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December 23, 2008
The Education of Ted Turner
The Education of Ted Turner
By Humberto Fontova
During a December 10 Fox News interview with Bill O'Reilly, cable television tycoon Ted Turner, a longtime admirer of Fidel Castro, made the astonishing claim that Castro's Stalinist regime never killed anyone.
O'REILLY: Fidel Castro, do you admire the man?
TURNER: Yes.
O'REILLY: Now, he has murdered people. He's imprisoned people. There are political prisoners now. He won't let his people use the Internet. Nobody can use that. And you admire the guy?
TURNER: Well, I admire certain things about him. He's trained a lot of doctors, and they've got one of the best educational systems in the developing world. And you know, he's still popular with a lot of people down there...
O' REILLY: But he's a killer. He's a killer. He's a guy who…
TURNER: But that has never, to my knowledge, that's never been proven. I mean…
O'REILLY: He's executed political prisoners. I mean, he enslaves people who don't see it the way he sees it. Come on. He runs a dictatorship.
Even the Cuban revolution’s most die-hard apologists have never made so transparently preposterous a claim, and for good reason. According to the Black Book of Communism, 14,000 men and boys had been executed in Cuba by 1964 – the equivalent of more than 3 million executions in the United States. Yet the communist’s defenders continue to march. "VIVA CHE! VIVA FIDEL!" bellowed Jesse Jackson while arm-in-arm with Fidel Castro at the University of Havana in 1984. (Jesse Jackson, by the way, wrote a book condemning capital punishment.)
Indeed, like al-Qaeda generations later, mass murder (often in public), was always key to the Communist quest for and maintenance of power. Communists have always wanted this to be known, as a means to intimidate opposition. Let's examine some quotations from communist monsters:
* We will make our hearts cruel, hard, and immovable ... we will not quiver at the sight of a sea of enemy blood. Without mercy, without sparing, we will kill our enemies in scores of thousands; let them drown themselves in their own blood! Let there be floods of the blood of the bourgeois – more blood, as much as possible." Felix Dzerzhinsky, the head of the Soviet Cheka in 1918.
* "Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!" Ernesto “Che” Guevara from the book that became The Motorcycle Diaries.
* “We stand for organized terror - this should be frankly admitted. Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution. Our aim is to fight against the enemies of the Soviet Government and of the new order of life. We judge quickly.” V.I Lenin.
* "To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We execute from revolutionary conviction!” Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
* "Executions? Certainly we execute! And we will CONTINUE executing as long as it is necessary! This is a war to the DEATH against the revolution's enemies!" Che Guevara while addressing the UN General Assembly on December 9, 1964.
Note that all of Guevara's above quotes are found in his own diaries. Some of these diaries were fashioned into a movie four years ago by Robert Redford (The Motorcycle Diaries). Others provided the screenplay for Che, the four-and-a-half hour “epic hagiography” (as described by the New York Times) directed by Stephen Soderbergh and starring Benicio Del Toro titled, released stateside just last week. Although the above-mentioned directors and producers profess rigid fidelity to Che's diaries, one searches their film in vain for these quotations.
Instead, many of the scenes are altogether fictitious. When Che Guevara entered the Cuban city of Santa Clara during the anti-Batista skirmishes, he promptly ordered the firing squad to murder dozens of “war-criminals” said to be linked to the overthrown government of Fulgencio Batista. This “battle” added up to six casualties on both sides, but Soderbergh and Del Toro – mindlessly sycophantic to their Castroite sources – depict it as a Caribbean Stalingrad that somehow produced scores of war criminals on one side! The New York Times, which “reported” on this “battle” as it “raged,” didn't bother to look into this numerical discrepancy.
The Cuban revolutionaries even televised their executions at Santa Clara. Among the victims was a valiant man named Col. Cornelio Rojas. Refusing a blindfold, Rojas walked unescorted to his execution (It was actually a murder: Che Guevara didn't even bother with one of his bogus trials). Compare Senor Rojas's death to Guevara's capture, when he reportedly whimpered, “Don't shoot! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!”
Blanca Rojas, Senor Rojas wife of 40 years, died of a heart attack while watching her husband's murder on Cuban national TV. Cornelio Rojas 17-year-old nephew, Pedro, volunteered for what came to be known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. After fighting to his last bullet, the defenseless Pedro was murdered in cold blood by one Osmany Cienfuegos, the man who until recently served as Cuba's "Minister of Tourism." For over a decade, Cienfuegos served as official host for millions of Canadian tourists.
The brutal legacy of the Cuban revolution is not the only blind spot in Ted Turner’s adoring history. The CNN creator also approves of Castro's educational system, calling it an outstanding representative of learning in the developing world. Fine. But what seems to escape Turner is that prior to Fidel and Che's glorious revolution, Cuba was not part of the "developing world." A UNESCO report on Cuba from circa 1957 reports: "One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class." It begins with these long-outdated statistics:
Cuban workers are more unionized (proportional to the population) than U.S. workers. The average wage for an 8 hour day in Cuba in 1957 is higher than for workers in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. Cuban labor receives 66.6 percent of gross national income. In the U.S. the figure is 70 percent, in Switzerland 64 percent. 44 percent of Cubans are covered by Social legislation, (a higher percentage than in the U.S.)
In 1958, the year before Castro took over, Cuba had more doctors and dentists per capita than Britain, and a lower infant mortality than France and Germany – the 13th-lowest in the world. Today, Cuba's infant-mortality rate is 43rd from the top, despite having the hemisphere's highest abortion rate, which skews this figure downward. Relative to the rest of the world, Cuba's health care has worsened horrendously under Castro. Thus it is that a nation that was once a destination for European immigrants today needs machine guns, water cannons, and tiger sharks to keep its people from fleeing. A mere sixty miles away, half-starved Haitians turn up their noses at the thought of immigrating to Cuba.
The charitable explanation for Turner’s affection for Fidel is that it is fundamentally about business. Back in 1997, when CNN craved a Havana Bureau, Turner's sales pitch was not particularly subtle: "Castro is one helluva guy!" he gushed to a capacity crowd at Harvard Law School during a speech. "You people would like him! Most people in Cuba like him." Within weeks, CNN was granted its coveted Havana Bureau, the first ever granted by Castro to a foreign network. Whitewashing Castro’s record may be good business. But it’s hard to believe that after all this time Turner is really the dupe that his recent remarks suggest.
Wild Thing's comment.........
Turner just loves communists. He would marry Castro if he could.
For a man with communist sympathies he owns more land than any other person in the United States. He also owns the world’s largest bison herd.
Turner doesn’t have a clue what Communism really is like. He would have a major wake-up call if he actually had to live in such a country.
Tuner has a history of being an apologist for Commies.
Transcript of a 2005 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer:
Turner: "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere. There's really no reason -- no reason for them to cheat or do anything to violate this very forward agreement. I mean, I think we can put the North Korea and East Asia problems behind us and concentrate on Iran and Iraq, where, where we still have some ongoing difficulties."
Blitzer: "I've got to tell you, Ted, given the record of North Korea, especially the fact that, in the Clinton administration in '93-'94, they made a similar pledge, which they violated and they backed out of, I'm not exactly sure that I accept all your optimism."
Turner: "Well, you know, I was optimistic about the Cold War when I got to Russia, too. But I looked them right in the eyes. And they looked like they meant the truth. I mean, you know, just because somebody's done something wrong in the past doesn't mean they can't do right in the future or in the present. That happens all the, all the time."
Blitzer: "But this is one of the most despotic regimes and Kim Jong Il is one of the worst men on Earth. Isn't that a fair assessment?"
Turner: "Well, I didn't get, I didn't get to meet him, but he didn't look, in the pictures that I've seen of him on CNN, he didn't look too much different than most other people."
Blitzer: "But look at the way, look at the way he's, look at the way he's treating his own people."
Turner: "Well, hey, listen. I saw a lot of people over there. They were thin and they were riding bicycles instead of driving in cars, but--"
Blitzer: "A lot of those people are starving."
Turner: "I didn't see, I didn't see any, I didn't see any brutality in the capital or out in the, on the DMZ...Let's give 'em a break. Give 'em a break And besides, even if they do -- even if they do threaten us again, the threat is non-existent to the United States. They can't threaten us. I mean, it's like a fleet attacking an elephant."
....Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Posted by Wild Thing at December 23, 2008 05:45 AM
Comments
I think Ted has done too many drugs. Another limosine liberal.
Posted by: TomR at December 23, 2008 12:28 PM
Just because someone has been successful in business and made tons of money doesn't mean that they can't be stupid, gullible, or an idiot. Ted Turner hit the trifecta and is all three.
Posted by: Les at December 23, 2008 06:53 PM
Tom, LOL that is probably a big part of it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at December 23, 2008 07:28 PM
Les, HAHAHAAHHA he sure did.
I remember the first time I heard about him and was so shocked that someone that had done so well financially would be a communist sympathizer. It really surprised me.
Posted by: Wild Thing at December 23, 2008 07:31 PM
I heard part of this interview with oreily. Turner said, 'they have good Doctors in cuber', Turner like Michael Moore think Health Care is great in Cuber. Do you think when Moore needs the Fat surgery, he will make an appointment in Havanah. When they staple his stomach that can staple his mouth shut.
I would be winning to bet neither would dare set foot in Cuba if they needed any major surgery, they are communists not stupid...Well in Moores case that would be a toss up.
When Castro needed help with his infection from an operation IN CUBA, he went elsewhere to get it fixed.
This is where obama wants the United States to be. I truly believe Obama is a puppet and Soros is pulling the strings.
Posted by: Mark at December 23, 2008 07:41 PM
