Before we begin this piece, we will say this about the story of Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett and his admission that he can’t find qualified Latinos to work in his office or his administration. The story is starting to go viral, with posts in Think Progress and the HuffPost, yet both these outlets did a very poor job in crediting the Philadelphia newspaper, Al Día News, which actually held the forum with Corbett and asked the governor the question about the Latino vote. Al Día even posted the video up on YouTube and clearly identified itself as the newspaper that ran the forum and had Corbett as a guest.
ThinkProgress didn’t even give Al Día credit for the story until the Rebels tweeted both the Think Progress Twitter account and its main editor’s Twitter about why they missed the original credit:
Dear @thinkprogress you should do the right thing and credit @aldianews for your story ab
out PA Gov and Latinos— Latino Rebels (@latinorebels) May 22, 2013
To @juddlegum & @okiecaitlin: @thinkprogress should do the right thing and credit @aldianews for your story about PA Gov and Latinos
— Latino Rebels (@latinorebels) May 22, 2013
@latinorebels @okiecaitlin @thinkprogress @aldianews We just did!
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 22, 2013
@juddlegum awesome! thanks! It is a great story, much appreciated @okiecaitlin @thinkprogress @aldianews
— Latino Rebels (@latinorebels) May 22, 2013
The final “credit” was just a link next to the video. The original story didn’t even have the link and didn’t even report that Al Día was running the forum.
Screen Grab from Think Progress
This is how Think Progress started the story:
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) brushed away a question about Latinos working in his administration during a roundtable discussion at The Union League in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, telling the moderator, “If you can find us one let me know?”
MODERATOR: Do you have staff members that are Latino?
CORBETT: No, we do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.
MODERATOR: I am sure that there are Latinos that…
CORBETT: Do any of you want to come to Harrisburg? See?!
The HuffPost piece wasn’t as egregious as the Think Progress story, but it still started its story like this:
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) raised eyebrows last week with his answers during a roundtable discussion hosted by a Spanish-language newspaper in Philadelphia.
The story not only failed to identify the “Spanish-language newspaper in Philadelphia,” but it didn’t even link to Al Día’s site, instead linking back to Think Progress. Maybe these two outlets should have read what Fox News Latino wrote today about the story:
Asked at a political forum by Spanish-language newspaper, Al Día News, about Latinos on his staff, the governor said: “We do not have any staff members in there. If you can find us one, please let me know.”
When the moderator, the paper’s managing editor, Sabrina Vourvoulias, responded to his request for potential staffers by saying “I am sure that there are Latinos that …” Corbett cut her off.
The journalistic disrespect caused Vourvoulias to tweet this yesterday after Think Progress had to fix its story, which by the way, wasn’t that big of a fix (even though they TP responded to our tweets and we thanked them):
No respect for news organizations & blogs who treat Latino press as second class citizens. @thinkprogress @latinorebels
— Sabrina Vourvoulias (@followthelede) May 22, 2013
Yes, Vourvoulias was the MODERATOR in the Think Progress transcript. Let’s be clear here: Al Día ran a forum with the governor of Pennsylvania. It is their story, and everyone else in media should respect and celebrate that.
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