Jose Diaz-Balart out at MSNBC? The NHLA protests
By Victor Landa, NewsTaco
Speculation that Jose Diaz-Balart, one of the few national-level, big media talk show hosts, will be losing his post on MSNBC has sparked a quick reaction from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA).
[pullquote]It’s not that MSNBC is the catch-all of anything. In fact, MSNBC is a collateral target. The central issue is the lack of Latinos on political talk shows, either as hosts or as guests.[/pullquote]The online media magazine Mediaite reported that the network’s flagship program, MorningJoe, would be expanded to 4 morning hours – from 6am to 10am ET. The problem for Diaz-Balart is that his show runs from 9am to 11am. According to the report Morning Joe will be followed at 10 am by Tamron Hall. So that would leave Diaz-Balart out.
But on a later report, Mediate updated the information to say that Diaz-Balart’s program would be reduced to one hour, from 10am to 11am.
The NHLA sent a letter addressed to Andrew Lack, Chairman of NBC and MSNBC, and Phil Griffin, President of the networks, in which it called-out the reported decision.
It reads in part:
“Since MSNBC’s launch in 1996, Jose Diaz Balart has been the first and only Latino anchor on your network. Balart covers topics of concern and interest to the Latino community that no other news organization or MSNBC program covers.
NHLA, which is composed of 40 preeminent national Latino organizations strongly opposes the type of programming restructuring reported by Mediate. In light of our recent meeting where we were assured that more Latino representation would be a priority for the network, any changes to minimize or eliminate Jose Diaz Balart’s two-hour show will be met with strong organizational opposition.”
This is interesting. It’s not that MSNBC is the catch-all of anything. In fact, MSNBC is a collateral target. The central issue is the lack of Latinos on political talk shows, either as hosts or as guests.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]Latinos should be talk show hosts because they deserve to be there, not because of their culture.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]It’s a double-edged issue. Many Latinos like to criticize the punditry, but we also want to see Latinos among them. That’s what the letter is about, I think.
It also brings up the idea of having Latinos in specific places for Latinos’s sake. We don’t want that either, do we?
Latinos should be talk show hosts because they deserve to be there, not because of their culture. And the bottom-line is that MSNBC is a business whose leaders will make business decisions, correct or not.
So this stacks a number of assumption: Are Latinos good business for MSNBC? Is Jose Diaz-Balart a Latino viewer draw? Is it more than just about the Latino market?
NHLA leaders say they’d like to meet with NBC Chairman Lack and President Griffin. And they left a number, in case they want to call.
We’ll see what happens.
[Photo courtesy of MSNBC]
