CBS: What Cuban Missile Crisis?

Last night, I reported on Cuba’s coverage of John McCain, in Miami, shooting off his mouth about his bit role in the Cuban Missile Crisis about which Dana Perino (former CBS reporter, emphasis on BS) knew nothing until last December. It’s all worth a closer look, on multiple levels, for what it says about McCain and the press who want us to listen when they talk.

Here’s CBS reporter Andante Higgins (no, Silly, not the Cuban bs! The other bs) on McCain’s January 21 Missile Crisis brag:

John McCain stopped by the Versailles Restaurant, a Cuban-American hangout where he talked politics and touched on U.S. relations with Latin American countries.

When he arrived, McCain stepped up to a service window in the parking lot and ordered himself a cortadito, a Cuban coffee. [Very clever. Romney could never bust this move 'cause Mormons don't drink coffee.] He swigged it back and gave two thumbs up.

“I’m very obviously enthusiastic over our recent victories . . . Our base begins here in Miami with the Cuban-American community,” he said.

After a short walk through the parking lot . . . this audience asked about his views on policies and relationships with Latin American countries like Venezuela and Cuba.

He said he would move to indict Cuban leader Fidel Castro for his participation in the Cuban missile crisis. “I would be prepared to open that investigation immediately. It seems to me that the radio intercepts show very clearly that the shoot down of that airplane was orchestrated as an act by the Cuban government.”

Time out! These two things don’t go together: the Cuban Missile Crisis (happened in 1962) and “the shoot down of that airplane” (happened in 1996 and there were two planes shot down, not just one). Higgins is Perino-ignorant x 2. (Or could it be McCain?! Nah.)

Memo to CBS: (1) Only hire reporters who read books about something besides how to look sexy in front of a camera.  (2) Teach newbies to use Google, first day on the job.

When asked if he would relax rules for Cuban exile families to visit their families back in Cuba, McCain said had [sic] reservations and wasn’t sure how to resolve the issue but promised to rely on consultants close to this issue . . .

So McCain really doesn’t know any more about Cuba than he does about the economy!

I understand Cuba, I was there [on the bridge of the USS Enterprise] in the Cuban missile crisis, I understand these issues, but it would be entirely inappropriate for me not to rely on the knowledge and background of the people who live it every single day. The challenges of trying to rid that wonderful and beautiful island of one of the most repressive regimes in history that not only has done what they’ve done to the Cuban people, but they continue to try to be state sponsors of terrorism.

Huh? That last sentence isn’t a sentence. Whatever, we understand that McCain understands.

Look, nobody would like to see Fidel Castro punished any more than I would. The guy is a monster. But Castro’s going to die on his own long before any legal process could get to him. McCain’s pandering in Miami may resonate with Cuban exiles, but it won’t help our relations with Latin America or “rid that wonderful and beautiful island” of its oppressive regime. The island, in fact, is already in a transition process toward more freedom that, if McCain would shut up and stand down, may develop on its own with permanent, happy results for everyone.

Now back to White House spokesperson Dana Perino who, in our last episode, admitted in December — to guffaws that resonated throughout cyberspace — that she had never heard of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Perino — who holds degrees in Poli Sci and Spanish — cut her journalistic teeth as a CBS reporter while earning her masters in Public Affairs Reporting from the U of Illinois. Hmm. Perino, Higgins . . . How many other 35-year-old CBS, CNN, ABC, Fox and MSNBC journalists with degrees in poli sci and “public affairs reporting” also don’t know about the Missile Crisis? What else don’t they know and why don’t they know it?