Latino journalist layoffs threaten coverage of 2024 election disinformation targeting Hispanics
Job cuts of Hispanic journalists at the L.A. Times and other newsrooms raise worries of fewer watchdogs calling out misinformation and fake content aimed at Latinos.
As Covid ravaged the country, Los Angeles Times opinion writer Jean Guerrero saw firsthand how outrageous claims of cures on social media were being passed around Latino families by relatives. Her father had sent her one on YouTube.
Guerrero used the experience with her father to blast the spread of Covid disinformation among Latinos in a May 2021 column in the prominent national newspaper.
But on Tuesday, Guerrero, the newspaper's only Latina opinion columnist, got a layoff notice, one of the many Hispanic and other journalists of color among the 115 newsroom staffers that the outlet chopped.
Guerrero said she's unhappy that she and others have lost their jobs. But she's also concerned about the timing.
The layoffs, along with thousands of others at news outlets last year and the beginning of this year, are happening in an election year full of red flags on the precarious state of democratic norms and amid warnings of a rise in disinformation.
Rating: 5