Friday, March 29, 2024

Research group Media Matters launches campaign scrutinizing Latino news and ‘conservative misinformation’

Media Matters

Media Matters, the research group known for calling out “conservative misinformation” in the mass media, launched a Hispanic engagement initiative yesterday targeting rightwing organizations whose goal it is to politically influence Latinos through Spanish-language media. The program will highlight the lack of Latino voices in mass media and challenge stereotypes it perceives as damaging and biased, citing the Libre Initiative, a Koch brother-backed conservative group that Media Matters views as not representative of the broader Latino voice.

“We know Hispanics want the American dream, but there’s a system, and it’s called free enterprise, that allows them to access that dream,” said Rachel Campos-Duffy, a Libre Initiative spokeswoman, on Fox News in a clip cited by Media Matters. “So we promote self-reliance.”

In addition to scrutinizing the Libre Initiative and other groups like it, Media Matters has chided Spanish-language news coverage of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush. Outlets like Univision and El País (Spain) have painted Bush as the “Hispanic candidate,” alluding to his favorable view of immigration and his Mexican-American wife, while failing to acknowledge his more conservative positions on climate change and the Affordable Care Act: two issues that conflict with the general Latino sentiments and that are of particular concern to the community.

“Media has to be more critical of stories that relate to Hispanics and not traffic in poorly vetted stories and misinformation,” said Miguel Ferrer, a senior adviser to Media Matters. “A lot of this rightwing distortion as it relates to media has assumed that nobody’s checking.”

Libre – as they should – have since taken to defending their organization. Media Matters will continue to dig to reveal contradictions and distortions in news outlets and organizations which, perhaps, inaccurately represent the Latino political voice at large.

Huffington Post