By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 9, 2009
Eddie "Piolín" Sotelo isn't a national media figure, but last month he found himself on the line with President Obama.
"We're so proud," the popular Los Angeles radio host said. "I know you are the president for everybody. . . . Congratulations on your accomplishment. . . . Is there some sort of network we could establish to be in communication regarding the comprehensive immigration reform? And personally, what can I do?"
The conversation last month was one of a spate of interviews that Obama has done with Hispanic media outlets. And the White House plans to do more, even though most of the questioners have been a tad tougher than Sotelo.
"We should have a conscious strategy of communicating through Hispanic media," White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says in an interview. "It's one of the fastest-growing groups in the country. Telemundo is one of the most significant media outlets."
Telemundo apparently agrees. The Spanish-language network was granted an interview in Florida last month, days after complaining about being left out when the president appeared on ABC, CBS and NBC.
Anchor Pedro Sevcec asked Obama about the need to create jobs, especially in construction, an industry "very dear to the Hispanic community." Sevcec also asked whether Latin America would be a priority. And he noted that "our network, Telemundo, is starting a big campaign for Hispanics to make sure that they are counted in the next census. A lot of them are afraid, you know, of participating, because they think, 'I don't have the papers to live in this country.' " The president responded by encouraging Latinos to participate and saying it has been "true historically" that such information has not been shared with immigration authorities.
Sevcec says that his network is on "very good terms" with the White House and that the interview was important because of the millions of Hispanic immigrants living "in the shadows."
"You have the president of the United States saying, 'This is my word.' You can interview people in the census every day, and 100 of those interviews won't carry the power of a president."
Vice President Joe Biden invited three Hispanic journalists to a background briefing last month. One of them, Juan Carlos López, Washington correspondent for CNN en Español, asked him about administration policy toward Cuba. López did the same at an on-the-record sit-down with Emanuel, who said he wanted to be "sensitive" on Cuba policy because "there is a lot of domestic politics" among Cuban Americans. After some wire reports, in López's view, exaggerated that answer, Fidel Castro issued a lengthy, defiant response.
López says White House officials "understand the importance of keeping contact with the Hispanic media," and though he interviewed President George W. Bush twice, "we didn't have this kind of access."
Sevcec reported after an off-the-record briefing with a top official -- he won't confirm it was Biden -- that additional federal aid for ailing Citigroup was imminent. He says administration officials complained about the story, which turned out to be true. "Sometimes you say things they don't like and they let you know that," he says.
The nation's first African American president isn't neglecting black media outlets, either. His first print interview after taking office was with Black Enterprise magazine. Editor in Chief Derek Dingle asked the president about the 12.6 percent unemployment rate among African Americans and how he plans to run the Minority Business Development Agency.
"He wanted to find another way to reach a segment of the population, minority business owners as well as African American professionals," Dingle says. He says the magazine first put the Illinois Democrat on its cover in 2004 and "quite admittedly, we did lean toward Barack Obama" during the presidential campaign, but now it plans to hold the administration accountable.
Obama also spoke to Maryland-based radio host Warren Ballantine, who told the president he was "excited" about the stimulus bill and added: "You are honestly, in my opinion, one of the greatest pieces of black history."
Ballantine says that such interviews are a way for Obama to connect with "the grass roots" and that as a host, he brings "an everyday perspective. A lot of my counterparts in the media who are Caucasian are rich, and they're not in the streets. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity are multimillionaires. I'm a former union worker. I don't make that kind of money."
The risk for Obama would be if he were caught saying something different to the ethnic media than to other news organizations. He went to great lengths, after all, not to run as a minority candidate.
Emanuel says Hispanic outlets cover much of the same ground as other media organizations. "Obviously they have a higher interest in certain issues," he says. "But Hispanics are as interested in the economy as the rest of the country is."
Every administration does some outreach to minority outlets. But by talking to Black Enterprise well before the New York Times, which last week got its first sit-down interview since Election Day, Obama is shaking up the existing media order. Just as he took a question from the Huffington Post -- but not from the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune or Wall Street Journal -- at his first news conference, the president is broadening the circle of access to include more sympathetic outlets.
The challenge for minority journalists is not to slip into the role of cheerleader. If Telemundo is leading a campaign to register more Hispanics in the 2010 Census, viewers may wonder about the objectivity of its news reports on the subject. But most of the interviews so far with the president have been handled with professionalism.
The Telemundo interview did contain one revelation when Obama was asked how much Spanish he speaks.
"Un poquito," he replied -- a little. In fact, Obama admitted, it took him 15 takes to cut a Spanish ad during the campaign.
Failing GradeIt was an eye-popping comment, stripped across the top of the Washington Times front page Friday.
"If you send a kid to [public] school in D.C.," Sen. Jim DeMint was quoted as saying, "chances are that they will end up in a gang rather than graduating."
But the South Carolina Republican, who is fighting to preserve the city's school voucher program, didn't quite say that. Instead, his aides say, he was describing what a mother had told him she feared would happen if the congressionally mandated program allowing some students to attend private schools expired.
"He specifically said in the press conference that this is what parents are telling us," says spokesman Wesley Denton. "That was not reported in the Times. He does not believe these children are doomed to bad outcomes." After DeMint's office complained, the Times removed the story from its Web site and published a correction yesterday.
Executive Editor John Solomon says the paper has apologized to DeMint. He says DeMint's lead quote -- the one that generated the big headline -- "was inaccurately captured by the reporter. The words that were omitted brought important context to the senator's comments and the entire story, and as a result we disserved our readers."
Footnote: The Times plans to announce today that its new editorial page editor is Richard Miniter, a former editorialist for the Wall Street Journal Europe who has been a Hudson Institute fellow. Miniter wrote during the campaign about the "visceral hatred of Sarah Palin flowing from so many in the commentariat," and his books include "Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror."
Obama Adulation Watch"I think I am developing a crush on America's first lady. Michelle Obama is more compelling than her husband. He's good, but she's utterly fascinating. . . . Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend.
". . . Okay, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I'm smitten." -- CNN's Jack Cafferty.
Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."
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