Leonard Ray Teel, an author published by the LSU Press in December, received the American Journalism Historians Association Book of the Year Award which recognizes the best book in journalism history or mass media history published during the previous calendar year.
Teel’s book, “Reporting the Cuban Revolution: How Castro Manipulated American Journalists,” tells the story of 13 American journalists and how their coverage of the Cuban Revolution earned Fidel Castro’s praise.
“I am what you would call a journalism historian,” Teel said. “So this award is just wonderful … it is quite an honor to get an award from the epitome of American journalism historians’ organizations.”
Teel got his start in journalism at age 11, selling newspapers on a street corner in Pennsylvania. He eventually got a journalism scholarship to the University of Miami, where he became the editor of the university’s newspaper.
After writing for five different publications across the country, Teel got his PhD in history.
Teel worked as a journalist for 20 years before spending 32 years as a journalism professor. During his time as a professor, Teel published five books.
“Four of my five books are about … journalism and journalism history,” Teel said.
“Reporting the Cuban Revolution,” is Teel’s fifth book, though it is his first published through the LSU Press. Teel credits professor and LSU Press editor Robert Mann with having a significant hand in this deal’s creation.
“We met at one of these national conventions,” Teel said. “I told him about my idea for the book and he loved it and from that moment on, I had a publisher.”
Teel’s idea for his book was investigating the Cuban Revolution through the aspect of 13 American reporters. These reporters trekked through Cuba to follow the story of Castro’s various promises, which were later realized to be lies. These reports shifted American policy to support Castro because American public opinion made him out to be a hero.
The book presents Teel’s research into how Castro awarded those 13 journalists with 18 karat gold medals upon his first visit to the United States following his victory in the Cuban Revolution.
“He gave gold medals … to 13 of these journalists who had come to Cuba to write about him, to keep his revolution in the American press,” Teel said. “So that’s what Robert Mann had never heard about.”
In October, Teel will travel to St. Petersburg, Florida to accept his award at the AJHA Conference. At the conference, Teel will also give a speech on his research and the writing of his book.
“As a historian, you hope to find somebody alive who can talk to you,” Teel said. “But the Cuban Revolution was so long ago now that there were only … 3 people alive who could tell me what was going on because they were there or they knew the journalists.”