by Tim Chávez
There are many Hispanic journalists who have earned notice and accolades for their work — not only for speaking with great personal insight on Latino experiences but in expressing the feelings of working men and women of all colors and ethnicities.
There are dozens of them, literally, with national and international awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and recognitions equal to those of other in the profession.
Yet rarely ever do U.S. television viewers get to see or hear them as pundits on the plethora of news and political analysis shows that flood our English-language information channels every Sunday. They aren’t there to broaden the awareness of what issues are important and what solutions are available to a nation that is home to a growing, increasingly visible and diverse Hispanic population, now at 15 percent nationally.
It’s as if there is a ban on brown, that Hispanics — who now outnumber blacks —aren’t significant or respected enough to be represented on roundtables such as This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
When immigration, education, foreign policy or other subjects such as presidential campaigns and administration of justice are discussed on such programs, Sunday’s chosen white and black talking heads chime in to state — too often misstate how “Hispanics” are affected or how they are reacting on major issues.
Totally ignoring our racial, economic and social diversity, they pack the 48 million of us into a simplistic sentence of analysis.
“Hispanics like Hillary, Hispanics are undereducated… Hispanics are immigrants…Hispanics are humble, happy people. They work hard and smile a lot.“
When you contact a program or network to ask for an explanation, you are reminded that to their executives, Hispanics with essential expertise either don’t matter or can’t be found. So where are these Latinos who invest in the stock market, buy homes and, as shown in the California, Nevada and Texas Democratic presidential primaries, vote in large enough numbers to turn a presidential race don’t matter. It leaves me wondering where all of the Hispanic journalists go on Sundays.
To play soccer? To church? To the little store on the corner for a pot of menudo to cure their cruda from the night before?
Along with my wife, I’m a faithful viewer of This Week. But it has always been troublesome to see no one who looks like me on the infl uential roundtable segment of experts and media members. So I called This Week’s offi ces a few times in the past two weeks: “Mr. Stephanopoulos is not available today.” I’m switched to the office of ABC News spokesperson Andrea Jones. She’s busy.
But I am provided an e-mail address to contact her. I send an e-mail and include the questions I wanted to ask, all concerning the lack of Hispanic presence on its roundtable. “What are the criteria for picking people to appear on the roundtable, and has the show tried to fi nd Hispanic experts and journalists before and been turned down.”
Jones e-mails back and says she is going to be gone but asks if my column deadline could wait until the following Wednesday for comment. I tell her “yes” and that I appreciate the chance to have a dialogue on this wrong.
That was on March 8. And despite another e-mail and phone call to her, that’s the last I heard from Ms. Jones.
This Week is far from the only offender, ironically amidst a presidential race that’s supposed to be about change. Nor is the absence of Hispanics just on Sunday morning news shows. In subbing for Larry King one day this month, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer chose to examine Sen. Barrack Obama’s speech on race for the show’s whole hour.
He featured only black and white experts. Yet for this decade, Hispanics have been the most stigmatized group of people due to the xenophobic immigration debate. Our racial and ethnic experiences are between those of whites and blacks, and there is a brown-black divide when it comes to politics and power.
I give Blitzer and CNN credit for having at least one Latina on their political analysts team. Yet Leslie Sánchez is a Republican strategist. Most Hispanics favor the Democratic Party. You need a Latino or Latina journalist, Wolf. And there are dozens of them with knowledge of politics inside and outside the Beltway.
They know what people are thinking outside as well as inside of Washington, D.C. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Obama provides an obvious opportunity for Hispanic representation on these shows. The nation’s only Latino governor is supposed to help turn the Hispanic electorate from Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain.
Can he? Let’s call on some Latino voices of distinction for their perspective. Let me hear from someone who at least looks like me in a discussion about race, the presidential race, the war in Iraq, the economy and immigration. Is that too much to ask?
(Tim Chávez, a political columnist for 10 years with The Tennessean in Nashville, is a contributing columnist with Hispanic Link News Service. Contact him at timchavez787@yahoo.com. To contact ABC, e-mail Andrea.Jones@abcnews.com or call (212) 456-7777). ©2008
