Zone of Reality: Castro Notes

This appeared on February 17, 2009.

The New York Times and 'Book Banning'
By Humberto Fontova

The New York Times, its stock value in the cellar while squirming under the thumb of a foreign robber baron, makes the same thing shabby, malodorous and pathetic.

Most of America, for instance, applauds "parental involvement" in their children's education. But a recent New York Times editorial decries it. "Banning Books in Miami," blares their editorial headline from February 10th. "The Miami-Dade School Board's decision is not only unconstitutional, it is counterproductive. If the ( local school) board wants to oppose the totalitarianism of the Castro regime, banning books is an odd way to go about it."

The New York Times definition of "book banning" has an excruciatingly selective application. To wit: back in 2006 a children's' books titled Let's Go to Cuba that depicts Stalinist Cuba as a combination Emerald City and Willi Wonka's Chocolate Factory was stocked in Miami-Dade public school libraries. Some American parents of Cuban heritage in Miami, many of them former Castro political prisoners with the scars to prove it, saw that these books were crammed with the usual academic lies about Cuba, but in BigBird-speak for 9-year-olds. So they filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade school board who voted to remove the books.

"Miami-Dade School Board Bans Cuba Book!" thundered a New York Times headline of the time. The ACLU also claimed to be scandalized and filed suit to retain the book. …