Sheesh, it's been a long time since my last entry. Some people have even become abrasive when questioning me about posting new entries. Goodness. I guess I've got to get to it.
I was going to post some time ago, but so busy with my new job and putting together this big event we had...I never got to. And then, last week I was going to post something with regards to the immigration issue, but I didn't get back to my computer. But I still kinda want to to talk about that and use my little soapbox here to talk about something I was so distraught over.
As a journalist, you're taught to be unbiased. Of course that isn't always the way life hands it to you. You will be biased about certain issues, but you still should report on the news, not on your opinion. Unless of course you're on OP/ED writer. And I could just be talking a bunch of poo, because the person may very well be an OP/ED radio personality. Quien sabe?
All I know is that I was listening to WOAI while I was driving home from my downtown office on Monday, April 10th. It was the day of the marching in support of immigration reform. I wanted to get information about what was happening in downtown SA because of the march and I know that WOAI is the only "news" radio that generally gives up-to-date info. Instead of "late breaking news" reporters reporting from the downtown march, "Prime Time San Antonio w/the Thompson Brothers" was on. I know they, well, at least one of their reporters is a big fan of Rush and Sean Hannity (v. republican). These brothers were talking about the march and they were going to give an example of "one such conversation with a marcher" and went to an audio clip of one of the women who was coordinating the march. She was being interviewed by a male radio personality. (This is where I'm not sure of who is interviewing this woman because I can't seem to locate any archive per se on their website.) In any case, this woman who was being interviewed was obviously from Mexico. She had a very heavy accent and was speaking choppily. This man asked her why they were marching and she said the people of Mexico just want to be able to work and live in the US if they want to try to make something more with their lives. They want to have some dignity and respect when they work and that this land is as much their land as it is Americans. The land was built by immigrants. He said something like what do you mean by that? And she responded, "well, we didn't cross the borders, the borders crossed us." And then he said, what does that mean? And she said something like, this land belonged to Mexico before it belonged to the United States. And then he said so what you're getting at is Mexico taking back Texas right. She said no and that all Mexicans wanted was a better opportunity. And he said, but what you're talking about is the Conquistador and the minutemen and Mexico taking back Texas right? This is the point in the interview when you can obviously tell that this man is obviously a biased journalist and feeding words into the mouth of an obviously unsuspecting female, Mexican volunteer. She began to be absolutely flustered and he took total advantage. She began to try to say something again and he pushed her harder saying, "no, you are talking about Mexico taking back this land. That's what you just said." And then the 2 brothers were back on the air laughing at that poor woman.
Now, I'm not saying the woman shouldn't have been prepared. But you don't know how sneaky the radio personality could have been. Did they invite her on to let the people know what was going on with the march and give information or to get into a battle over politics without her being able to speak well in English and without him being able to speak in Spanish. Not a fair fight if you ask me. And absolutely not right for him to put words into her mouth when all she was trying to do was protect herself. It was exactly what she was talking about. Mexicans receiving a little more dignity and respect and that's absolutely the opposite of what this poohead was giving her and the pooheads laughing at her when their show continued after the clip.
Even if you're on one side or the other, it's never right to push people into the corner and make them spew words out you just shoved in their mouth. It's just not ethically right. But maybe those "journalists" don't necessarilly care about ethics. They just want to make their opinion known and want to laugh at the unsuspecting. I guess that's how one gets on in life sometimes. Me, I'll try to get the whole story across.
