NFL on Prime Wants You To Ignore Truth And Believe Communist Cuba Is Lots Of Fun
The last thing one should expect to see when tuning in to any NFL pregame show, including Thursday night's NFL on Prime, is a gleeful commercial for the communist government that imprisons Cuba.
And yet there it was, before the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins game: NFL on Prime showing us useful idiot Marshawn Lynch frolicking in Cuba.
In this sickening 4-minute segment, the streaming channel showed us how much fun it is to visit a land where its people have no rights and no freedoms. NFL on Prime never mentioned Cuba is a place Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch include as a chronic violator of human rights. It never said this place is so heinous in its repression that the U.S. State Department prohibits travel for tourist activities there.
A Cuban Counter To Useful Idiot Lynch
A little transparency here: I was born in Cuba. I lived in Cuba.
Unlike NFL on Prime and useful idiot Marshawn Lynch, I actually know Cuba.
I know the hapless reality of that land that has been under the boot of tyrannical, anti-American, anti-God, anti-freedom despots for six decades.
But to watch useful idiot Lynch's adventure in this fanciful segment, you'd think Cuba is a super fun place to be.
The segment included useful idiot Lynch riding a 1950s-era car through dilapidated, poverty-stricken barrios where residents are starving and living under constant threat of violent reprisal by government police and militia should they seek any common human rights.
Marshawn Lynch rides an old American car through the streets of Havana, Cuba in a NFL on Prime segment (credit: NFL on Prime screenshot)
Lynch: U.S. ‘Hatin’
Useful idiot Lynch's communist handler explained the reason there are only 50s-era American cars in Cuba is because the United States stopped exporting cars to Cuba as part of an economic embargo meant to topple the communists.
"They started hatin'," useful idiot Lynch said of the American government, "like they always do."
Useful idiot Lynch rode an old convertible past the Malecon seaside without a care, suggesting to you this place is awesome.
Then useful idiot Lynch spends time dancing with locals. Yes, because Cubans randomly gather in rundown alleys, ignoring hunger pangs and their lack of individual liberties, to dance with tourists.
(Well, actually, they do when government handlers set it up and force the locals to participate.)
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 05: Marshawn Lynch attends the premiere of HBO's "Westworld" Season 3 at TCL Chinese Theatre on March 05, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
Why, Prime Video, Why?
I asked Amazon Prime Video about this tone-deaf trip, which is intellectually insulting to anyone who knows the reality of communism anywhere in the world, including in Cuba.
I asked why produce and air a segment offensive to any exile who escaped the plague of communism through sometimes extreme measures?
I asked NFL on Prime why it is spending dollars in Cuba and supporting the communist government that directly benefits from the funding?
I emailed Prime Video Communications Director of Global Sports Communications Alana Russo.
I emailed Prime Video Communications Head of PR for NFL Programming Tim Buckman.
I emailed Head of Media Relations Amy Palcic.
The correspondence went out Thursday evening, maybe 15 minutes after the channel's repulsive Cuba segment aired.
A jovial greeting takes place between Cuba's Prime MInister Fidel Castro and Soviet Union's Premier Nikita Khrushchev when they met at the United Nations today, New York, New York, September 20, 1960. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
NFL on Prime Embraces Communist Cuba
And all I want to know, and, indeed, still cannot figure out, is why?
Why do this? What was the point?
Was it to highlight Cuban culture? There are approximately 2.4 million Cuban exiles and their American offspring weaving that culture into the fabric of America today.
That is happening every day in Miami. It is happening mere blocks from where Thursday night's game was played.
None of the Prime representatives so far have answered for their beclowned brand.
The stunning thing is Amazon Prime Video's parent company is Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos.
That's the same Jeff Bezos who's adopted stepfather is Miguel Angel Bezos Perez – a Cuban exile.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 26: Cuban activists and supporters march from the White House to the Cuban Embassy on 16th Street during a Cuban freedom rally on July 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. Cuban activists and demonstrators held a rally to urge the American government to intervene in Cuba to support human rights and end Communism in Cuba. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Highlight Freedom In America
Miguel Bezos, born in Santiago de Cuba, was part of a wealthy lumber family in Cuba until Fidel Castro announced himself a Marxist-Leninist and nationalized all industry and business starting in the 1960s.
Bezos fled to the United States and eventually met Jackie Gise, who was Jeff's biological mother.
Jeff Bezos grew up with a Cuban stepfather in Miami. That Cuban stepfather gave Bezos approximately $245,000 so he could start Amazon.
And rather than highlight great American stories about overcoming Cuban communism like that one, NFL on Prime instead told us how wonderful communist Cuba is to visit.
Congratulations, NFL on Prime. You've made the Cuban government's communist propaganda bureau very happy.