Hate talk, the sound and the fury

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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."So shockingly pervasive is this phenomenon even the Center for American Progress Action Fund took note two days following Limbaugh's petard and issued a synopsis on its Web site (www.americanprogressaction.org) about the increasing incidence of "Racial slurs, particularly fueled against Hispanics, (which have) found a home on right-wing radio." In June 2007, this group issued a report, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," saying 91 percent of the 257 news-talk stations owned by the top five commercial owners were programmed conservative and only 9 percent were progressive.However, conservative does not have to mean unfair, antagonistic, provoking, or untruthful. Yet hate speech tends to go with an extreme -- albeit perverted -- brand of conservative ideology. Followers take comfort from high-profile commentators who feed the mania.The Southern Poverty and Law Center reports hate groups are up five percent from last year and now 888. This is due, they say, to the "exploitation by hate groups of the continuing debate about immigration." After a long gestation, Janet Murguia got fed up. She announced in January NCLR's much needed crusade and public education campaign. The organization's vice president, Lisa Navarrete, explains to me that the group is attempting to raise awareness about how words are used -- the characterizations and the "tenor" -- given now that the immigration debate will come up again for election discussion.NCLR launched Web site WeCanStoptheHate.com with a flash points map, late breaking news and suspect spokespeople and factions. Extremists Jim Gilchrist, Chris Simcox, Dan Stein, Roy Beck and Glen Spencer are the usual suspects.Most disparaging is how negligent the national media ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN and Fox News have been by calling on many of these persons as experts. Even Patrick Buchanan, with some strange notions about Latinos as secessionists and fifth columnists, is a politics authority and analyst with MSNBC."The 800-pound gorilla in the room," says Navarrete, "is Lou Dobbs of CNN." She also singles out Fox's "Hannity and Colmes" and the "O"Reilly Factor" among the worst of the worst.Murguia met with CNN officials in February and with MSNBC officials in March. Navarrete says NCLR went seeking balance, accuracy and to hold them to journalistic standards.These networks, she says, have been "very open." "They want to do the right thing but they are not quite sure how."Not so Fox News. It declined NCLR's invitation. 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.(Josi de la Isla, author of "The Rise of Hispanic Political Power" (Archer Books, 2003) writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com.) (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)