HOW ABOUT SAVVY PANDERING? :

GOP foray into Spanish TV: savvy or pandering? (Todd Wilkinson, July 16, 2002, The Christian Science Monitor)

[T]he creator of "Abriendo Caminos" isn't a major network, or CNN, or PBS. This half-hour "news magazine" is produced inside the plush studios of GOP-TV in Washington.

It is paid political programming broadcast once a month in Spanish to television stations that reach potentially millions of Hispanic viewers in select cities. Debuting in May, the half-hour program is part of an ambitious $1 million bid by the Republican National Committee (Comite Nacional Republicano) to woo ambivalent Hispanic Democrats and appeal to unregistered voters.

It represents the rise of a new kind of political programming. Yet behind the initiative lies an enduring question about messages targeted at specific ethnic groups: Will it will be viewed as effective communication or a form of pandering?

Certainly, Republicans have good reason to try something new. Americans of Latino heritage represent the nation's fastest-growing voting bloc. Estimates put the number of voting-age Latinos at 23 million nationwide.

I don't get the supposed dichotomy here. Suppose the GOP gets a reputation for pandering to the desires of Hispanic voters, how's that hurt? And suppose Hispanics figure out that they can play Democrats and Republicans off against each other if they just put their vote up for grabs, instead of voting always for Democrats, which has been disastrous for black; how's that bad for Hispanics? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 16, 2002 9:59 AM