Topic: Media Research Center
Last year, the Media Research Center's Jorge Bonilla -- head of its MRC Latino project -- made a big deal out of how an investment group funded in part by George Soros bought a group of Hispanic radio stations, calling the new combine "Radio Soros" despite offering no evidence that Soros would have any say whatsoever in the stations' content. One of the stations purchased was a Miami outlet known as Radio Mambi -- notorious for its spreading of far-right hate conspiracy theories -- and he touted how "the station's top talent left the station rather than work for a Soros-backed outlet, and landed at conservative Americano Media." Bonilla didn't explain it, but Americano Media was a media group that effectively wanted to be the Spanish-language Fox News and did a lot of the same right-wing conspiracy-mongering and narrative-pushing that Radio Mambi did.
Bonilla decided he wanted to get in on that sweet action. In a June 2 tweet, he announced that "I am thrilled to announce the launch of The Jorge Bonilla Show, weekdays noon-2/E on @AmericanoMedia radio starting on Monday, June 5th," and that he would be leaving the MRC, adding in a later tweet, "After years of advocating for balance in Spanish-language media, I am proud to be part of the solution." Bonilla didn't explain how helping to spread bogus conspiracy theories and mindlessly repeating right-wing talking points was any sort of "solution."
Unfortunately for Bonilla, it turned out he was leaving the MRC for a sinking ship. A couple months later, it was reported that Americano Media had run out money, with the chief culprits allegedly being overspending and mismanagement -- tough one has to presume that the audience for right-wing Spanish-language content was not as big or profitable as activists had assumed -- and employees (Bonilla presumably among them) were not getting paid. As those employees refused to work without getting paid, Americano Media was effectively shut down.
Bonilla and the MRC said nothing about all this drama, of course. And as Americano Media shut down, Bonilla quietly returned to the MRC at the end of August, once again cranking out posts for MRC Latino. Among his recent contributions are a Sept. 27 post ranting that Spanish-language TV network Univision doesn't "represent the Hispanic community" and that it "has no mandate from Heaven with which to speak on behalf of the Hispanic community" because it purporedly is nothing more than "a Democrat talking points regurgitator" -- never mind that he and Americano Media were and are little more than regurgitators of Republican talking points.
