Telemundo anchor María Celeste Arrarás will co-moderate the upcoming GOP presidential debate. Here's what we expect to see, as well as what we'd like to see, in Houston.
Arrarás is known to readers of this byline for, among other things: framing stories on the DHS raids in a light most favorable to illegal immigrants, aiding and abetting Hillary Clinton in a campaign commercial that passed itself off as an interview, and twisting the Pope's words into a bash on conservatives. It is not unreasonable to expect Arrarás' participation in this debate to skew along those same lines.
MARIA CELESTE ARRARAS, CO-ANCHOR, TELEMUNDO: I will be there as part of this historic event where you will hear in Spanish all the answers of the candidates to all the topics that matter to our community.
If past is prologue, expect Arrarás' role to be limited to immigration questioner, which can only serve to reinforce the false notion of the Hispanic one-issue monolith. Passive acceptance of this role would actually be detrimental to the community that Arrarás is trying to serve. We can only hope her role is extended beyond that, biases notwithstanding (at worst, she will add to the diversity of bad questioners that have already participated in GOP debates).
Candidates would be well advised to get their immigration points out ahead of time, before Arrarás gets any questions in. Expect such questions to be reliably framed from the left-media's perspective, with a focus on the recent DHS raids, DAPA/DACA, an attempt to hang Donald Trump's controversial statements on the other leading candidates, and an attempt to extract a Republican high-bidder on amnesty (I have an idea of who that high-bidder will be, but would like to get your takes in the comments section).
Viewers should not expect Arrarás to present any question from a law-and-order or constitutional perspective, which is unfortunate given the stakes in this election.
It's within this context that MRC's Tell The Truth! 2016 campaign will also be present in Houston. In fact, bilingual signage targetting the chronically left-leaning national Spanish-language media will be deployed there for the first time. To learn more about Tell The Truth! 2016, click on the icon below.
