PBS Criticized for Excluding Latino, Native Voices from Documentary on Second World War

MSNBC and CBS Radio have not been the only media networks facing protests recently. A coalition of Latino organizations have been criticizing PBS over a forthcoming documentary by Ken Burns on World War II because it ignores the role played by Latino soldiers in the war The 14-hour film, “The War,” includes no interviews with any Latino veterans even though over 500,000 Latinos served in the war. The documentary also includes no interviews with any Native American veterans.

In response to the protests, Ken Burns announced this week that he would create additional content that focuses on the stories of Latino and Native American veterans. Burns said he would not make any changes to the existing film but he vowed to create additional material to run in conjunction with the documentary. “The War” is scheduled to premier in September.

* Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez. She helped lead the protests against PBS. She is the associate director of the Center for Mexican-American Studies at the University of Texas. Since 1999, she has spearheaded the U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project. She is also the editor of the book “Mexican Americans and World War II.” She joins us from Austin, Texas.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/13/1421225