Ignoring the indefensible

Jeff Jacoby does an excellent job of showing how despicable was 60 Minutes' little Castro love-fest in connection with its visit to 11 year old Elian Gonzalez. I thought this was really powerful writing:

Well, it is good to know that Elián thinks so highly of Castro. And one must admire the restraint shown by "60 Minutes," which somehow managed to avoid mentioning that Elián's friend and surrogate "father" is also the world's longest-ruling tyrant, a sadist who has killed or imprisoned tens of thousands of dissidents, and, not incidentally, the Stalinist thug who drove Elizabet Brotons -- Elián's mother -- to her death in the Florida Straits. Come to think of it, why did Brotons want so desperately to leave Cuba? Why was she willing to risk her and her son's life on such a dangerous -- in her case, fatal -- attempt to cross the 90 miles that separate Cuba from freedom? Was it was the grinding poverty, the ubiquitous rationing, the constant shortages? Was it the lack of the free speech? The suppression of religion? The inability to criticize the government without risking years behind bars? Was it the informers on every block? The political dossier maintained on every student's "political attitude and social conduct?" Was it the knowledge that once Elián turned 11, he would be subject to mandatory labor for six to eight weeks every year? Was it the sheer, soul-crushing misery of living in a country routinely ranked as one of the most unfree places in the world? "60 Minutes" had nothing to say about any of that. On the other hand, it did show Elián saying -- when prodded by Simon -- that he had no good memories of his stay in Miami, that the relatives who cared for him "tormented" him by speaking of his mother, and that when he was seized at gunpoint by a federal SWAT team, he "felt joy that I could get out of that house." It bears repeating: Elián is only 11, and was just 5 when these events took place. He cannot be blamed for spouting the Communist Party line. But CBS has no such excuse. "Helped" by "Castro's personal cameraman," indeed. Edward R. Murrow must be spinning in his grave.

Read it all.