Congressional Hispanic Caucus goes after PBS


Politically balanced or just more bias?
It's pretty much a given that when someone pays the bills, they get some editorial control over how a film is produced and edited. That's part of the free market and I have no objection to that. But this article reveals something very interesting.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has joined a campaign to include Hispanics in an upcoming PBS documentary on World War II, vowing to "put the squeeze" on top public television executives.

"We're very much concerned about the lack of Hispanics in the documentary," Chairman Joe Baca (D-Calif.) said. "That's appalling. That's a no-no to us."

The Hispanic Caucus and other Latino interest groups have been troubled that the 14-hour series -- "The War," by renowned filmmaker Ken Burns and scheduled for broadcast in September -- features no Hispanics, even as it highlights African-Americans and Japanese-Americans. They note that 500,000 Latinos served in World War II.

Since it's inception, public broadcasting has been perceived as somehow more pure and more unbiased than it's commercial alternatives. I think we can safely put that myth to rest.

Now, I am not commenting on what Latinos did during the Second World War, that is not the issue. Editorial control is, especially editorial control by elected politicos.

I'm curious though, if it came down to an issue of time, how do you suppose they would decide which group would be allocated what time? Would that come at the expense of what actually happened? Would battles that "featured" Latinos get more coverage than say, the Battle of the Bulge?

— NeoWayland

Posted: Wed - April 25, 2007 at 01:54 PM  Tag


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