I was not so much shocked when I saw one of Jose Diaz Balart's guests this Sunday morning, but actually saddened for the Latino community in knowing that there was no way I was going to be able to counter the misinformation being shoved down the Spanish Language speaker's throat on Balart's Sunday morning news show called Enfoque, which airs on Telemundo at 11:00 EST. I have slowly watched Telemundo's star anchor dig further and further into the cesspool of Spanish speaking Republican operatives.
I've watched his interviews with old warhorses like John McCain (R-AZ) in which he allows them to carry on with their neocon monologue. On the Immigration topic I've watched him bring some of Speaker Boehner's lap dogs to the show, like Raul Labrador (R-IA), an Immigration Attorney by profession, conveniently turned Republican politician. He also brought his own brother, Mario Diaz Balart (R-FL) whom he did not personally interview, but who was given the red carpet welcome by an alternate anchor on his show and was tendered an open mic and camera to misinform the Spanish speaking community on the GOP's "true desire" to help Immigrants. Diaz Balart's brother further expressed his absolute frustration at this President's refusal to act on stopping deportations and the separation of families. Ironically it's Diaz Balart's brother who forms part of the U.S. House of Representatives who has insisted on blocking Immigration Reform and who has tendered as an only solution, piecemeal legislation that would address stepped up enforcement of existing Immigration laws while increasing border security with the creation of a border commission that would give the green light on whether or not the border is sufficiently secure to allow Immigrants to fully come out of the shadows. Unfortunately that commission would be comprised of Republican border governors who receive Federal subsidies and who would never agree that the border is in fact secure.
Diaz Balart's facilitation of misinformation is damaging to the Spanish language speaking community. They have very few other sources of information and none are promoted and marketed as heavily and prominently as Telemundo and Univision are within the Spanish language communities. That fact alone should be a great burden for these media monsters. They have an absolute duty to fully disclose and to allow a counter argument to topics presented by these Spanish language news outlets. This is primarily absent on the news casts and on their Sunday News Shows.
As if this wasn't enough, now Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart brings a Koch funded Republican operative to bash The Afforable Care Act and to join in with National Council of La Raza's Clarissa Martinez in bashing the current administration and in particular President Obama on Immigration. Martinez and the Koch Brothers funded Republican operative Dan Garza from The Libre Initiative continued the perpetuation of lies and allegations that this President has deported nearly two million undocumented Immigrants without a criminal record. The actual facts as reported by the Pew Hispanic Research Center based on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) statistics, show the majority of those deported had criminal records or formed part of a great percentage that were caught at the border and had not established any roots in the United States. What was even sadder is watching the spokesperson for National Council of La Raza Clarissa Martinez sharing the stage with, agreeing with, and quoting a Koch Brothers operative, without even realizing she was sharing the stage with an Obama hater and someone who forms part of a movement that would just as soon have her working the fields barefooted than allow her to live the American Dream as a Latina as she has successfully done.
Jose Diaz Balart's latest move introduces a dangerous precedent with a dangerous factor, a Spanish speaking snake oil salesman heavily funded by the Koch network to promote anti-Obama care sentiment and to recruit Spanish speakers in droves to the Republican party.
Warning to the Spanish Language Community! You have now been targeted by big money!
As I watched Clarissa Martinez from the National Council of La Raza, an organization that calls themselves the largest Latino Advocacy organization in the nation, and Dan Garza from The Libre Initiative work in tandem to bash our President on a host of issues, I realized what I was observing, the fleecing of our Spanish language community facilitated by what appears to be a Republican anchor, A Koch funded Republican operative and an Immigrant "advocate" oblivious as to who she's agreeing with and more importantly, oblivious that she was being used for the furtherance of the Republican/Koch agenda.
I have included a diagram of the Koch Brothers Network which shows The Libre Initiative as a Koch funded operation.
