When social media censored the New York Post's Hunter Biden laptop scoop and locked the Post out of its account for six weeks, we didn't hear much support from the rest of the mainstream media. NPR even put out a statement explaining why you wouldn't be hearing about the laptop on NPR; because it was a "distraction."
Professional journalists were our best guard against disinformation, such as the COVID lab leak theory, Donald Trump's secret back-end connection to a Russian bank, or Biden's laptop. And with the layoff of Latino journalists at the Los Angeles Times, were in danger of being overcome with disinformation in an important election year.
NBC News LATINO reports:
As Covid ravaged the country, Los Angeles Times opinion writer Jean Guerrero saw firsthand how outrageous claims of cures on social media were being passed around Latino families by relatives. Her father had sent her one on YouTube.
Guerrero used the experience with her father to blast the spread of Covid disinformation among Latinos in a May 2021 column in the prominent national newspaper.
But on Tuesday, Guerrero, the newspaper's only Latina opinion columnist, got a layoff notice, one of the many Hispanic and other journalists of color among the 115 newsroom staffers that the outlet chopped.
Oh, we know Jean Guerrero … she's the opinion columnist who went on CNN's "Reliable Sources" and said then-gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder held a "white supremacist worldview" and was a "real danger to communities of color."
NBC News LATINO reports that "a 2021 Nielsen study found Latinos are more likely to consume and share misinformation." Politico reported back in 2021 that Spanish-language radio stations in Florida were part of an astroturf campaign to make Vice President Kamala Harris look incompetent.
That's why it's so important that NBC News has set up umbrellas like NBC NEWS LATINO, NBC News BLK, and NBC News OUT — so those communities have someone they can trust.
DEI didn't seem to have anyone at the Los Angeles Times, so what good is it?