> "We got Maced, we got kicked, we got roughed up", Cuban-born NBC camera
> man Tony Zumbado told MSNBC. He said that as the incursion began, federal
> agents kicked him in the stomach and yelled, "Don't move or we'll shoot."
> Zumbado added on NBC's" Dateline: "My sound man got hit with a shotgun
> butt on the head, dragged outside -- he was halfway in -- and he was
> dragged out to the fence and left there and they told him if he moved
> they'd shoot."
>
> Zumbado explained that federal gunmen also disabled his camera and yanked
> out its audio cable. By the time Zumbado and sound man Gustavo Moller
> stood back up, Elian had been whisked away in a white van.
Interesting. Zumbado told a totally different story when interviewed live
on MSNBC about an hour or so after the raid. In that version (and indeed
in published news reports days after the event) he claimed to have been
knocked out cold when the INS initially entered (not surprising, as he
stated he was 'dozing' in the front hall, apparantly leaning against the
door). This was also mentioned by Marislysis Gonzalez and Donato Dalyrymple
in the 'house tour video' on CNN the afternoon after the raid...they made it
a point to show where their 'altar' in the front hall had been 'wrecked'
(what was shown was not broken, only scattered)...they also stated that that
was were the NBC cameraman "was knocked out when the INS rushed in"...
Zumbado in his MSNBC interview an hour or two after the raid offered this
"I was knocked out cold when the agents rushed in" as an excuse for not
filming the event (indeed, this was the answer he gave to the direct question
from the MSNBC anchor who asked him if he managed to film any of the raid)...
no mention of his equipment being 'disabled' by the Feds...no mention of being
kicked in the stomach. No mention of the Feds yelling at him. No mention of
the soundman. No mention of being dragged outside (altho it was implied,
because he said that when he came to, he found himself outside by the fence).
FWIW, Zumbado is a Cuban emigre'...factor in that he obviously enjoyed a
cozy relationship with the Miami gang (why else did he spend the night,
camped out right by the front door?), and you have someone who is
obviously biased and whose 'testimony' can not be construed as coming
from an unimpeachable source...
> Meanwhile, an ambulance took Zumbado from his home to Miami's Baptist
> Hospital on April 26 after he fainted from back spasms. He suffers chronic
> back trouble, and thinks "the roughing around didn't help it." As he spoke
> to me by phone from his hospital bed, he was awaiting further spinal
> tests. Earlier, he said, "my muscles were too swollen to get a clean MRI."
Or perhaps there's nothing to see...
> Zumbado said that the federal officers were behaving as he would
> expect."They're trained to be forceful and intimidating. The media is not
> excused, especially when you're trying to video tape them."
Again, I go back to Zumbado's interview just barely two hours after the raid...
in that interview he claimed to not even having time to turn on the camera
before being knocked unconscious.
And there seems to be a big discrepancy here...if the Feds were so afraid of
Zumbado videotaping them, why did they allow Diaz to take that infamous
photograph? Why didn't the Feds take Diaz's camera and smash it? It seems
strange that the same agents who supposedly took time to 'diable' Zumbado's
equipment when they entered the house seemingly didn't give a damn about
Diaz and his camera in the back bedroom...
Lord knows I'm no fan nor apologist for the federal government, but in this
situation, it's a case of "a pox on both of your houses"...
> Zumbado, however, disputed the Justice Department's post-raid claims that
> they welcomed news coverage. "We were definitely not invited in like Janet
> Reno has stated we were," Zumbado said. "If we were, we would have had a
> head's up. We would have been inside and I would not have been kicked."
But Zumbado WAS inside. He was part of the huge 'pajama party' that spent
the night in the house.
> Zumbado and Moller were in no position to "damage" Elian, the INS
> officers, Marisleysis Gonzalez or anyone else. News cameras don't shoot
> bullets. They shoot video tape.
But agents entering into a building don't know what they may encounter,
especially when more than one of the people inside had made inflammatory
comments along the lines of "they'll only take Elian over our dead bodies".
In that sort of situation, the agents have to make sure that all people
in the building aren't possibly hiding a weapon...and that includes members
of the media who are there.
> The only people in the Gonzalez home who sustained bodily injury
> were two members of the press corps trying to do their duty. All of this
> worries human rights activists, to say the least.
Except in Zumbado's original account, he admits that he was not DELIBERATELY
knocked out, that it happened by accident.
> According to the Alexandria, Virginia-based Media Research Center, NBC's
> Zumbado was interviewed on his own network and its sister-channel, MSNBC.
Yes, and those interviews, as I said, painted a totally different version of
what happened.
> However, he has yet to appear on either ABC, CBS or CNN.
Perhaps because they see how Zumbado has changed his claims of what
happened to seemingly fit his own obvious prejudice...
June
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