Raza's Attempt Stifle Debate Failing
05/20/2008
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Scripps-Howard syndicated columnist Jose de la Isla, [Send him mail] has a column about the imaginary wave of hate that Janet Murguia is trying to suppress: See WeCanStopTheDebate.org–Treason Lobby Trying to Muscle MainStream Media Into Banning Immigration Reform Patriots. Look at the Rush Limbaugh joke he considers hate here:

Hate talk, the sound and the fury

By JOSE de la ISLA Hispanic Link News Service 2008-05-14 00:00:00

In late April, National Council of La Raza chief Janet Murguia gave a rousing speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Talking about broadcast media, she said, "Harsh rhetoric has filled the immigration debate with code words that demonize and dehumanize not just immigrants but Latinos as a threat to the American way of life."

It was the long-awaited sound and fury of righteous indignation. Latinos have a lengthy history at the receiving end of insults and mischaracterizations that media personalities dish out and get away with.

That's what happened May 5 — Cinco de Mayo, of all days — when conservative radio antagonist Rush Limbaugh, describing on air an encounter with Bill Clinton, said he wasn't sure whether Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was present, was a "shoe shine guy" or a "secret service agent." [More]

This is hate? Look, I'm familar with hate. In this job I get exposed to a lot of it. That's not it. But the main point is that the campaign seems to be failing: While the campaign is "dialoging" with CNN and MSNBC, Fox  News refused to even meet with them.

[Raza VP Lisa]   Navarrete gives CNN and MSNBC the benefit of the doubt, but she says they are ill informed about how their words go down because they don't have Latinos, or enough of them, to serve as culture interpreters in their newsrooms.

Navarrete insists the two news organizations they dialogue with simply lack knowledge about the community and the issues.

It doesn't sound very persuasive to this listener's ears. On the face of it, hateful speech and misinforming the nation is about company policy and marketing—and how intellectual integrity is compromised. Who gets internships and who is the next hire is another topic, not the same thing.

The campaign to sledgehammer the networks to get their attention started out with a bang. But now it's sounding more and more like a whimper.

De la Isla is the author of the 2003 book The Rise of Hispanic Political Power. That rise, as Steve Sailer puts it "hasn't quite gone through the formality of actually taking place."

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