Clark Hoyt’s recent review of the reporting done by the Herald in the case of the Martí Moonlighters affirmed that although the Herald didn’t intentionally publish any false information, certain facts were omitted from the story that could have given it more balance.
Well Hank Tester is reporting that Frank Hernandez Trujillo, the executive director of Grupo de Apoyo a La Democracia, one of the groups specifically mentioned in the Oscar Corral’s recent articles (and an Ana Menendez column) about questionable expenditures of federal monies earmarked for Cuban democracy initiatives, is “hot as a skillet, claiming the Herald did not get the entire story out.”
Tester quotes an email he received from Hernandez Trujillo:
The Herald reports we only spent 13 percent of our budget purchasing food and medications. The reason is we received over $3 million in food and medications donations, primarily from two well-known South Florida corporations.Hat Tip to: Hank Tester
We have sent over 350,000 pounds of assistance in food, medications, clothing, short-wave radios, medical equipment, etc. The Herald mentions an exercise bike sent to Cuba. I explained to the writer of the article the exercise bike was sent to a doctor in Santiago, Cuba who maintains an independent clinic at his house and offered to provide him with the telephone number of the doctor so he could verify the facts. Also, that part of our budget is for medical equipment, so in any case the item was covered under the agreement. He chose to publish it without any explanation.
We have sent over 100,000 books and magazines with over one hundred different titles. He chose to mention Harry Potter and The Alchemist and "forgot" to mention the rest.
3 comments:
Well I think that as one of the groups that was mentioned in the Herald's report, he has a beef. The fact that he can count on millions of dollars on donated goods mean that he can spend more (of the federal funds) on the means to get the stuff into the island.
But again the point isn't what percent was used for what but the fact that he made these things clear to Corral and that they were ommitted from the report. How much do other groups receive in donations? What percentage of the overall budget of these groups do donations make? Did Corral even ask? I think that question deserves an answer.
As I said in my review of the first article on this subject (at babalu) why is anyone surprised that government programs are innefficient and don't work as well as we would like them to?
To use Clark Hoyt's word, I think the Herald coverage of the Radio Marti and now the Cuban democracy programs is "breathless".
Real quick to make it clearer...
When you add the 3 million that he received in donations to whatever funds he received from the government what do the numbers look like.
An example. Let's say he got $3 Million from the government and 13% went towards buying actual stuff. that's $390,000 in stuff. But when you add the $3 million in stuff that was donated you get $3.39 million or 56.5% of the total budget that went towards stuff.
I just made those numbers up. I doubt that the difference is that dramatic but the point is Hernandez explained his side and didn't get a fair hearing. There was no mention as to the impact of donations on these programs.
I don't disagree with you. The only thing I will add is that if you read the GAO report it does not seem as judgemental as the Herald's stories.
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