WETA draws fire from Latinos — this time over Latinos ’08
WETA in Washington, D.C., has prompted complaints from Latino leaders and groups for not airing a documentary about politics and voting patterns among Latinos on its premiere date. Phillip Rodriguez’s Latinos ’08 debuted on PBS stations Oct. 8 [2008]. WETA has since scheduled it Oct. 28.Eight stations in other top-10 markets aired the doc on Oct. 8 and a ninth carried it Oct. 12. Stations in more than 40 other cities have aired the doc, according to TRAC Media.
Rodriguez’s production company, City Projects, focused on WETA in an Oct. 10 news release, which offers a testimonial from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros: “Given the pioneering tradition of WETA programs and its proven influence among policy makers and influential Washingtonians,” he said, “the subject of this documentary is precisely the kind of program that should be aired in the nation’s capital.” Cisneros appears in the program.
“WETA is living up to its reputation of being dismissive of Latinos,” said a release from Defend the Honor, a Latino group that led protests against The War, a Ken Burns/WETA production, for its lack of Latino interviews — and prompted last-minute additions.
Carriage reports Rodriguez received Sept. 18 from TRAC’s PubTV Online service indicated that WETA would air the doc on premiere night, but station spokeswoman Mary Stewart says the station had not scheduled it. Viewers alerted to the program by a Washington Post review on Oct. 16 were able to watch it on Maryland Public Television but not on WETA, which aired Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency.
Stewart says PBS called WETA Oct. 8 to bring the documentary to the station’s attention — WETA had not yet seen the program. She says it was a “missed opportunity” but she thinks airing Latinos ’08 just before the election, immediately after Frontline’s “The War Briefing,” will be effective. “It’s a fine program, and it should be on our air,” she says.
Web page posted Oct. 28, 2008
Copyright 2008 by Current LLC