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Latinos Get Short Shrift in TV Network News

Latinos are a people yearning for visibility.

The major TV networks' evening news broadcasts present a distorted view of America, according to a recent report by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

More than 30 million Americans open an electronic eye to the world with their nightly news. Whether it's "ABC World News Tonight,""CBS Evening News,""NBC Nightly News" or "CNN NewsNight," millions get their news fix from these shows and their anchors.

In the interest of fair and accurate news coverage, NAHJ has monitored the quantity and quality of Latino news stories by the major networks since 1995.

The association's "2005 Network Brownout Report," released this month, finds that the networks continue to marginalize Latinos. The Latino presence in this country continues to grow, but you couldn't tell it from the near invisible TV news air time. Latinos are fleeting, ghost-like images in TV news land.

According to the study, 33 percent of the Latino stories were 30 seconds long or less. When shown, Latinos are viewed as border jumpers, narco-traffickers or patriotic soldiers willing to die for their country.

Illegal immigration, drug dealing and the Iraq war are certainly news -- but so are Latino teachers, doctors, police officers, attorneys and social workers who don't make the TV national news cut.

Media moguls don't seem to consider Latino achievement as network prime-time worthy. Media consultant Federico Subervi and NAHJ staffers researched Vanderbilt University's Television News Archive for the study. They found that in 2004:

-- Of the 16,000 stories aired, 115 (or 0.72 percent) were exclusively about Latinos.

-- Of the 548 hours of news time, three hours and 25 minutes -- less than 1 percent -- were devoted to Latinos.

-- 34.7 percent of the Latino stories were about immigrants.

-- Half the Latino stories did not feature an interview with a Latino.

-- Only six Latino stories showed Latino reporters, and four of these were Telemundo reporters.

The networks generally portrayed Latinos as a social problem and a burden to the country. Of the Latino video coverage, 41 percent showed unidentified groups of Latinos and images of them crossing the border illegally or being arrested by the Border Patrol.

In a review of the findings for the past 10 years, NAHJ found that Latinos are consistently portrayed as an immigrant strain or victims of the American Dream. In 1995, the networks aired stories about California's efforts to cut benefits to undocumented workers. In 2004, the networks showed Arizona's push to cut social services to undocumented workers.

Few stories dealt with the immigrants themselves or the conditions that drove them to risk all for a chance to work and earn some money. For the most part, immigrants are faceless, nameless people from an alien world.

Over the past 10 years, the viewing public has learned little of the growing importance of Latinos to this country's progress and much about their drain on the economy.

The news media certainly shouldn't act as propaganda tools for any special interest. Neither should they shy away from the controversial and provocative. But at a time of heightened security, the media should be wary of repeating the mistakes of the hot and cold wars of the past century.

"Reds," Nazi sympathizers, the Japanese and spies were seen lurking in the universities, the literary world, Hollywood and minority communities.

Back then, Americans said that they were guarding against the "Red menace" and subversives. In fact, with the help of the media, they succeeded in scaring themselves and hurting law-abiding citizens.

Never again, some say.

Just examine how long it took for the news media to recognize that there were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Instead, they played into the Bush administration's WMD mantra and had most of us believing it.

Network news walks a fine line of presenting balanced news coverage that informs on the good, the bad and the complex. The networks would better serve their viewers if they showed Latinos not as a monolithic people but diverse in a land of diversity.

Latinos don't ask for special treatment in nightly news. They ask for coverage that presents a more realistic portrayal of their presence. They ask for exposure so viewers can point to the tube and tell their young, "Look, they're real people after all."

Richard J. Gonzales is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star- Telegram. Readers may send him e-mail at Rgonz37034aol.com.

Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)