Thread: LULAC wants the "Fairness Doctrine"

http://www.star-telegram.com/245/story/172599.html

'Cover this story with the depth that it deserves'
By Richard J. Gonzales
Special to the Star-Telegram
John Quinones, ABC News correspondent, told the LULAC audience how he hired a Mexican human smuggler to get him across the Mexican-U.S. border at Laredo.

Working for a Chicago TV station at the time, Quinones sought to provide an in-depth look at undocumented immigrants' entry into this country. After riding an inner tube across the Rio Grande, he said, he was probably the first Mexican to cross illegally and sleep that night in a Hyatt Regency.

Quinones won an Emmy for his story and soon was hired by ABC. During the 78th LULAC National Convention in Chicago last week, Quinones moderated a panel discussion in a workshop on media coverage of immigration issues. (In full disclosure, I'm president of Arlington LULAC Council 4353.)

Olga Briseno, director of the Media, Democracy and Policy Initiative at the University of Arizona, said that many educators and reporters who write extensively about immigration have never been to the border.

"It's one thing to talk about immigration, and it's another to live it," she said. "The immigration story is a story about economics; it's about social history. It's not something that a reporter can jump into and jump out. Because this story impacts the Latino community and the country, we must demand that the newsroom cover this story with the depth that it deserves."

Briseno cited a UCLA study of news reporting by Otto Santana, instructor at the UCLA Department of Chicana & Chicano Studies, that described immigrants in animalistic, criminal and foreigner terms such as herding, illegal and alien. The stories slant the coverage to imply that Mexicans shouldn't be here, that they're uneducated and inferior, she said.

And, she said, this happens at a time when Latino youth should be encouraged to pursue education and well-paying jobs.

The panelists cited TV talk-show hosts such as Lou Dobbs who provide inflammatory entertainment but no real, in-depth immigration coverage. Quinones encouraged LULAC and other civic organizations to confront Dobbs and others who make their living bashing immigrants. He said that we need cable news outlets that counter right-wing commentators. Where are the Latino talk-show hosts?

Domingo Garcia of Dallas, the national co-chairman of LULAC's civil rights commission, said that he has asked U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to reintroduce the "Fairness Doctrine" in Congress to call for balanced coverage of controversial issues. He challenged Spanish news media corporations such as Telemundo and Univision to counter these attacks. Instead of showing telenovelas or R-rated entertainment that do little to change society, they should enter the immigration fray with counter-viewpoints.(Their is no way hispanic TV will give up their soap operas. They have too much ratings)
Esteban Creste, news director for Telemundo Chicago, said that his station recently covered an unsuccessful attempt by the Illinois Legislature to allow driver's licenses for the undocumented. The bill failed, not for the lack of news coverage but because grassroots organizations and legislators offered weak political strategies, he said.

Garcia pointed out that as a result of conservative commentators' encouragement, viewers and listeners flooded congressional representatives' e-mails and phones with their opposition to the reform bill. The only major Latino voice was Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, the Los Angeles Spanish-speaking DJ who delivered more than a million petitions for a comprehensive immigration bill.

Briseno said that community organizations play a major role in balanced news coverage. After the April 2006 pro-immigration marches, President Bush's popularity ratings went down. However, she said that Latino presence in the news media has declined for the last 10 years. She said Latinos comprise 4.4 percent of employees in newspapers and less than 2 percent in radio. They have a better showing in television because of Telemundo and Univision.

Quinones said that as a son of a poor migrant worker family, he got his professional break when a San Antonio community organization demanded that the local news media start hiring people who looked like San Antonians. The group threatened that if the stations didn't hire more Latinos, it would go to the Federal Communications Commission and challenge their licenses.

"Thank God for them," Quinones said. "I wouldn't be here."

Because this story impacts the Latino community and the country, we must demand that the newsroom cover this story with the depth that it deserves."

AS I RECALL, THE NEWSROOMS DID A TOP NOTCH JOB FOR THE ILLEGALS.....TELLING ONE LIE AFTER ANOTHER.........SKEWING POLLS......ONLY PRINTING WHAT THE PRO-ILLEGAL MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAS TO SAY.......TALKING ABOUT OUR "BROKEN IMMIGRATION LAWS," ETC., ETC., ETC.

we need cable news outlets that counter right-wing commentators. Where are the Latino talk-show hosts?

With the exception of Lou Dobbs, and LATER, Sean Hannity, the cable news stations did the same as the newsrooms..........LIED. And there are dozens and dozens of HISPANIC radio/tv stations.

LULAC...HERE'S A COMMENT FOR YOU:

YOU'RE OLD ENOUGH TO WHERE YOUR WANTS WON'T HURT YOU!!!!!!!!!

And are Hispanic commentators going to report the truth about how illegals impact our towns the cost of illegals on citizens, how many Americans are being killed by illegals. our over crowded schools our closed down hospitals along with their little stories of how these poor immigrants are in search of a job and a better life and that they had to trek accross the hot desert or swim the Rio Grand to break our laws!! I think not!
STUFF YOUR "FAIRNESS DOCTRINE" It all boils down to one thing the rule of law!


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Actually, it would be done 'fairly', but if the 'fairness doctrine' were put in place, these people would loose a lot of their favored reporting.

The entire major media is their voice. With the exception of Lou Dobbs, who else is hitting this hard?

I don't need any radio hosts to tell me what's going on and what to do....all I have to do is look at what is going on around me. The radio hosts only reflect what the public feels, and they are not in lock-step with the Prez. If anyone would notice, the conservative talk shows are highly critical of the Prez and the Republican sell-outs! Radio talk shows say "obey the law"! What's the opposing view they want to show? Not obey the law???!! Yeah right, we'll listen to that!!!???

Nobody cares how many "telemundo" programs or any other opposing views are enspoused but you aren't going to legislate how the free market operates. Nobody is going to justify ILLEGAL immigration to the American people, period!!

And are Hispanic commentators going to report the truth about how illegals impact our towns the cost of illegals on citizens, how many Americans are being killed by illegals. our over crowded schools our closed down hospitals along with their little stories of how these poor immigrants are in search of a job and a better life and that they had to trek accross the hot desert or swim the Rio Grand to break our laws!! I think not!
STUFF YOUR "FAIRNESS DOCTRINE" It all boils down to one thing the rule of law!

AMEN!!! Don't think that they're going to show the other side of illegal immigration!

"The group threatened that if the stations didn't hire more Latinos, it would go to the Federal Communications Commission and challenge their licenses."

How about hiring the qualified? We have had enough of this affirmative action undermining the quality of the labor force.

Let me put this politely to you LULAC...people in hell want water

I guess it all depends on what the reporters idea of fair is, who is going to decide this? Will they have to use statistics? or just their IDEA of fair.

I see too many problems with this, its no different than in the eyes of Hispanic leaders we are all racist we are against Latino's, It just couldn't possible have anything to do with us wanting to save some of our own culture, language, or us feeling it is unfair for citizens to pay for Mexicos poor and down trodden, or the great divide in understanding one another, them learning our langauge instead of us learning thiers.

To many problems with this, Are they saying we Americans can not think for our selves anymore

It's all about taking away the voice of opposition... AGAINST illegal immigration!!!! While the media and our government bends over backward to please these racist latino organizations and illegals. (The illegals can't figure out that they are only being used by these racist latino organizations for their own path of greed and corruption to power.)