The defeat on Tuesday of the so-called “For the People Act”, or H.R.1, by Senate Republicans, didn't get much attention from the Latino media where the audiences were granted a grand total of 24 on-air seconds on the failure of the controversial bill - and that over Telemundo´s late evening news edition. The black-out further confirms a trend of silence and disinformation, as MRC Latino reported in a study on Hispanc media coverage of HR1 published in May.
Watch the biased rhetoric pre-and-post the GOP filibuster to move forward with the bill in this video compilation of two Spanish-speaking media reports over Univision and Telemundo that aired on June 22, 2021:
DESPIERTA AMERICA
ALAN TACHER: This morning, the Senate prepares to vote on the electoral bill. Democratic legislators come together in order to achieve its passage, arguing that they want to guarantee the right to vote for more people in elections to come. BUT, this does not persuade the Republican Party, which, as of this moment, seems willing to do whatever it takes to block this bill as well as any other bill that expands the role of the federal government in elections.
TELEMUNDO EVENING EDITION
JULIO VAQUEIRO: President Joe Biden´s election reform clashed today against the unanimous Republican bloc. The Act, known as the “For the People Act”, sought to counter voting limitations that exist in many states. Fourteen states have passed laws that restrict the votes of Hispanic and African-American minorities. The Democratic bill did not attain the 60 votes required to make it to the Senate.
Univision´s Tacher frames the report by portraying the Democrat bill as one that will “guarantee the right to vote for more people in elections to come”. As per the host, this doesn’t persuade Republicans who will block any and all voting bills that “expand the role of the federal government in elections”; at least they got that last part right.
Telemundo’s sole report hammers the White House talking point that H.R. 1 (S.1) will counter voting limitations that exist in many states that “have passed laws that restrict the votes of Hispanic and African-American minorities.” A claim that not only lacks veracity, but insinuates that “minorities and certain groups” are incapable of getting an ID to vote, to say the least.
Unsaid by the Latino media, is that the massive support to the failed bill by the nation´s Spanish-speaking media is seated in their own ambitions: pushing for the elimination of voter ID, for the acceptance of voter registration from individuals under 18 years of age, to mention a few of the actual provisions of the Act, means that the millions of illegals flooding into our country, thus ensuring their permanence in the air waves.
This disinformation campaign was brought to Latino media by Comcast.
