Ethnic Economics (Ethnicomics?)

Several days ago I commented on an article in the Washington Post about Democrats opposing Univision’s attempted merger with the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation. The article quoted a lobbyist who feared that “the merger would allow Republicans unfettered access to Latinos.” Seconding that interpretation of the opposition is a recent article in Hispanic Business.

Some 20 top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle, D-S.D., and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Edward Kennedy are urging FCC Chairman Michael Powell to block the Univision deal.

The politicians are protesting concentration of the media ownership, but several Democrats say it’s also part of a larger battle to keep Republican executives … from holding too much influence over Hispanic news.”

Not only are the Democrats concerned that the current President of Univision is not Hispanic, but he has even had the nerve to contribute to Republicans.

Hispanic Business also reported in the same article that “[t]he latest salvo came yesterday [May 27] in a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal placed by Univision” responding to accusations that it is not sufficiently Hispanic.

I did not see that ad and can’t find it online, but I did see what must be same full page ad: an “Open Letter from Henry Cisneros” that appeared in the Washington Post on the same day. (It took up all of p. A16, May 27, 2003.)

Cisneros, a very appealing rising Democratic Hispanic star until he stumbled over some self-induced Clintonian problems, was president of Univision from 1997 to 2000. With Democrats playing the race/ethnic card with increasing frequency and vehemence, the debate over the Univision merger is emblematic of just how depressing our racial and ethnic politics has become, and the Cisneros “Open Letter” is a dismal example of just how low we’ve sunk. (If anyone finds it online, please send me the cite.) Not, I hasten to add, only because of Cisneros’s own argument, but also because of what he was forced to argue about.

First, Cisneros is forced to defend the current Univision president, Jerry Perenchio, against the accusation that he is … Italian American. Well, that’s true, Cisneros admits, but then replies in Univision’s defense that “the number two Hispanic network, Telemundo, is owned by General Electric.” And, he continues:

The fact is that half of the Board of Directors of Univision is composed of Hispanics, and Hispanics fill the vast majority of key management positions. Hispanics now serve as President of the Network; President of Programming; President of the Music Group; President of Univision Online; managers of virtually all of the Univision stations, including more Latina station managers than any other U.S. media company. Eighty percent of Univision’s employees are Hispanic. Univision is a Hispanic company in its management, in its programming, in its community service, and in its importance in the lives of Hispanics across the nation every day.

Whew! That’s so convincing it almost convinces me that the EEOC or the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Dept. or perhaps the FCC should immediately launch an investigation of Univision for anti-Anglo/black/Asian discrimination.

So, now we’ve reached a point where leading Democrats oppose a merger at least in part — and apparently in large part — on ethnic and not economic grounds. Well, why not? We have ethnic politics so we may as well have ethnic economics. Ethnicomics.

Cisneros parading the Hispanic credentials of Univision calls to mind the movie studios responding to McCarthyism by parading their Americanism. Maybe next we’ll have ethnic loyalty oaths. If that sounds far-fetched, recall (you can refresh your memory here) that a number of those opposing Univision also have accused Miguel Estrada of not being “authentically Hispanic.”