A couple of weeks ago I was invited to be part of a panel that would preview and comment Soledad Bravo's effort, "Latino In America" #LIA. What you see here in the product of my appearance.

As I was sitting in an empty camera room, watching the video, I actually was amused, outraged, annoyed and moved to tears by what I was watching. To me that means that Soledad and her team did an awfully good job at trying to stir people's emotions and minds about the subject in question.

No, I wouldn't give them an A or even A- for their work. Even though their effort is certainly extraordinary --like the very quiet shout out they give to afroLatinos with the Garcia family with the 2 teenage boys-- CNN needed to give the topic at least 8 if not 12 hours in order to just cover the basics. I find it a failure on their part to dedicate less than a couple of minutes to Puerto Rico's colonial/commonwealth status.

That said, I think it is a good start.
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Location

So Latinos (along with Asians, Native Americans and other 'minorities') are the real ghosts in the media machine. Not that I needed Media Matters to tell me that :

The nearly complete absence of Latinos from the cable shows' guest lists is particularly notable. In 2004, the U.S. Census estimated that Hispanics made up 14 percent of the American population; given patterns of population growth, that number is undoubtedly higher today. Yet Hispanics made up less than 2 percent of the guests on these programs during these three weeks. In fact, this number represents a total of only 13 guest appearances, six of which were by Geraldo Rivera.

No better, by the way, for Asians, Native Americans and other 'minorities'.

The problem with the MSM's corrections to these problems is to get a neo-nazi Speedy Gonzalez look-a-like to be the talking 'cabeza' du jour.

Or, even better --they do as Media Matters and hire just one guy with a latino-sounding name.
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