Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Herald hypocrisy?

From The Miami Herald:

New Miami Herald section for Cuba's Critical Voices

Starting Monday, March 2, The Miami Herald's online Cuba page will display a special Dissident Voices section that will contain reports from non-government sources on the island.

The reports will cover a broad range of developments in Cuba, from cultural events to detentions of dissidents to high food prices, housing collapses and street crime.

They are gathered by Cubanet, a Miami-based organization designed to help independent journalists disseminate their reports abroad, and are translated into English by the International Media Center at Florida International University.

Click here for the story.

Seriously, Miami Herald? Really? After all the huffing and puffing about journalists "moonlighting" for the government-funded Radio and TV Martí, you're giving regular space to articles gathered by Cubanet? In effect, that gives an editorial position and "gatekeeper" power to the staff of a USAID-funded organization.

I'm not entering into a debate about the integrity of Cubanet. I read stories on Cubanet all the time. But The Herald has a lot of gall making this move after damaging the careers of so many journalists who did work for a group not too unlike Cubanet — and now the Herald is somehow alright with partnering with a group that gets the federal money even more directly?

Thoughts?

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