RNC Ban Stiffs Latino Viewers, Too

I guess you all heard that the Republican National Committee voted on Friday to exclude CNN and MSNBC from the 2016 Republican Primary debates.

The Republican National Committee formally decided Friday not to partner with CNN and NBC News for any presidential primary debates during the 2016 election cycle, a rebuke of the networks’ plans to air programs about Hillary Rodham Clinton and an attempt to seize more control of a crucial element of modern-day campaigns.

Mostly, they don’t to want too many opportunities to embarrass themselves on live TV. In the process, though, the Republicans also make sure that the debates don’t make it on to CNN and NBC’s Spanish-speaking viewers.

The ban on CNN and NBC extends to their Spanish-language networks, CNN en Espanol and Telemundo, leaving the party with only one major Spanish-language broadcaster, Univision, to partner with on officially sanctioned debates.

Of course, the Republicans have had their issues with Univision, too.

According to some background information, Telemundo reaches 94% of US Hispanic viewers, while CNN En Español reaches around 7 million households.

Simply avoiding the Latino electorate does not make for a good outreach program. And if they think that Latinos not watching their Tea Party debate antics leaves Latinos uneducated as to their policy positions, well, that’s just dumb. Especially when they make it quite clear how they feel about a path to citizenship in the same breath.

The Republican National Committee passed a resolution Friday calling on Congress to pass an immigration reform bill by the end of the year—but it stopped well short of the bipartisan compromise passed by the Senate earlier this year, omitting a “path to citizenship” for any class of illegal immigrant.

Message received, GOP!