Media Research Center President Brent Bozell and Senator Rand Paul on Tuesday participated in a question and answer session to promote the launch of MRC Latino. Appearing at the Newseum in Washington D.C., Bozell and Paul discussed the state of Hispanic journalism and took questions on bias, the future of the Republican Party and other topics.
On the subject of the immigration issue, Paul opined, "Part of where I think there is a bias on reporting on the immigration issue is that the whole thing is that the Democrats have proposed comprehensive and it's either that you take that or you're against immigration reform." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
He added, "Well, this is where the Democrats are. This is where the Republicans are. There should be some sort of meeting in the middle. And I think it could happen."
On the subject of how Univision and Telemundo cover politics, Bozell noted, "One of the findings that we'll be releasing today, which was rather surprising to me, if you look at the traditional media's attitude towards Cuba, it is virtually one-sided supporting Fidel Casto..."
He then contrasted, "But if you look at Hispanic, Latino media's coverage of Venezuela, it is almost unanimously opposed to this government."
MRC Latino's special report found:
During the period under study, MRC examined nearly 1,000 U.S. and international issue-oriented news stories aired on the flagship evening newscasts of both networks (Noticiero Univision and Noticiero Telemundo). The study included every story about government, politics and public policy-related issues (both in the U.S. and abroad), excluding non-policy topics such as celebrities, sports, the weather, etc.
This study found a marked leftward tilt in both networks’ news coverage, particularly in reporting U.S. domestic policy news, with Democratic, left-leaning sources overwhelmingly dominating U.S. coverage. In international news, however, both networks maintained a more critical and/or balanced stance in relation to governments in the region, as is the journalistic norm.
To read the full study, go here.
To see video of Rand Paul's MRC Latino speech, go here.
To see video of MRC Latino Director Ken Oliver-Mendez, go here.
To see a panel discussion on the event, go here.
To see Bozell offer concluding remarks on the event, go here.
