By Saswat Pattanayak

What an irony that Adriana Bosch, producer of PBS documentary on Reagan and author of American Experience: Reagan had to write, direct and produce the latest Castro documentary.

I watched it tonight with disbelief as the documentary went on to describe four-decades of Cuba as a one-man show, thereby undermining a huge people’s participation. Moreover, flawed perceptions and lack of in-depth knowledge of Soviet Union's relationship with Cuba were conspicuous in this PBS documentary.

In contrast was last year’s HBO documentary made on Castro (titled Looking for Fidel) by Oliver Stone, which at least attempted at a judicious blend of opinions.
Bosch should not surprise viewers, going by her core beliefs. In June last year in an interview with Washington Post, she had expressed her interest in both Reagan and Castro (in contrasting terms).

“..the idea being that Reagan rocked the world on which dictators such as Castro stood on and to me that captured Reagan's contribution to humanity.”

I wonder what are these public broadcasting efforts directed to: seeking layers of truths or covering up by government mouthpieces?

To a question as to what did Bosch think of the fact that Reagan never referred to “AIDS epidemic”, she had this to say:

“I think by the time that the AIDS epidemic broke, Reagan's mind was primarily focused on the Soviet Union and ending the Cold War. At the same time, he was also dealing with the Iran Contra scandal, so it just didn't register on his radar and that was enough for him at that time…….I don't think it was lack of compassion but it was lack of energy and attention to handle more than just a few major issues in his presidency.”

Sounds like quite an activist-imaginative-journalist. Considering that Bosch never had met with Reagan during his lifetime. And yet she could make all such favorable assumptions.
PBS documentaries are used as primary History documents for school children, I am told. If that is the truth, how many more lies our teachers gonna tell us in future?

Tags: Saswat, Communism, History, Media