Dear Dan,
All I can say about Elián is, Qué está pasando? The kid may not realize it, but this was Easter weekend, and he was more popular than Jesus Christ.
You give kudos to AP photog Alan Diaz, who caught the federale waving a gun at Elián. But NBC’s “exclusive” interview with Diaz this morning turned out to be a dud. Not only did he not go on camera, but he turned out to be inarticulate and unopinionated, even as Matt Lauer cajoled him to denounce the raid. In the last 48 hours, while Diaz’s money shot has been in heavy rotation, the media began a round of self-flagellation for hyping Elián. I think that’s a more interesting story.
First there was Frank Rich’s Op-Ed in the New York Times on Saturday, in which he got a network exec to confess the real reason they’re dwelling on Elián: He’s a “very sexy” kid caught up in a melodrama. Then last night, Howard Kurtz hosted a special edition of “Reliable Sources” to announce the results of a new CNN/Gallup poll: Sixty-six percent of Americans disapprove of the media coverage of the Elián saga. On that show, Joseph Contreras, the Miami bureau chief for Newsweek, recited the conventional justification for covering this story: As opposed to the death of Princess Di or the O.J. trial, this one’s about a substantive foreign-policy issue. Yeah, right.
For another look at media self-examination, check out the piece on Page A22 of today’s New York Times, which pits Times national editor Dean Baquet against Boston Globe assistant managing editor Michael Larkin, on the subject of whether the money shot should have run on the first page or not. (Turns out the Times was almost alone in its decision to take the shot off the front page of the late edition of Sunday’s paper. In their quest for balance, they got tangled up in spin.)
I’ll get to the SWAT team in a moment. But the responsibility for this media insanity lies with the Miami Relatives, as you call them. Now that Elián’s in seclusion with his father, it’s obvious they’re a low-minded bunch of anti-Castro Cuban exiles who exploited the kid for their own purposes. Marisleysis González may be a sex symbol in Cuba, but I think she’s a bad actor in every sense of the word (especially compared with Elián, who comes out of this looking like Macaulay Culkin).
On Saturday morning after the raid, the Washington Post reported that she “ran outside and fell to the ground in tears.” Then she flew to D.C. and gave a press conference, again sobbing uncontrollably, waving the money shot and saying things like “There was no guns in that house.” Let’s face it, she’s a publicity-seeking phony, and her tears are those of a woman who realizes her 15 minutes are up. Why else was she prowling around the Crystal City mall yesterday, following Monica Lewinsky’s footsteps? It’s only a matter of weeks before the right-wing conspiracy gets her a makeover and turns her into Paula Jones.
Finally, about that raid. I agree it was excessive, and eerily reminiscent of Waco and Ruby Ridge. Fortunately for Reno, there were no weapons in the house, despite “rumors” of old Navy SEALs that might be on hand to protect the family from the feds. (And by the way, the Justice Department has produced a search warrant for the raid. It was shown on TV shows this morning.) Reno’s a hypocrite, yeah. But for a real show of hypocrisy, check out the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal’s editorials and Op-Eds today, in which they use the money shot to tar the entire Clinton administration, including Hillary and Al Gore. Post columnist Dick Morris advances the notion that Bill Clinton is in the pocket of Fidel Castro, who has been threatening to dump another boatload of refugees before the election cycle is out. And the Journal’s lead editorial suggests that Elián was drugged on the flight to Washington, in preparation for the Cuban psychiatrists who will be slipping into America to brainwash him. (In her backup Op-Ed, Peggy Noonan reflects, “Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.”)
Meanwhile, conservatives are calling for congressional hearings to investigate the raid. If the Republican Party were really bothered by unjustified searches and seizures, they would hold hearings about the fact that heavily armed predawn raids of private homes, based on flimsy search warrants that turn up after the fact, are conducted every day in the name of the drug war, often against defenseless blacks and Hispanics. There’s no question that the Clinton Justice Department is cynical. But the buildup of police power since the early 1970s has made it possible for any cynical executive to order raids like this one, in pursuit of political ends.
For more on this, I recommend reading Ed Epstein’s Agency of Fear, which chronicles the birth of the Drug Enforcement Administration under Nixon. It’s out of print, but it’s available online here.
End of rant–until tomorrow!
Best,
Cynthia
