Guerrero: Latinophobia in mainstream news fuels the radical right (via latimesopinion)
This year, only 5% of guest appearances on the Sunday news shows were of people who identify as Latino or Hispanic, according to Media Matters for America. “Fox News Sunday” outperformed others with a 10% rate, thanks to regular appearances by Juan Williams.
“Both-siderism” is a risk in journalism broadly, made worse on Latino issues by the dearth of Latinos in news media. We need more Latino media executives, reporters, anchors, guests and sources so they can challenge negative stereotypes that fuel white extremism. The framing of immigration by left-of-center news media is particularly dangerous because it so often depicts people as a “surge” or an “influx,” as if they’re numbers, not humans — just as Fox News does.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, I got my two Latino voices,’” said Julio Ricardo Varela, Futuro Media president and co-host of “,” a political podcast centering on journalists of color. “We’re still seen as a checklist item.” Hinojosa, who founded Futuro Media in 2010 to create a space in public media for Latinos and people of color, told me: “If you’re not talking to, with, about or for Latinos and Latinas when you’re covering politics, then frankly you’re putting our American democracy in danger.”