The failure of phony readers

The failure of phony readers
JOSÉ HUGO FERNÁNDEZ | Miami | 13 Nov 2015 - 3:26 pm.

A reflection on journalism and the comments published in this and other
media sources.

We barely notice just how bad a job the dictatorship's political police
are doing in their attempts to exploit falsified reader opinions to
discredit the work of journalists dedicated to disclosing the reality
in Cuba. Just as it has always found it expedient to infiltrate agents
in or recruit informants from amongst the opposition, they really botch
it in the case of phony readers, whether of this newspaper or others,
because there's not a single one of these wolves whose sheepskin cannot
be spotted from a mile away, as grandmother might say.

Perhaps this happens because in Cuba there is no clearer democratic
exercise than that which our readers engage in by publishing their
opinions, whether astute or simple, passionate or nasty, radical or
fair-minded, audacious, conservative, opportune or untimely.

Joseph Conrad, the great Polish novelist, said that he wrote half of his
books, and his readers took care of the other half. Maybe we who write
for these publications could claim something similar. Not only because
we are forced to think, above all, like readers, and to approach the
issues in accordance with certain priorities as regards content. But
also, because we are dependent upon a readership that looks to us as a
vehicle for the examination and condemnation of their woes, we always
fear not meeting their expectations.

The case is, then, that we who work here actually exhibit a greater
tempering of our passions and self-censorship than those who read and
judge us. But this is not a bad thing. It is what we ought to do, for
the common good.

Similar may be our contribution to the rapid discovery of phony readers,
who are growing in number and taking on ever more manifest forms, but
always in vain; from those who seek to seem impartial, but don't
squander any chance to convey their complicity with the regime, or their
condescension; to those who accuse the writer of being an undercover
agent, with the underhanded aim of sowing confusion and masking the
nature of their work as agents. There are those who purport to be
unprejudiced citizens of the First World, with the furtive intention of
appearing more credible in their roles as moles, to alleged nihilists
who believe in nothing, not even the arguments of those who oppose the
dictatorship. It is, in short, a contingent made up of thousands of
minions, who do not necessarily need to be employees of the State's
security forces - though many of them are.

And there is only one reason why this riff-raff of phony readers has
failed to make their presence felt amongst us: the response of our
genuine readers, whose shrewdness and zeal may often be excessive, but
is never wanting.

As for the columnists, it may of lesser importance (at least to me) that
some of these real readers question the value of a text without having
read it all, or when, having read it, they fixate on a single phrase or
assertion (frequently the least fortunate) to judge all of our work.
Rectification is almost invariably provided by some other well-informed
and judicious reader. But, in any case, such excesses are more than
offset by the opinions of those who challenge, and even spur us to
question, certain truths we ourselves may have considered unassailable.

Source: The failure of phony readers | Diario de Cuba -
http://www.diariodecuba.com/cuba/1447421171_18102.html