval blockade of Cuba was
not "in the cards," a news analysis concluded that "it is the Cuban who occupies
the catbird seat" (Apple, 1994, p. A-12). A report on Castro's "refugee weapon"
quoted an academic to the effect that "'emigration is about the only card he's
got'" (Rohter, 1994a, p. 11). A headline read, "Castro, the Man with Few Cards,
Always Winds Up the Dealer" (Rohter, 1994c, p. 1).
Thus, the "diplomacy game" became the key "condensing symbol" of the "Cuba as
enemy" news frame. Euphemisms were important: When a Times correspondent
referred to the Guantanamo facilities as "detention camps" (Jehl, 1994a, p. 1),
within two days the Clinton administration was referring pointedly to such sites
as "safe havens" (Nordheimer, 1994b, p. A1), a term which the Times used from
then on. The coverage did present a few fragments of criticism of U.S. policy on
Cuba, as in noting that new sanctions by the Clinton administration "will
squeeze many poor Cubans" (Greenhouse, 1994c, p. 4; also see Greenhouse, 1994b).
Coverage of the Pope's visit continued the game metaphor. Headlines made clear
that the Pope was on the side of the U.S. government: "Pope Challenges Cuba;"
"Pope Openly Challenges Castro." Stories foregrounded the Pope's criticisms of
the Cuban government, while downplaying his criticisms of materialism, the U.S.
embargo, and capitalism. The Pope was 20 percent of all sources; other Church
officials were 19 percent; ordinary Cubans were 22.6 percent[9]; Cuban emigres
were 8 percent; U.S. experts hostile to the Cuban revolution were 5.6 percent;
Castro was 5.6 percent; Santeria officials were 4.7 percent; foreign officials
were 3.8 percent; Cuban officials were 3.3 percent; U.S. officials were 3.3
percent; U.S. experts who oppose the embargo were less than half of one percent.
However, notably moreso than in the balseros coverage, the Times did report
some subjects and perspectives which do not fit neatly within the contours of
U.S. policy on Cuba. First, the Times noted the prominence of the Santeria
religion, hardly a compliment to the Catholic Church: A 71-year-old Santeria
priest said that when she was a child "santeros were often persecuted by the
police at the behest of local parish priests. . . . But since 'our
beloved Fidel Castro' took power, Santeria has been allowed to flourish as never
before in Cuba's 500-year history" (Rohter, 1998d, p. 8). This report was in
sharp contrast to the nostalgic and affectionate reports on Cuban Catholicism by
Mirta Ojito (1998a-f); her reporting dripped with vitriol for the Cuban
revolution, as in "diehard Fidelistas come to terms with the failure of their
dreams" (1998e, p. 3).
Second, several reports focused on the Cuban exile community's differences of
opinion on Castro (Navarro, 1998; Swarns, 1998a; Weiner, 1998). Such differences
could have been reported 10 or 20 years ago. But now the Times is more openly
critical of the embargo, noting that it is opposed, in the United States, by
"600 business groups and 140 religious and human-rights organizations" (Weiner,
1998, p. A-8). Adamant opponents of any such change were depicted, implicitly,
as dogmatic. Third, the Times actually acknowledged that "the White House has
used many means -- including failed coups and assassination plots in the early
1960s -- to topple Mr. Castro" (Weiner, 1998, p. A-8). This is not a major
advance, although it does suggest a departure from the wholesome "good vs. evil"
scenario implicit in U.S. policy on Cuba.[10]
Conclusion
The "myth" (Barthes, 1972) of an enemy Cuba no longer serves the corporate
sector's interests. But cultural myths must be reshaped with great care, because
beneath them lies the legitimacy of the social order: Issues of "newsworthiness"
and "news slant" are shaped at the intersection of elite concerns with
self-legitimation and capital accumulation. So, as with the transformation of
China's public image, a metamorphosis of Cuba's image takes time. The balseros
exodus occurred before the corporate sector had secured widespread acceptance
for its anti-embargo position among key elites -- high public officials,
"geopolitical strategists" and "the intelligentsia" (Said, 1981, p. 31). Such
disruptive and largely unforseen occurrences -- e.g., Cuba's February 1996
downing of two small airplanes flown by Cuban-Americans (Winfield, 1996) -- tend
to delay such a project.
The corporate sector's "quiet lobbying" (McFayden, 1996, p. 5) is starting to
bear fruit, despite efforts by Congress to tighten the embargo (Greenhouse,
1995a).[11] A lengthy Times feature story on an "aging exile's" family visit to
Cuba, run on the Sunday front page with photos, depicts the Cuban people's
suffering (Navarro, 1995). No longer "unworthy" victims who support Castro, they
now are "worthy" victims (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, pp. 37-86) of an array of
problems, including the U.S. embargo. This story could have been written 10 or
20 years earlier; its timing suggests a shift in the "pattern of acceptability"
(quoted in Aronson, 1970, p. 258) concerning news of Cuba.[12]
Yet the coverage of the Pope's visit suggests no change in the nature of
journalism's use of "social and cultural identifications" (Hall et al, 1978, p.
54). Perhaps one sentence is most telling: "To the rest of the world," the
Pope's visit "seems a direct challenge to Fidel Castro and everything he stands
for" (Rohter, 1998c, p. A-14). To presume to speak for virtually the entire
world is to make quite a presumption: It requires not only arrogance, however
unconscious, but also a certainty that one has the cultural authority to make
such a definitive judgment. Such reporting is, to use the words of Edward Said
(1981, p. 142), "an assertion of power."
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[1] The news "reminds the audience of values that are being violated and
assumes that the audience shares these values" (Gans, 1979, p. 40).
[2] This "structure" includes all mass media, as well as "geopolitical
strategists" and "the intelligentsia" (Said, 1981, p. 31). This system of
cultural production largely represents and reflects the interests of the
corporate state (Chomsky et al, 1997; Simpson, 1994).
[3] Ending the embargo likely would result in annual trade of $1.95 billion to
$3 billion (Rich Kaplowitz, 1993b, p. 2). Meanwhile, companies based in other
countries trade with Cuba (Gordon, 1997; Rich Kaplowitz & Kaplowitz, 1992; Rich
Kaplowitz, 1993b). So U.S. corporations "have quietly and consistently
registered their opposition to the Cuba Democracy Act (Rich Kaplowitz, 1993b),"
a 1992 tightening of the embargo.
[4] In 1993 the United States received 58,200 documented immigrants from Latin
America and 53,900 from South America. For 1992, the total of undocumented
immigrants from Mexico, four Central American countries and two South American
countries was estimated at 2 million (Statistical Abstract of the United
States, 1995, pp. 11,12). This is due to the "central role played by the United
States in the emergence of a global economy over the past 30 years" (Sassen,
1992, p. 14).
[5] In the 1850s, for example, U.S. railroad companies "sent agents to blanket
northern Europe with alluring propaganda," in an effort to stimulate immigration
(Higham, 1955, p. 16).
[6] For instance, a sociologist wrote of "naked children, their swollen
stomachs testifying to an unbalanced diet and infection from parasitic worms"
(Nelson, 1950, p. 4).
[7] In the mainstream U.S. news media, human rights reporting is reserved for
the victims of U.S. enemies, i.e., "worthy victims" (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p.
32): The balseros' plight was reported with pathos because it was blamed solely
on Castro and communism.
Such hostility continued: 1996 Presidential candidate Robert Dole pledged that,
if elected, he would overthrow "the washed out, isolated Communist regime in
Cuba" (CubaInfo, 1996, p. 1).
[8] Neither Cuba nor the United States has allowed the other's journalism
organizations to maintain bureaus in the other's territory (although Clinton
signed an executive order on October 3, 1995, which may change this). Because
the Cuban government has been known to delay or deny the visa application of
individual journalists, it is possible that initially the Times' coverage of the
balseros crisis did not include reports from Cuba because the Times was unable
to get a reporter into Cuba. However, this would not have prevented the Times
from running reports by, or at least quoting, wire services which do maintain
bureaus in Havana. Indeed, early in the exodus, the Times did run several
reports by Reuters, but these were brief and appear to have been edited heavily.
[9] Roughly two-thirds of these were Catholics who were highly critical of the
Cuban revolution (see Ojito, 1998 a-f).
[10] Note, in this light, President Clinton's recent admission of what the
Times called the "open secret" of CIA involvement in killing more than 200,000
Guatemalans.
[11] On October 3, 1995, Clinton signed an executive order that would ease
restrictions on travel to Cuba for Cuban-Americans, academics, artists, college
students (Greenhouse, 1995b). ATimes editorial welcomed these changes as "a much
better approach to encouraging democracy in Cuba" ("Progress," 1995).
[12] In much the same way, Harrison Salisbury's reports from Hanoi in late
1966, published in the Times, eventually allowed the mainstream U.S. news media
to report without any consequent furor that the United States was indeed bombing
civilian targets in North Vietnam, contrary to what official U.S. policy
maintained (Salisbury, 1967).
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