Media Report – February 11, 2011

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LATINO MEDIA REACTION

Response by the Latino media to President Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union speech was, for the most part, a positive one, with headlines such as “Obama pide esfuerzo bipartidista para ganar el futuro,” found in Univisión.com

Univisión and Galavisión offered voice-over translation of the live speech.

As did other print and broadcast media, San Antonio’s weekly La Prensa highlighted a number of issues of greatest concern to the Spanish-speaking community. It stressed, “Immigration reform and the DREAM Act are still priorities of  President Barack Obama, according to statements from the White House,” and continued, “This is the third time that the President defends the need for immigration reform in a speech before Congress.”

With education being at the top of the list as the means to “win the future,” Obama took the opportunity to mention the “hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens.”

He urged Congress to work in harmony in addressing once and for all the issues of illegal immigration and to “stop expelling talented and responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, further enriching this nation.”

In a column syndicated by Hispanic Link News Service, José de la Isla, author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power, saw the President’s comments as “an interesting juxtaposition of student situations.”

“Had the DREAM Act passed, the ‘best and brightest” U.S. resident students it covered already would have been home” de la Isla said.

In Obama’s plan for innovation, research for cleaner energy technologies plays a big role to increase job opportunities and compete with other nations.

As the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, Los Angeles’ La Opinión pointed out, “It’s part of his reformulated economic message in which he looks to prioritize advances of private initiative before big programs of public spending.”

On the other hand, online news Websites such as Vivehoy.com from Los Angeles, and Pontealdia.com from Philadelphia, showed an opposing views with headlines such as “El discurso del Presidente Obama no convence a todos.”

The message was “optimistic but ambiguous,” Nancy Benac of El Diario de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico pointed out.

According to Benac, Obama left many unanswered questions, such as “What’s next in the matter of health? Which is the course in educational and energy matters?” and “How do you improve the employment situation?”

The short mention of immigration reform was seen by many media as simply “not enough,” while others had a more positive reaction to the entire speech.

“His speech touched on many subjects and policy issues of great concern to all Americans and especially the nation’s Hispanics,” said Nattional Council of La Raza CEO Janet Murguía in a blog posted on HispanicTrending.net.

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Editor’s note: This column was previously published on Hispanic Link News Service.

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