Twelve Reasons Fox Will Have A Hard Time Convincing Latinos The Network Cares About Hispanic Heritage

Every year from September 15 to October 15, people in the United States celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, honoring the contributions of the Hispanic community and celebrating its history, heritage, and culture. Fox News in the past has paid lip service to Hispanic Heritage Month, but the network has consistently failed to curb its typical disparaging and vitriolic rhetoric against this community, making any segment aired to honor Latinos read like a transparent PR ploy.

Fox News has also reliably defended Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s attacks on Latinos, including his claims that Mexican immigrants are criminals and that a judge of Mexican heritage could not impartially preside over a lawsuit against him. And the network regularly features anti-immigrant programming and excludes Latino voices.

Here are 12 reasons Fox News will have a hard time convincing anyone that the network genuinely cares about honoring Latinos during Hispanic Heritage month:

1. Fox’s Sean Hannity: “I Agree With Mr. Trump” That Mexicans Are Criminals.

Sean Hannity defended Trump’s assertion that Mexico is sending “rapists” and “criminals” to the U.S. during a June 29, 2015, panel discussion. Hannity said, "I agree with Mr. Trump. As somebody who has been down to the border 11 times, I have seen the drug warehouses, I was there when criminals were arrested, I know the human trafficking side and the impact on our educational system, criminal justice system, et cetera -- our health care system.

2. Fox's Brian Kilmeade Has Repeatedly Criticized Use Of Spanish Language.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said, “I agree with Donald Trump” after Trump criticized presidential candidate Jeb Bush's use of Spanish, saying that when “the Spanish reporters” speak to Latino athletes in Spanish, “we sit around and go, ‘What country are we in?’” Kilmeade also lashed out at Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine for speaking Spanish, saying, “Pick a language. … Don’t show off. Nobody thinks you’re Hispanic.” According to research from Pew, 95 percent of Latinos believe that it’s important for future generations to speak Spanish and believe the language “is an important part of Latino culture and identity.”

3. Fox Chose Not To Air The Speeches By Latinas In Favor Of Immigration Reform During The Democratic National Convention.

On July 25, the Democratic National Convention featured a speech by 11-year-old Karla Ortiz, an 11-year-old American citizen who relayed her fears that her undocumented parents may be deported. Ortiz said, “I’m scared that at any moment my mom and my dad will be forced to leave.” Ortiz also translated for her mother, Francisca, who said that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will fight for people like her. On the same night, DREAMer Astrid Silva -- who came into the country undocumented but whose deportation was deferred under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program -- described growing up in the United States without legal status. Fox chose not to show either of the speeches.

4. Fox Marginalized Hispanic Voices In Discussions Of The Orlando Massacre, Even Though A Majority Of The Victims Were Latinos.

A Media Matters study of the three major cable news networks’ coverage of the massacre that took place in an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, FL, on June 12 found that Fox featured the least diverse guests discussing the attack. Out of a total of 80 guests invited to comment on the massacre during the period analyzed, only 6 percent were Hispanic, even though the tragic events disproportionately affected the Latino community.

5. Fox’s Sunday Political News Show Did Not Host A Latina Guest For Three Years.

A 2016 Media Matters study of guest appearances on the five network and cable Sunday morning political shows found that Fox’s show, Fox News Sunday, did not host a single Latina in three years. Based on the latest U.S. Census data, Latinas make up 9 percent of the general population in the U.S. Sunday political talk shows often set the media and political agenda, and Fox did not see fit to include Latina voices in that process, even though 2015 saw numerous pressing policy issues that disproportionately affect them, such as attempts to block access to reproductive health services, efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, and continued wage gaps between genders.

6. Fox Analyst Lectured Young Latino Protesters On How To Protest Like Americans.

While appearing on the May 3 edition of Fox & Friends, legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. said young Latinos protesting outside of a Trump rally “should be suffused with the American ethic,” adding that he’d like to see “young Hispanic-American boys and girls holding the American flag” instead of Mexican flags, because “there needs to be an understanding that they are Americans now. They need to act as such.”

7. Fox Host Tucker Carlson Told A Hispanic Attorney, “I’m Just Going To Speak Really Slowly So You Get This.”

While discussing college tuition at New Mexico State University for Mexican students on the July 1 edition of Fox & Friends, host Tucker Carlson said to immigration attorney and activist Francisco Hernandez, “Mr. Hernandez, I’m just going to speak really slowly so you get this.”

8. Fox’s Neil Cavuto Asked Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio For Advice On Republican Latino Outreach.

While hosting his show Cavuto: Coast to Coast on Fox Business Network, Neil Cavuto asked Sheriff Joe Arpaio to offer advice to Republicans on Latino outreach, saying, “How would you advise them to win them over?” Arpaio’s staunch anti-immigrant stance has earned him the title of “the most hated man in the Hispanic community.”

9. Fox’s Tucker Carlson Called Hispanic Journalistic Association “A Little Odd.”

While hosting Fox & Friends Saturday, Tucker Carlson said the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) were “a little odd” and questioned why journalists should “coalesce around a racial identity.”

10. Fox’s Bill O’Reilly Joined Trump In Suggesting Judge Overseeing Trump University Case Should Recuse Himself Due To His Ethnicity.

Fox’s Bill O’Reilly agreed with Trump’s statement that federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel -- who is overseeing the Trump University case -- could not objectively do his job because of his Hispanic ethnicity. During his June 7 show on Fox, The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly suggested that Trump’s “strong stand against illegal immigration” and “border wall” were valid reasons to believe a Hispanic judge could be biased against him.

11. Fox Was The Only Cable News Network To Ignore The Racist Attacks Trump Supporters Launched Against A Hispanic Journalist.

On September 12, Cleveland.com’s senior political writer Henry Gomez reported on the racist “vitriol” he has fielded while covering the 2016 presidential election, writing that most attacks were “parroting a lot of Donald Trump’s greatest hits.” Both CNN and MSNBC invited Gomez on as a guest to share his experience on September 13, yet Fox ignored his story.

12. Fox’s Sean Hannity Joined Trump In Anti-Immigrant Fearmongering For Two Hours Of His Show.

Sean Hannity hosted a town hall for Trump devoted to anti-immigrant fearmongering, and he dedicated two hours of his prime-time show Hannity on August 23 and 24 to airing it in full. The town hall served as an immigrant-bashing forum during which Hannity misinformed on crime and immigration and fearmongered about the “absolutely staggering” effects of undocumented immigration on the U.S. According to Pew, a large percentage of the undocumented population is comprised of Latinos.