A pair of recent stories on NBC's Spanish-language sister network, Telemundo, prove that bias is everywhere and not always limited to the body of a report.
As was reported on several major media outlets, the United States Supreme Court has decided it is appropriate to bar a deported foreign national from re-entry into the United States due to a prior conviction of attempted arson. In Telemundo's reporting of the news, anchor María Celeste Arrarás saw fit to place a neat little bow on the story:
MARÍA CELESTE ARRARÁS, TELEMUNDO ANCHOR: This means that this case establishes a precedent which, going forward, will make it easier to deport immigrants that are not U.S. citizens and have been convicted of state crimes, even if they are minor offenses.
Arrarás' lament is not unique to the media. In fairness, The New York Times used similar language in its own coverage of the story:
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is making it easier for the government to deport or otherwise remove people who are not U.S. citizens if they are convicted of seemingly minor state crimes.
Arrarás, previously known for editorializing after the fact and for slamming conservatives by putting words into the Pope's mouth, bemoans the fact that the court has now set a baseline for deportations, which are anathema to our domestic Spanish-language news media. Such post-facto editorializing leaves bare the advocacy for an open-borders immigration policy above all else.
Missing from Telemundo's coverage is any concern over public safety - let alone any presentation of a viewpoint that emphasizes the need to enforce our laws. Instead, Arrarás frets over whether people can be barred from re-entry due to "minor offenses". Left unanswered is the question of whether attempted arson is really a "minor offense".
Then there's another Telemundo segment titled "ICE On The Prowl". The image at the top of this post was featured as anchor José Díaz-Balart introduced coverage of the arrest of an 18-year-old young man who had illegally entered the United States as an unaccompanied minor last year, just a day after he spoke at an immigration rally in Los Angeles. The text on the image translates to "Migra On The Prowl", and "Migra" is the decades-old slang term for federal immigration authorities, going back to when they were known as the INS and illegal immigrants scrambled at the mere sight of a green van.
The characterization of ICE as "on the prowl" flies in the face of the actual story, which was much more balanced than its featured image would suggest. In fact, the report even featured a quote from the Guatemalan consul in Los Angeles, who stated that the young man should have known better than to speak at an immigration rally when he was someone that was on ICE's priority deportation list.
The U.S. Spanish-language domestic media has often been accused of blatant bias by its advocating for liberal immigration policies. These stories once again go to show that such accusations are not without merit.
