Washington Times
By Stephen Dinan
October 19, 2015
NBC’s
decision to invite Donald Trump to host “Saturday Night Live” next
month has sparked a fierce backlash, but it also shows the rising clout
of the Republican front-runner,
who has become the most dominant presidential candidate in decades.
The
show’s invitation — a major about-face for NBC, which just three month
ago bragged that it had broken all ties with Mr. Trump — has spawned a
“Dump Trump” movement
and is shaping up as a test of Hispanic leaders, who believe they have
growing clout because of the size of their community.
It’s
left NBC in the crossfire — a spokeswoman declined to comment this
weekend — and has once again put Mr. Trump in the fore of the campaign,
where he’s been ever since
he announced his campaign with a speech denouncing illegal immigrants
from Mexico as rapists and vowing to secure the borders and force
illegal immigrants to leave.
America’s
Voice, a leading immigrant rights group, has documented what it says is
an increase in antipathy toward Hispanics in the wake of Mr. Trump’s
pronouncements and
said by having him on their network, NBC is giving a platform to
“hate.”
“On
November 7, it won’t just be Donald Trump on the SNL stage. He will be
standing with all of his supporters who want to purge America of Latinos
and immigrants and
aren’t afraid to use any means necessary,” the group said in a memo.
“Racism is not funny, and NBC should not try to bill it as either comedy
[or] entertainment. NBC and SNL are rewarding Trump — and mainstreaming
the hate that powers his campaign. That’s
dangerous for immigrants and for the country.”
The
National Council of La Raza and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda
have both denounced NBC’s decision, and MoveOn.org, a liberal pressure
group with strong online
organizing roots, has started a petition drive with America’s Voice to
register a protest against NBC’s decision.
In
early July NBC appeared to feel differently about Mr. Trump, citing his
comments about immigration as a reason they were severing all business
ties with him, including
nixing his Miss USA pageant and vowing his “Apprentice” program was
permanently done.
But
Mr. Trump has proved to be a ratings bonanza for anyone willing to give
him airtime, including the first two GOP presidential debates, which
set records as the most-watched
primary debates in history.
That lure appears to have triumphed over NBC’s previous coldness — an about-face that drew scorn from Mr. Trump’s opponents.
“Now,
just three months after cutting ties with Donald Trump, NBC is seeking
to boost its ratings at the expense of Latinos and immigrants by
allowing Trump to host one
of its most popular shows,” said Juan Escalanta, a campaign coordinator
for MoveOn.org.
Mr.
Trump’s campaign declined to comment on the protest, and said questions
about NBC’s change of heart were better directed to the network itself.
For his part, Mr. Trump usually dismisses questions about his rhetoric by saying he polls well with Hispanic Republicans.
Hispanics
are increasingly highlighting people and institutions they feel are
anti-immigrant and, therefore, anti-Latino. For example, the state of
Arizona saw a boycott
after it passed a get-tough law to give local authorities power to
enforce immigration laws.
But
Hispanics are still looking for a major victory they can point to as
evidence of their clout, and the NBC-Trump fight could be that chance.
The
invite to Mr. Trump could cause other problems for the network.
Variety, a show business publication, speculated that Mr. Trump’s
appearance could trigger the equal
time rule, a federal stricture that requires stations that give free
airtime to one candidate to give the same opportunity to rivals.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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