I'm not at all surprised that the Journal Star received letters complaining about the Spanish language article they printed about the Maria Rosario Moreno murder. I am, however, disappointed in the level of pig-headedness displayed by the letter writers. The Journal Star printed one Spanish language article for a very specific purpose. That's hardly a sign that the evil brown-skinned horde is chipping away at our precious English language. It's certainly no reason to go into nativist paranoia mode.
Besides, is the language of one article really the thing anybody ought to get jumpy over in this story? A woman is dead. How about a little outrage over that?
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I am very saddened that so many folks are bothered by this. The article was printed twice that day in two languages.
In my experience, a portion of the local Anglo population will be threatened by any attempt by the newspaper to reach out to the Hispanic population.
I applaud the bi-lingual effort by the Journal Star.
I think the Journal Star should create an independent Spanish-language newspaper rather than attempt to integrate Spanish into the Journal Star. The Hispanic population will feel more ownership in the new publication and it won’t use up the paper’s limited news hole by offering dual-language articles.
They could still use Journal Star news copy, just run them in Spanish in the new publication.
@foxspit: They do have a Spanish language newspaper. It’s called Hispanos Unidos. Problem is, it isn’t printed very often (once a week or two?). LJS editor Kathleen Rutledge explained that the LJS felt it was important to get accurate information out immediately since a lot of false rumors (e.g. that the murderer was still on the loose) were going around the Latino population.
I am kinda shocked that there are not more comments on the LJS site. And all are positive.
my fav:
” give me your tried, your poor, your English speaking, Christian, meat packing huddled masses “
I just cannot believe that these trivial wedge issues are a tool of the fear mongers to build up their base, and that it works so well.
Any fan of mine here (kidding) will know that I am not a huge proponent of the LJS. BUT - I totally think this was an okay move, and it is a boneheaded thing to bitch about.
No words… Full of anger. I’ll save my vitriol and curses for elsewhere.
I didn’t see the Spanish article, but I did see Rutledge’s explanation. (Every time I see her face next to a story I know it must be good). I would have rather her not said anything about it. Her explaining why they wrote the article in Spanish legitimized the people who complained about it.
I wish these people would boycott all products with Spanish on them. Then Wal-Mart would be a much more pleasant shopping experience and I would consider going there again.
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