by Andrew Zajac
The U.S. government's long and troubled history of trying to broadcast TV and radio programming into Cuba added another unhappy chapter with release of a Government Accountability Office report critical of efforts to use commercial broadcasters to beam Radio and TV Marti signals into the island.
No-bid contracts awarded in December 2006 to transmit programming via Radio Mambi and TV Azteca "did not reflect sound business practices", GAO investigators found.
The GAO also criticized a lack of transparency in the way Miami-based Office of Cuba Broadcasting recruits and pays for production and on-air talent.
OCB defended the contracts to Mambi and Azteca, arguing that the U.S. urgently needed a way to reach the Cuban people because of the deteriorating health of president Fidel Castro (pictured above).
The government watchdog inquiry was requested by Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Delahunt, a longtime critic of the broadcasting regime, as well as of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.
Delahunt is part of an increasingly vocal faction in Congress who view the Cuba broadcast operation as a financial sop to the politically influential Cuban exile community in Miami rather than as a serious effort to engage the Cuban people.
Delahunt said the GAO findings are troubling. He noted that an agency investigation into the OCB's management continues and he promised more scrutiny of the Marti broadcast operation.
Here's a 2006 Tribune story offering a broader overview of some of the shortcomings of the Cuba broadcast effort:
Cuba broadcasting 06.doc
(Photo credit: AP/Jose Goitia/file)
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Comments
Is this all being run by James Glassman and Elliot Abrams?
The Dark Side of the Harvard Class of '69 (as opposed to Al Gore and TL Jones)? Those guys who brought you "Dow 36000" and Iran-Contra?
Dow 3600, more like. And Reagan is not going on Mt. Rushmore. If anyone is going to be added, it will be FDR now.
GAO--don't they have some sort of direct telephone line to the US Attorney's Office???
No bid contracts for you boys playing in the Latin American sandbox?? No, no, no. Only the big boys at Halliburton get to play with those matches. You little guys are likely to get burned.
Posted by: ornery | July 16, 2008 9:40 AM
These government-sponsored radio stations are totally unnecessary. I've been to Cuba, to Havana, Cienfuegos, Guama and other cities and the Miami commercial stations come in loud and clear and with their advertising and music and news, carry the freedom message well. A real problem is that some radios sold in Cuba block out all stations except the government's. But some people manage anyway.
Posted by: Erica | July 16, 2008 10:08 AM
"OCB defended the contracts to Mambi and Azteca, arguing that the U.S. urgently needed a way to reach the Cuban people because of the deteriorating health of president Fidel Castro (pictured above)."
If we want to have any real infleunce on what happens in Cuba post-Castro we need to end the embargo, an create real economic, diplomatic, and cultural links.
A couple of radio stations aren't going to do anything. Thinking that the people of Cuba are going react to the death of Castro, by seeing what Radio Marti tells them to do is a fantasy.
But, with his administration any excuse to give a no bid contract will be jumped on, no matter how silly the reasoning.
Posted by: JT | July 16, 2008 12:27 PM
No bid contracts for this useless boondoggle? That must have cost the station owners some serious campaign contribution money.
Posted by: Tom O | July 16, 2008 1:46 PM