On Cuban TV, a dose of politics along with Pope Francis

On Cuban TV, a dose of politics along with Pope Francis
State-run Cuban television offered special Pope Francis coverage
Pundits often framed his visit in political terms
BY PATRICIA MAZZEI
pmazzei@miamiherald.com


HOLGUIN, CUBA
Watch enough Cuban state-run television on a regular day, and the
revolution-speak is impossible to escape.

Solidaridad. Explotación. Bloqueo. Solidarity. Exploitation. Embargo.

Watch during special coverage of Pope Francis' visit to the island, and
the language doesn't change. The pundits just manage to apply it to the
Holy Father.

Thousands of people waving to Francis as he rides on the Pope Mobile? A
sign of "the solidarity of the Cuban people," an interviewer explains.

Francis' upbringing in Argentina? A formative experience growing up in
"dictatorship" and under "neoliberalism," says a news anchor.

His trip to the U.S. after four days in Cuba? "I'm sure he'll also
advocate against the embargo," predicts a man described as an
"intellectual."

Cuban television offered wall-to-wall coverage Saturday and Sunday of
Francis' visit to Havana, with four channels (at least on hotel
televisions viewed by foreign reporters in Holguín, where the pope will
travel Monday) broadcasting the program. A fifth, Venezuela-based
TeleSur, had its own anchors and commentators.

All praised the pontiff. But politics weren't far behind.

"The world is divided between right and left," a commentator declared as
fact, his remark unchallenged. Said another: "Christ was also a
progressive man."

A news story touched on Francis' recent encyclical, or church teaching
document, on the environment. "Conservative groups that subsist,
especially in the United States," deny man-made climate change, the
narrator emphasized.

Another package was devoted to Argentina President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner, who arrived in Havana for Francis' Mass. She called Cuba a
"land of heroism" and predicted the U.S. trade embargo's days were numbered.

"Walls, embargoes start falling," she said. "They end up falling from
the weight of history." A news anchor called for "solidarity" with
Argentina over that country's dispute with the U.K. over the Falkland
Islands.

Even former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, unseen in public during Francis'
visit, made an appearance in a video clip from a 1990 speech. He praised
a different sort of belief system — "revolutionary faith" and "faith in
socialism" — and implied his regime was a result of people's prayers for
change having been "heard in heaven and heard on earth."

Message: Catholicism has competition. And not just from communism.

TV coverage repeatedly featured Cuban Protestants, Jews, Santeros and
"Spiritists." One anchor referred to it all as "the peculiar religiosity
of the Cuban people."

Still, it was clear the TV hosts relished drawing the eyes of the world
following the pope. A segment was devoted to how media in other
countries — though not the U.S. — covered Francis' trip.

Foreigners have other TV programming choices in Holguín, including
Univision Deportes, BeIn Sports, Discovery Channel and three Chinese
state-run channels, in Mandarin, English and Spanish.

But what droned from homes with open windows and doors in the city
Saturday night was Cuban television, echoing from one house to the next
so a passerby wouldn't miss any of it walking down the street.

"This has been a technical effort by Cuban television and Bolivarian
television," the special coverage said when it concluded — until the
next day.

Source: On Cuban TV, a dose of politics along with Pope Francis | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article35903442.html