Rick Sanchez Godless Communist

Dark-haired female: Good evening, everyone. Tonight the Night Team is hearing shocking reports out of North Bay Village about a newscaster -- a very high-profile broadcaster -- who might not be who he seems. I'm Laurie Jennings.

Swarthy, preternaturally tan male: And I'm Rick Sanchez. A weekly newspaper in Miami is speculating that… let me see if I've got this right… that I, WSVN anchor Rick Sanchez, am a secret agent agitating for Castro's Cuba. We go right away to the Satellite Center and to Carmel Cafiero, who is standing by with details. Carmel, this shocks the conscience.

Pan to a flame-haired woman standing before a large television monitor in a room apparently constructed for air-traffic control.

Cafiero: That's right, Rick. As WSVN's lead anchor, you stand accused tonight of serving two bosses: your viewers here in Miami and a communist dictator residing just 90 miles away. Critics of your sensational broadcasting style are claiming you are, in large part, responsible for the civic unrest that followed the removal of Elián Gonzalez from the home of his relatives in Little Havana. Those disturbances, you may recall, served to weaken the position of Miami's exile community while strengthening Fidel Castro's iron grip on power.

Sanchez [interrupting]: Ah… wait a second here, Carmel. You just used the word sensational. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that mean good?

Cafiero: Not in this context, Rick. You see, a close examination of your performance over the course of the Elián saga reveals your reporting helped make the entire Cuban-exile community appear ridiculous. This turn of events, Rick, seems to be exactly what you wanted all along. It's a story you're only going to see here on Seven, and it's one we considered calling "Anchor… or Agitator?" "Journalist… or Communist?" before finally settling on "Rick… or Red?"

The "Rick… or Red?" graphic, incorporating a flowing Cuban flag, appears on screen. The mood is set with haunting piano effects. Bleed into a montage of civic unrest: tires burning on Flagler Street, upside-down flags flying, Marisleysis Gonzalez crying, and finally, giant images of Rick Sanchez and Fidel Castro juxtaposed so as to appear smiling broadly at each other.

Cafiero [voice-over]: It's been more than a month since the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service reunited little Elián Gonzalez with his father -- an action supported by a majority of Americans. In the aftermath of the raid, images of overturned Dumpsters and impassioned Cuban-American protesters flashed across the nation's television screens. A community long celebrated for its industry and respected for its political clout tonight finds itself regarded as little more than a national joke.

Cut to footage of Jay Leno from the May 22 Tonight Show. The comedian has just noted that O.J. Simpson intends to move from California to Coral Gables.

Leno: You know, that might not be a bad idea, sending O.J. to Florida. Maybe that'll mean the Cubans won't be coming over here anymore!

Cafiero [voice-over]: While Cuban exiles are serving as a punch line, the regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro is stronger than it has been in years.

Cut to the familiar face of exile commentator Max Castro in his office at the University of Miami's North-South Center, where he is a senior research associate.

Max Castro: I think the Elián situation gave a transfusion to the Cuban government. Fidel was able to say, "Look how unreasonable the exiles are. They want to take a child away from his father." That strategy had a certain amount of success, whereas in Miami the exile community came across as very obstinate, entrenched, and very, very politicized.

Cafiero [voice-over]: How did this happen? How did a totalitarian government famous for jailing dissidents score a public relations coup in what should have been a straightforward custody dispute? The answer is being provided tonight by an unlikely source.

Cut to videotape of a dark conference room. A lone figure slumps in the shadows, watching a small television. Boxes of videotapes lie about him. He is eating a chocolate-chip muffin purchased from Dunkin' Donuts.

Cafiero [voice-over]: A researcher for New Times recently spent two weeks sequestered in the basement of the Miami-Dade County Public Library watching every WSVN newscast from Thanksgiving -- the day Elián was found clinging to an inner tube -- through April 22, the day of the INS raid. The newspaper discovered that you, Rick, consistently played the role of media agitator, fanning the flames of anti-Americanism in Little Havana.

Cut to archive footage of Sanchez in the Newsplex. He's wearing a different suit. His face is a shade less tan. Script at the bottom of the screen: November 29, 1999.

Sanchez [on the tape]: His father wants him back in Cuba. The question is: Will this custody battle mean this little boy's freedom could be lost? Seven's Brian Andrews is live with some of the developments coming from Cuba -- and some would say, Brian, [Sanchez snickers] coming really from the Castro government.

Cafiero [voice-over]: Now remember, Rick, this is your very first on-air appearance after Elián's rescue. Note how you're already casting aspersions on Juan Miguel Gonzalez's parental instincts and typecasting him -- ironically -- as a pawn of the Castro regime. This seems to have been your plan all along: to serve as an unfiltered delivery system for the exile community's absurd -- and unsubstantiated -- propaganda. Now check out this report, delivered in late March.

Sanchez [on tape]: Interestingly tonight the family of Elián Gonzalez is saying the little boy is himself fearful of Fidel Castro. They say his mother secretly taught him since he was a little boy about Fidel Castro's quote "cruelty." And someday, she told him, she would take him away from Castro and from Cuba.

Back live to the anchor desk.

Sanchez (tapping his pencil insistently): Hold on a second, Carmel. I don't see the connection between these clips and communist agitating. Isn't it possible that, you know, maybe I'm just being a bombastic blowhard here? I mean, given my reputation, isn't that more likely?

Cafiero: If this were just some two-bit reporter from another station, perhaps. But Rick, you are "one of the most recognized television anchors in South Florida," according to the WSVN Website. That same Website touts your "keen reporting skills" and commends you for having acted, during Hurricane Andrew, as "a constant voice of hope."

Sanchez [blushing slightly]: That was my finest hour.

Cafiero: And for you to treat this story in such a wildly unethical manner, I'm afraid, suggests a hidden agenda. Here's where the New Times research proved invaluable. The newspaper discovered a seemingly innocuous story that lent a fresh perspective to your Elián coverage, Rick.

Cut to archive footage of a WSVN broadcast. Activate more whooshing sounds. Hit more of that eerie piano music.

Cafiero [voice-over]: February 18, 2000. Immigration and Naturalization Service official Mariano Faget is arrested and charged with spying for the Castro government. WSVN broadcast the arrest, with file footage of Faget in his office supplemented by new footage of yellow police tape cordoning off his Kendall townhouse. Rick discussed the arrest with senior reporter Mark Londner.

Sanchez [on tape]: Mark, if this gentleman was partially responsible for who gets asylum in the United States, isn't it reasonable to conclude, then, that there may be other spies among us?

Londner [on tape]: I don't know if it is reasonable to conclude. But the INS says it will review all cases that Mr. Faget had to do with.

Cafiero [voice-over]: Londner may have been too hasty in his judgment. During a subsequent interview, exile leader José Basulto reminded viewers that Faget is only the latest spy to be outed. Just two years ago, Cuban spy Juan Pablo Roque infiltrated Basulto's organization, Brothers to the Rescue. It's reasonable to conclude, Basulto implied, that there are others.

Cut to silver-haired man barking into the camera.

Basulto: It's a joke! It's been known to us for years. And these are just a few of the very many! I'd say this runs at least more than 1000 spies here in Miami, and many of them very well located.

Cafiero [voice-over]: More than 1000 spies? At the highest levels of power? Government? The media? New Times asked the obvious question: With all these spies running around, isn't it reasonable to conclude that some of them may have infiltrated the WSVN Newsplex?

Jennings: Yes?

Cafiero: That's right, Laurie. And if you were a Castro double agent and it was your intention to undermine Miami's exile community, what do you suppose would be the most influential position to hold?

Jennings: Um, maybe, mayor or something?