Listening with One Ear

The message seemed clear enough to the New York Times. GUEVARA CALLS U.S. DRIVE ON CUBAN TRADE A FAILURE, read the headline above a story based on a televised interview between Ernesto ("Che") Guevara, Fidel Castro's Minister of Industry, and American Broadcasting Company Reporter Lisa Howard. But the Associated Press, which was also listening, caught quite the opposite pitch. Guevara, the wire service reported to its subscribers all over the world, "concedes that the U.S. economic blockade 'has been a serious drawback' to the island's Communist regime."

Who was right--the A.P. or the Times? In the answer lay a journalistic lesson on the danger of listening with only one ear and getting only half the story. Both the Times and the A.P. were right--both were also wrong. Each seemed to have tuned in on only that portion of Che Guevara's interview that suited their contradictory themes. Castro's man had, in fact, been indulging in a little Cuban doubletalk--as came transparently clear in any thorough reading of the interview. Extracts from A.B.C.'s tape:

Miss Howard: How seriously is the economic blockade affecting the Cuban economy?

Guevara: Obviously, it has been a serious drawback.

Miss Howard, bringing up the shipment of British buses to Cuba: Do you feel these purchases represent a failure of the United States' blockade?

Guevara: Yes.

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