Demanding more From Spanish Radio -- And Other Stuff

Should Spanish-language radio be held to the same content standards as the English stuff?

That's the question raised by my piece Wednesday about La Nueva, Tampa's first Spanish-language radio station, and it's conflict with a listener over anti-gay statements.

Birgit Van Hout, executive director of Community Tampa Bay, says she heard a caller express hatred for gays, followed by the host saying "let's exterminate them all" and the sound of a machine gun going off. Station officials say she misheard: the bit, in which people call in to express their hatred for someone or something that is then put against el paredon (the wall facing a firing squad), featured a guy calling in to diss a friend.

But they also admit using the word maricon in broadcasts -- the equivalent of the three-letter f-word to describe gay people -- and other Hispanic listeners have told me the hyper-macho dialogue, willingness to diss other Hispanic groups and general crudity keeps them from listening to the morning show.

The station's program director first offered to send me an audio clip of the exchange, but his corporate masters nixed the idea in their ultimate wisdom (I'm always intrigued by the ways in which corporate executives make news stories much worse by shutting down dialogue). I got the feeling that, because their show isn't nearly as raunchy as programs in Miami and New York, the folks at La Nueva are having trouble understanding what all the fuss is about.

FCC-wise, Spanish stations get content-based fines mostly for the pranks they play. An Orlando station got fined for announcing a call-in contest with a $1,000 prize and then giving out the phone number of its competitor. And a Miami station bluffed its way through Cuban officials to get Fidel Castro on the phone, by pretending to represent Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (it's illegal to broadcast someone without their knowledge, even a ruthless Latin American dictator).

But proponents say that's just the culture of Latin America coming out over the radio -- macho, highly sexual and in-your-face crude. What do you think?

Fox News and TV Critics: A Dysfunctional Relationship

I like Glenn Garvin, the Miami Herald's award-winning TV critic -- even though he took a job I turned down many years ago. But just as I lean left in my critical analyses -- and have admitted so many times in print -- Glenn is a conservative dude who doesn't hide his love for Fox News and suspicion of his colleagues' liberal leanings.

So it was no surprise to me that he would write a tartly appreciative piece on Fox News chief Roger Ailes' appearance at the TV Critics Press tour in California a few days ago, led by the observation that 2/3rds of the 150 critics there walked out on his presentation.

Frankly, I found that surprising. Even if they don't like Fox News so much, critics there are generally starved for real news, and Ailes makes that happen every time he opens his mouth. I've taken on Fox News and its approach as much as anyone, and I would have been there with bells on. My suspicions were confimed by a note from Oregonian critic Peter Ames Carlin, who said Garvin was mistaken and many critics attended the session.

Regardless, the spat reminded me of Fox News' odd relationship with the press, often occasioned by its bare-knuckle public relations style. I still remember the first press tour presentation by Fox I attended, in which Bill O'Reilly  cowed a roomful of critics with a liberal bias shtick that hadn't yet become shopworn. Back then, Fox's style was to alternate carrot and stick like an abusive spouse -- calling critics at regional papers like me whenever we mentioned Fox (they noticed us!) but never hesitating to give us a hard time if we criticized them or -- and this really snarks them off -- complimented CNN.

Most TV outlets' public relations people accept that pro critics will write some stories they don't like, and maintain the relationship anyway. Not Fox. For them, every story counts, and the worst sins are to ignore them or compliment a competitor.

That's why it was especially funny to see Ailes complaining about rival Keith Olbermann throwing a Nazi salute while wearing an O'Reilly mask. As AP noted, Fox News flacks hardly mince words when speaking about their competition -- though they often wish them well. To wit.

On Olbermann: "We hope he enjoys his paranoid view from the bottom of the ratings ladder" and "A train wreck waiting to happen."

On CNN founder Ted Turner: "Ted is understandably bitter, having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind."

On Goerge Clooney: "It's obvious he needs publicity, considering his recent string of failures."

True enough, I've been on the receiving end of many a harangue by the Fox News pr people, and I'll admit my last conversation with one of them ended with a slammed-down telephone. But I think their gloves-off style has begun to finally wear on some critics, who refuse to be intimidated or insulted while trying to do their jobs.

I'm sure they'll be calling soon to wish me well writing for the occupants of God's waiting room.

Comments

[mr cynical]

one suspects that the real goal of the foxy fox pr people is not actually to cow critics out in hinterlands like the bay area, but to generate yet more heat for their client: fox news.thus, every time a flak calls up someone like you, it has the potential to generate a story, present or future, probably critical of fox. that story, in turn, fires up the real target: viewers who love fox. and the unspoken hope is that stories critical of fox will be seen by the more rube-like readers as typical left-wing press blather, thus tipping a few more neutral viewers over to fox. get it?

[Eric Deggans]

Don't give them that much credit. As someone who has been on the receiving end of their BS for years, it's a very simple game that worked for them well until a few years ago.They intimidate writers to make them think twice about saying anything negative about them -- both because they want access to fox's popular personalities and because they don't want to be accused of bias.It's why their transparent rightward orientation wasn't seriously challenged for years as they hid behind the slogan fair and balanced. But, as I noted before, people are getting tired of the games and their enemies list is getting a little too long...

[Anonymous]

Look out FNC, Deggans says people are tired of your games. Next ratings period olbermann may come within 2 million viewers of O'Reilly if you're not careful.

[Eric Deggans]

The subject was journalists, Anonymous, not aggregate viewers. Try to keep up with the conversation, dude...

[Anonymous]

Well who cares about whiny leftist journalists? You guys have been spinning the news for years while enjoying a virtual monopoly. Now you want to piss and moan because there's a counterspin. Get over it.

[Joel]

Assuming the homophobic comments were legit, claiming that it's just Latin American culture coming through the radio is absurd. There's absolutely no denying that homophobia and other anti-social behavior is a problem in Hispanic culture - it's pretty certain that those attitudes are more prevalent and in some ways more acceptable in Hispanic culture than in US culture. But speaking as a Hispanic person, I'll have no part of the opinion that homophobia IS Latin American culture - that has nothing to do with who I am. All that being said culture shouldn't enter into the FCC rules. A different language should not mean a different set of standards. Perhaps the problem is that the FCC has no standard for which Spanish curse words should fly and which shouldn't. If that's the case, considering the large number of Spanish stations in the country, maybe the FCC SHOULD draw up standards for Spanish stations, though ones based strongly and fairly on those for English stations.

[Anonymous]

The spats between FNC and its critics reminds me of something I saw a while back. It's Article 2 of the "Bill of No Rights." "You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of insensitive clods, idiots, and raving lunatics, and probably always will be." This could apply to the left, as well as to the right.Ken