Now here’s something for a media critic to complain about. On Friday night, Brent Baker reported that supercilious Peter Jennings saw nothing a bit potentially insincere about another mandatory protest in totalitarian Cuba: “A reminder today of other tension in the world. There was an enormous anti-American demonstration in Cuba today. A couple of hundred thousand people showed up to demonstrate new restrictions imposed by the Bush administration on money transfers and travel to Cuba. The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, also criticized the war in Iraq and said that President Bush was trying to impose what he, Mr. Castro, called ‘world tyranny.’”

How perverse is that? I thought journalists were valiant independents trying not to be “stenographers to power,” but Jennings here is nothing but Castro’s publicity toady. This is the same fellow-traveler anchorman who ordered then-ABC reporter Peter Collins to take all the critical analysis out and celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Sandinistas. Castro’s whole career of crushing the Cuban people has been dedicated to creating world tyranny, starting with Angola and Central America. Just because Fidel’s been a tremendous flop at it is no reason to lash out.