Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has been suspended by Marlins management for five games for expressing his "love" for Fidel Castro in an interview with a Time Magazine reporter. In case you don't know, the Marlins play major league baseball in Miami, home to probably the largest Cuban population north of Havana. It goes without saying that Guillen's alleged Castro loving remark was about as smart as a smoking in a silo full of grain or saying the "N word" in a South Central LA bar.
In fairness to Guillen, English is not his first language so there may be some merit to his claim at a news conference that his words were lost in translation. According to the report by Local 10.com :
...when asked at the news conference if he loves the former Cuban dictator, he said, "No." The Marlins manager said the reporter in the article misinterpreted his remarks and claimed [that] what he really said in Spanish was, "I cannot believe that someone who has hurt so many people over the years is still alive."
It wouldn't be the first time that the the Mainstream News Media got it wrong. Neither accuracy or truthfulness has been a strong suit of the so-called Mainstream News Media in recent years. The average journalist, sports or otherwise, should be regarded generally as being about as trustworthy as a kleptomaniac in a fine jewelry store. Still, Marlins management might be wise to fully educate their multiloquent manager on the ways of dealing with the news media.
The "teachable moment" here is to always carefully choose your words with members of the so-called fourth estate. As we've seen in Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case the Mainstream Media is not above altering, deleting or misrepresenting facts in a news story to suit their agenda. It doesn't matter if there's a tape of the newsworthy event. An editor might well edit it to suit an editorial agenda. Or the editor (or reporter) may be simply lazy, careless, or ignorant, (e.g., not knowing a foreign language's nuances), in handling a news story. But whether or not the Mainstream Media is misinterpreting or misrepresenting Ozzie Guillen's remarks, their tainted reputation for integrity and truthfulness precedes them. So we may never know what Ozzie really said.
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OF NOTE:
- For more examples of dumb remarks by celebrities, athletes, and politicians, click here to see the slide show by Orlando TV station WKMG Local 6. What was left out of the slide show are the all but forgotten "Corpse-man" and "57 states" gaffes by our esteemed and Ivy League-educated President. YouTube is the source for these clips.
- According to the Urban Dictionary Pendejo is a Spanish slang word for idiot, stupid, or dumb ass.
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