Radio, TV Martí to be aired locally (S. Florida)

[Scurrilous]

U.S. audiences will be able to get news from TV and Radio Martí via two South Florida stations, despite a law that generally prohibits distribution in the United States.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16270804.htm

<snip>

"Taxpayer-funded TV and Radio Martí are spending $377,500 to air select programs on South Florida broadcast stations over the next six months, using loopholes in a law that prohibits the propaganda channels from distribution within the United States.

The deals appear to be the first of their kind between the Martís and private commercial stations with mostly U.S. audiences. The stations -- Univisión's Radio Mambí 710 AM and WPMF-TV 38, the Azteca América affiliate owned by TVC Broadcasting -- technically can reach Cuba.

The agreements come at a time when Fidel Castro, Cuba's longtime leader, is thought to be dying. The Cuban government jams Martí transmissions directly to the island, but experts said the signal from a South Florida AM radio station can get there, very clearly at night. And WPMF-TV, an over-the-air station, can be seen by Cubans with satellite dishes."

"It's another method to get our signal in," Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which runs the Martís, said on Radio Mambí Monday. Roig estimated that 30,000 Cubans can receive satellite TV. "It's a decision taken at the White House."

Critics, however, noted that a Cuban audience for either station is only an infinitesimal fraction of their South Florida audience, and both stations are clearly aimed at South Floridians."

[Mika]

1. This is incredible fraud, payolla, and GOP propaganda programming.

From the OP article..

''It certainly sounds like it's inconsistent with the spirit of the federal law,'' said John Nichols, associate dean of Pennsylvania State University's College of Communication. He is a longtime monitor -- and critic -- of the Martís.

Joe García, executive vice president of the New Democratic Network, said he was outraged. Radio Mambí, known for its virulent anti-Castro commentary, is blocked in Cuba, he said.

''This is a fraud,'' García said. ``This is using taxpayer dollars for a political payoff to benefit the most Republican and politically charged radio station in Miami. They know well that the station isn't heard in Cuba, because Cuba transmits Radio Rebelde over the exact same frequency.''

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However, in the case of WPMF-TV, South Floridians are not ''inadvertently'' tuning into the station, they are the station's main audience.

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Under the six-month contracts, Mambí will earn $182,500 to carry Radio Martí from midnight to 1 a.m. nightly.

WPMF-TV will earn $195,000 to air TV Martí's half-hour news programs at 6:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., plus one-minute news briefs from noon to midnight. WPMF may pick up Saturday programming as well, said general manager Enrique Landín.

Both of these stations are spanish language, radical versions of Faux News times 20. Pure GOP boostering and campaigning.

This deal has the stench of Otto Reich, Elliot Abrams, and Negroponte all over it.

[Pab Sungenis]

2. Only Cuban exiles would find Radio or TV Marti entertaining anyhow.

I've heard that the propaganda is so badly produced that the few Cubans who can get it through the jamming laugh at the concept, not the humor.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The premise they have used on which to build this colossal pork project

is that Cubans are isolated by their government and get absolutely no news whatsoever from the rest of the world, apart from what the government tells them via state tv, radio, and newspaper sources.

Travellers to Cuba inform us that they can pick up radio stations from the U.S., from other islands in the Caribbean, from Latin American countries on their Walkmen, just walking around on the island.

Cuban citizens get tv reception from the same places at home. They listen to US radio and tv stations, are well aware of all the songs, tv personalities, as well as writers in American newspapers.

Radio and TV Marti are based on lies, which Colorado Democratic Representative David Skaggs pointed out in Congress, when he tried to have the funding to TV Marti cut, telling the body that Cubans can get tv from other places ALREADY and have absolutely no need for a US taxpayer-funded tv station.

Florida Cuban Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart told him he would go after every single project David Skaggs held dear to him, and he did. He had them all killed. Then he and the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami bought advertising in Colorado newspapers and announced to Colorado voters that David Skaggs had lost these Colorado projects, and Skaggs was not re-elected.

So the Cubans in Florida who running the two stations are NOT going to give up without a real knock-down, drag-out. Diaz-Balart, and the other Congressperson, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen both have old fathers from the powerful previous Cuban government who both have been on Radio Marti frequently.
They see it as THEIRS, even though it's OUR money supporting it for their use.

[Scurrilous]

4. Director: Ros-Lehtinen made kill-Castro comments

<snip>

"An Emmy award-winning documentarian, angered over Miami Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's charge that a video in which she appears to endorse the assassination of Fidel Castro was altered to make her look more extreme, is circulating another version of the video to make his case.

The uncut version of director Dollan Cannell's video shows Ros-Lehtinen twice welcoming an attempt on Castro's life.

"Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has made a very serious accusation against the team who made the films," Cannell said Tuesday. "You can't get more serious than that in terms of an accusation of gross professional wrongdoing."

"Her accusation is completely, totally false," he added. "I'd like her to retract what she said and to apologize."

Ros-Lehtinen, an ardent opponent of Castro, declined to comment Tuesday on the unedited tape."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16277225.htm

[Scurrilous]

5. Congress to investigate Radio, TV Martí

<snip>

"Congress will investigate allegations of mismanagement and political cronyism at taxpayer-funded Radio and TV Martí in early 2007, a ranking Democrat said Tuesday.

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass. -- who is slated to chair the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee for the House International Relations Committee -- said he will move to hold hearings on the Martís in late January or early February. His comments came a day after Radio Mambí, WAQI-AM (710), and Azteca América WPMF-TV 38, started carrying an hour each of Martí programming daily for payment.

"This will be a priority," said Delahunt, who was in Cuba this week as part of a Congressional delegation. "There's mismanagement . . . that really demands a thorough review."

Government-funded media -- such as the Martís -- cannot broadcast on U.S. airwaves because their mission is to present the U.S. viewpoint to foreign audiences. However, there are loopholes in the law: Time on an AM transmitter can be leased to circumvent signal jamming, and TV Martí can be "inadvertently" picked up by U.S. viewers as long as it reaches Cuba."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16277292.htm

[Judi Lynn]

6. Beautiful! I've just scanned this post, in a hurry.

This is the best news I've seen in years, politically, outside the last election!

I'll be back later on in a few hours to really study this article. Also, thanks for the Ros-Lehtinen one. It appears at first glance someone called her on her yet another monster lie. Terrific.