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This week on CounterSpin: CNBC, a news outlet, brought viewers the news that Cuba has suspended its annual cigar festival. The postponement, if you wondered, “comes as the island nation’s Communist-run government endures its biggest test since the collapse of the Soviet Union.” Assured you’ve heard both “Communist” and “Soviet Union,” the “biggest test” bit has a link to another CNBC article, same writer, headed “What’sNext for Cuba? Trump Turns the Screws as the Island Runs Out of Jet Fuel.”
Now take a breath: Why does Donald Trump get to punish Cuban people? Why is it cute to talk about “turning the screws”? Can other countries “turn the screws” on the United States if they don’t like the US and its “capitalist-run” government? And above all: When did illegal actions carried out with the express intent of causing misery for other human beings living in other countries become blah blah blah?
The Trump White House is openly trying to harm the Cuban people, and US media are openly trying to sell that to us as something to root for.
Reed Lindsay has been reporting and making documentary film in and about Cuba for more than a decade. We hear from him on what you likely won’t be hearing from corporate media.
Transcript: ‘It’s Taken for Granted That Cuban Sovereignty Doesn’t Matter’
Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look back at press coverage of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.