Channel 8 anchor in story on trend (Newscasters changing from Anglo to ethnic names)

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 1-27-06 | Norm Clarke

[Nevadan]

KLAS-TV, Channel 8's new anchor, Denise Valdez, was included in a 1996 Los Angeles Times story about a trend among newscasters who changed from Anglo to ethnic names to take advantage of federal affirmative-action rules designed to benefit minorities.

The practice was questioned, the Times said, by news professionals and minority activists, "who argue that it cheapens the concept of affirmative action and raises troubling issues of journalistic ethics."

Valdez, who worked in San Antonio and Dallas before going to KNBC in Los Angeles, acknowledged to the Times that she had changed her last name for professional reasons, saying it was "advantageous in this business."

She said she considers herself part Latina, and "I'm sure I'm one of many people who have done it." She added that it was "not something I want to broadcast to the public."

Valdez, who fills the vacancy left by the death of Polly Gonzalez in a traffic accident, will co-anchor the noon broadcast with Gary Waddell and the 4:30 p.m. newscast with Dave Courvoisier beginning Monday.

Bob Stoldal, vice president of news at KLAS, did not return calls for comment by deadline.

[ccmay]

However, I find it irritating when people are speaking in English and they go out of their way to pronounce, say, "Nicaragua" the way the natives do.

Actually, unless they have a very good ear for languages, they usually get it wrong in the native language as well. It's just preening, self-congratulatory political correctness that sounds comically jarring in both languages. I don't know why the silly leftist twits even bother.

-ccm

[Kenny Bunk]

The "Hispanics," (literally, "something like a Spaniard") have wrongly appropriated this "Latino," thing. They are certainly no more "Latin" than Julius Caesar, or Napoleon, or Musssolini, or Charles Boyer, for that matter. Sure Spaniards are Latins, so are Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, and God help me, French-speaking Belgians and French Canadians.

Even Geraldo Rivera, whose Spanish is atrocious BTW, has some claim, in that his biological mother is Puerto Rican. His father's family are, like John Kerry's, Jewish fom Mittel Europa somewhere. Hungary?

He did get his first gig in NYC by working the name-change Affirmative Action angle. But then, he also married the boss' daughter! The rest is history.

[Skooz]

I'm not talking about legal immigrants from Mexico. I'm talking about illegal immigration.

[Kenny Bunk]

He's Jewish and his name's Jerry Rivers.
....Geraldo's father is Puerto Rican and his mother Jewish.

So I got the facts wrong. I did once work for a newspaper, so that's OK. Ask Geraldo.

[Skooz]

Except most Latin American (it is far more than just Mexico) immigrants aren't like that, they do assimilate.

Well, then they are the ones I was referring to in my first paragraph, not the second.

[real saxophonist]

I used to laugh at a reporter on one of the Denver channels named Laura Gallegos, because she pronounced it 'La-oo-da'.

[Skooz]

Thank you.

[GraniteStateConservative]

They do the same thing with Latin names of people in the news. They'll be reading a straight story with a perfect Midwest non-accent about the Red Sox, for example, and get to "Manny Ramirez" and "David Ortiz" and read those names like they were working for a news station in the Dominican Republic.

[Kenny Bunk]

Hispanic means you have a Spanish-surname. Latino means that your bloodline is from Latin America.

OK, is this the official way to interpret the words of our Gobierno?

If so, this means the King of Spain is neither an "Hispanic" nor a "Latino." Of course this opens up many interesting possibilities: i.e., by your reasoning (or the government's), Montezuma was a "Latino," despite not being an "Hispanic." Ditto, Augusto Pinochet.

Government interpretation aside, for me a "Latin," or "Latino," is always going to be a person whose lineage connects him to the Latin-derived languages and civilization brought to some of his ancestors by the Romans. Of course, this includes Latin Americans.

OTOH, "Hispanic," to me, is always going to mean that your family has some connection, no matter how tenuous, to Spain. And that's in addition to being "Latino."

This comes up in the workplace when HR weinies have to interpret stuff. For example, is my friend Jorge MacKinnon from Buenos Aires entitled to Affirmative Action ... how about my pal from Chile, Mercedes von Benz ... or my buddy from Sao Paolo, Rigoberto Rosenstein?

Javelina, all of this is very amusing, but very serious. It's the world my kids will live in. The fact that people must be chosen ... or not chosen ...by law... by what type of last name they have is fundamentally idiotic and contrary to American principles.

[Flavius Josephus]

Lik Julie Bidwell ==> Julie Banderas on Fox News.

[quark]

NEW CO-ANCHOR FOR MISS "VALDEZ":

[hispanarepublicana]

I was referring to those who flood our borders, refuse to assimilate, refuse to learn the English language, refuse to become Americans, and expect the larger culture to embrace them and accomodate their unwillingness to jump into the melting pot and choose, instead, to overwhelm the larger culture until it disappears and looks like home

I felt sure you were, but it was unclear with all the talk of "Hispanics" rather than "Illegal Aliens." I think the latter rather than the former is a more accurate term for the group you mentioned above.

[Skooz]

A stunning jaw-dropping woman by any other name.........

[Skooz]

Well, unless they are illegals, I just refer to them as Americans.

[Flavius Josephus]

Absolutely, I don't care what Julie calls herself. Lemme tell ya, she looks better without all that Anchor Makeup.

[bwteim]

Just a thin layer of gaberdine...

[Pa' fuera]

I read a good article once that determined that Mexican immigrants were actually assimilating at higher rates historically than other immigrants.

That is deceptive. The rate of assmiliation may be higher, but the problem is the sheer numbers, not the rate (and I suspect there was some PC trickery in the author's intent by using rates of assimilation as the methodology). The problem is that a certain percentage are not assimilating, and, as you say, there is a continual wave. That means the unassimilated Hispanic population will continue to grow in huge numbers. This is where the term cancer is applicable, with this ever-increasing mass of unassimilated immigrants affecting the health of the host. Please let me know if you find the article, I'd like to see it nonetheless. Thanks.