Garza Participates in Release of “Hispanic Media in the Balance”
Garza Participates in Release of "Hispanic Media in the Balance"
Media Research Center Report Highlights Bias in Reporting
(Washington, D.C.) – This morning, LIBRE Initiative Executive Director Daniel Garza joins the Media Research Center (MRC) and the American Principles Project at a symposium entitled "Conservatives and Latino Media: Assessing and Addressing the Challenges." The event will see the release of the MRC report "Hispanic Media in the Balance," which includes key findings about bias in Spanish-language media. The report surveys the nation's top Spanish-language television shows over a recent four-month period and finds:
- Out of 667 stories on U.S. domestic policy, more than six times as many tilted left/liberal as slanted in a right/conservative direction;
- In coverage of U.S. domestic policy, Democratic politicians and spokespeople for left-leaning/liberal advocacy organizations were quoted nearly three times as often as Republican politicians and spokespeople for conservative counterpart organizations on Univision and Telemundo newscasts;
- The top three U.S. domestic policy topics covered by both newscasts were immigration law enforcement, immigration reform legislation in Congress and ObamaCare. Fifty-nine percent of Univision and Telemundo's 288 stories on these three issues tilted left/liberal. Only 7 percent tilted towards the right/conservative, while the remaining stories were neutral or balanced; and
- Despite ObamaCare's problem-plagued rollout and controversial implementation, Univision and Telemundo reporting featured advocates of ObamaCare over its conservative opponents by a margin of nearly five-to-one.
Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative released the following statement:
"It's critical that Spanish-language news sources honor the full policy sentiments of the Hispanic community, and this report clearly demonstrates they are failing miserably in carrying out this responsibility. They will be held accountable. A Pew poll shows that 32 percent of Hispanics consider themselves conservative, 31 percent moderate, and 30 percent liberal. Yet, the results of this study clearly demonstrate Spanish-language media is terribly slanted towards the left.
LIBRE is participating because we feel strongly that the political conversation and the policy narrative must represent the full ideological diversity of the Hispanic community. All voices in the community are legitimate – but for some time now, Spanish-language media outlets have raised the profile of some over others and toed a party line, instead of covering the battle of ideas on issues of importance to Latinos.
News organizations live and die by their credibility. Many are discovering that once they lose the trust of their audience, it can be impossible to get it back. If Spanish-language media continues to ignore a huge part of their audience, it will show up before long in the bottom line."
For interviews with a LIBRE representative, please contact: Brian Faughnan, 703-678-4581 or Steven Cruz, 202-578-6173.