10. War is Good for TV Ratings, So a TV Network Tried to Finance One
A healthy society and government cannot do without free media and a decent dose of investigative reportage. However, investigative journalism is not that easy and requires diligence, persistence, long hours and hard work. Not everybody is a big fan of hard work, so it should come as no surprise that on occasion, unscrupulous investigative reporters have resorted to unethical means and cut corners as they chased a story. Or, instead of bothering to chase a story at all, they decided to simply create one from scratch.
The latter is what happened in 1966, when CBS producers heard of plans to invade multiple Caribbean islands. They were pushed by a man named Rolando “El Tigre” Masferrer, one of the most extreme – and vile – Cubans forced out by Fidel Castro. Head of a paramilitary group of exiles known as Los Tigres, he came up with an ambitious scheme to invade the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as preludes to an invasion of Cuba. CBS figured that it might have ratings hit on its hands, and agreed to finance the invasions in exchange for the exclusive right to broadcast them.
