Sunday, September 15, 2013

Hispanics Snubbed by President

President Obama snubs Hispanics again. Millions of them get news from Univision and Telemundo, certainly in far greater numbers than on MSNBC or CNN or ABC, NBC, CBS and NPR.
So who did Obama’s flacks offer long interviews to before his requested national time for a massive important national speech regarding the Syria crisis? Not the Spanish-language network Univision which regularly beats the other networks in areas like Los Angeles and Miami.

Obama goes out of his way to insult and demean Hispanics at every turn and what do his Hispanic acolytes do, they bend over and grab their ankles to enjoy being screwed by this President. Not this one.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras

My first stint on talk radio ended when I (a) criticized the governor of California (a friend of the Program Director) for not being able to find his buttocks with both hands and (b) I answered a listener’s question on Sunday, the 5th of May, about what was Cinco de Mayo after the Program Director (PD) ordered me not to mention Mexico on my program no matter what.

The real reasons were that the PD was an overly sensitive angry middle aged White guy who hated my presentation which was combative, assertive and confrontational to any caller that manifested bigotry towards me, Mexican Americans, civil rights, Blacks, Affirmative Action, Mexico, Center Right politics and my United States Marine Corps.

I was not, however, ever accused of being mean to guests who presented different political opinions than mine. I was respectful to all of them even bigoted idiots. I was convinced that objectivity in one-on-one programs would filter out charlatans and liars with logic and good sense.
Nonetheless, in my second talk radio stint I resolved to be less confrontational, to be “nicer” with listeners -- even with bigoted idiots.

The bosses were happy, the engineer/phone answerer was happy, everyone was happy except the listeners one of whom called on the air and asked why I was trying to be nice. “I don’t listen to you to hear ‘Kumbaya,’ I want fire and passion, strife and combat; I want a mean Raoul who raises our collective blood pressure. I want excitement.”

One will recall that Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos of Univision Television hosted President Barack Obama in a town hall-style interview during his 2012 re-election campaign. One will also recall that they were tough on President Obama particularly on the subject of immigration reform that he had ignored when he and his party controlled both houses of Congress in his first two years in office. Obama’s lack of attention to the Hispanic community that voted for him heavily was hammered by Ms Salinas and Mr. Ramos.

The Univision interview embarrassed President Obama because unlike the rest of network media, minus of course Fox News, Ramos and Salinas did not fawn all over the President with fat lips solidly planted on his backside and asked solid questions.

President Obama does not take on all comers. Just hours before his national address on the Syrian poison gas controversy, Obama scheduled multi-minute interviews with
Major networks including ABC, NBC, Fox, NPR, CBS and CNN. Spanish-language networks Univision or Telemundo were not included despite the fact that their combined national ratings are usually several points higher than that of NPR and CNN and in some metropolitan areas have higher ratings than ABC, NBC and CBS. Not a single Hispanic interviewer interviewed the President.

My own experience competing with NPR is that my Sunday morning show had double NPR’s ratings; so why was NPR invited to do an interview with the President? It has but a fraction of Univision’s ratings. In Los Angeles, for example, Univison evening news has higher ratings than any of the English language networks including, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, and NPR and probably higher than NPR, MSNBC and CNN combined.

Non-Objective sycophantic “journalists” like Gwen Ifill of NPR and Scott Pelley of CBS were used instead of proven objective Univision news people Marian Elena Salinas and/or Jorge Ramos. Millions of Hispanics get their news coverage through Univision and Telemundo; they were denied interviews they could identify with because of the omission of interviewers they could identify with on stations they watch.

Telemundo is owned by NBC so it might be excused from criticism because they could run the NBC interview, but Univision is independent and pulls a large audience of about 80% of Spanish-language news viewers.

A polite word to be used in this instance is “SNUB.” Millions of Americans who watch Univision nightly for news were ignored by President Obama, again. It seems that if Obama is offended by anyone who asks tough questions, the penalty is a journalistic death sentence imposed by presidential ACHICHINQLES (gofers) at the President’s pleasure.

The White House requested national TV time for his Syria interviews; it chose the networks. With no more reelection campaigns to work through, the White House has regressed to its previous treatment of Hispanics in the first two years of the Obama Administration – out of sight, out of mind, intentionally so, sin verguenza, without shame.  ###

Contreras’ books are available at amazon.com.

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