LULAC, National Council of La Raza, "liberals", and the Fairness Doctrine

When the left-wing support for free speech meets racial power groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Council of La Raza, watch out. Consider:

The nation's largest Hispanic advocacy group says it must come up with a strategy to combat "a wave of hate" its leaders say came from talk radio's efforts to sink the Senate's immigration bill.

"That had an extraordinary impact in the Senate, and as a nation, I don't think we should be comfortable with the fact that the United States Senate responded to what was largely a wave of hate," Cecilia Munoz, the National Council of La Raza's senior vice president for research, advocacy and legislation, told The Washington Times after meeting with NCLR affiliates to talk about a new strategy.

While they don't appear to have specifically come out for the Fairness Doctrine, a couple weeks before that event, Laura Elizabeth Morales of the Young Conservatives of Texas said:

I talked with a spokesperson from the National Council on La Raza. When discussing the right wing's alleged anti-immigrant rhetoric she said:

"[The Fairness Doctrine] is a partial solution."

And:

Domingo Garcia, the national co-chairman of the civil rights commission of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), announced at the group's annual convention last week that he has asked U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to introduce legislation to re-regulate broadcasters through the "Fairness Doctrine."

On a related note, from "Some in Congress pushing for reinstatement of Fairness Doctrine" (link):

"These are public airwaves and the public should be entitled to a fair presentation," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who is considering whether the Fairness Doctrine should be restored... in January, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who is running for president, announced that with Democrats back in the House majority, he planned to hold hearings on reviving the policy because media consolidation has made it harder for some voices to be heard... "Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with the problem," said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). And Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said they favored restoring the Fairness Doctrine... Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.) said the rest of the media presented a balanced view of controversial issues, and the Fairness Doctrine would simply reimpose that requirement on talk radio... Hinchey is readying legislation to reinstitute the doctrine as part of a broad package of media ownership reforms.

Immigration2007a · Tue, 07/24/2007 - 19:41 · · Importance: 1