UPDATE: Latino Victory pulled the ad -not out of any sense of decency or regret- but because of its uncomfortable resemblance to today's horrific terror attack in New York City (statement here).
Latino Victory is short, apparently, for Latino Victory At All Costs, as evidenced by the disgusting ad with which the organization has chosen to enter the hotly-contested 2017 Virginia gubernatorial election. More troubling still is the fact that both major domestic Spanish-language television networks have so far ignored both the ad and its blowback in their national evening newscasts.
Here's how The Washington Post described the ad (video at the link):
As Virginia’s heated gubernatorial election draws near, a Democratic group on Monday released an ad featuring a pickup truck flying a Confederate flag and sporting a bumper sticker for Republican Ed Gillespie chasing a group of minority children.
The minute-long spot from the Latino Victory Fund ends with the children waking up from a nightmare and adults watching footage on television of torch-bearing white nationalists marching in Charlottesville
“Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American Dream?” the narrator says.
The commercial, which the Latino Victory Fund says is airing through Election Day on Spanish-language stations in the Richmond and Washington markets, is the latest in a bitter battle on the airwaves.
My first reaction to this ad was to wonder aloud whether the Ford Motor Company had granted Latino Victory permission to depict its F-250 Super Duty as the official vehicle of murderous confederate flag-waving white supremacists (I hope not, and make mine a diesel Lariat).
This quickly gave way to disgust at the idea that a political group whose sole purpose is to divide Hispanics against everyone else reduced an entire election (as well as the American Dream) to a choice between those who want to commit vehicular homicide against brown kids and those who do not.
It is beyond shameful that none of the Spanish-language network newscasts seemed able to find the time to cover this awful ad - which aired in Spanish in both the Washington, D.C. and Richmond markets. Such silence is a clear instance of complicit bias by omission. Do the networks have a vested interest in allowing this ad to proceed without examination? It appears so. In the Washington, D.C. market, the ad aired during a commercial break of Telemundo's national evening newscast, which goes to actual complicity.
Regarding Univision, it goes deeper. You see, Entravision - the largest nationwide group of Univision affiliate stations- is a corporate donor to Latino Victory. It remains to be seen whether Entravision's donor dollars will pay off for Latino Victory in Virginia.
Latino Victory plumbs a new low with their vile ad, and Telemundo and Univision are complicit in their silence. Their viewers deserve better.
