{"id":1310884,"date":"2019-05-31T21:56:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T03:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/cepeda-column-why-isnt-julian-castro-getting-the-same-media-attention-as-the-other-candidates\/"},"modified":"2019-05-31T21:56:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T03:56:00","slug":"cepeda-column-why-isnt-julian-castro-getting-the-same-media-attention-as-the-other-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/cepeda-column-why-isnt-julian-castro-getting-the-same-media-attention-as-the-other-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Cepeda column: Why isn\u2019t Juli\u00e1n Castro getting the same media attention as the other candidates?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CHICAGO \u2014 Why aren\u2019t I as sick and tired of Juli\u00e1n Castro as I was of Robert Francis \u201cBeto\u201d O\u2019Rourke in March and as I am now of media-flavor-of-the-month, Pete Buttigieg?<\/p>\n

I want to have Castro fatigue. I want to snark online about the glamour-shot treatment he got on the cover of whatever influential magazine the East Coast reveres most at the moment. I want his appearances on late-night TV shows to be the stuff of breathless news reports for days.<\/p>\n

I want to be able to pass no newsstand, click on no news website and walk by no TV without seeing Castro giving a speech or rolling up his shirtsleeves.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t because I have any sort of interest in Castro \u2014 he\u2019s fine. I have no beef with him.<\/p>\n

To be honest, most people here in the heartland are not already invested in the 2020 presidential campaign. The stampede of candidates is overwhelming and baffling even to those who are already following the horse-race coverage of who\u2019s up or down in the polls.<\/p>\n

The reason why I want Castro to start taking up space in the public\u2019s mind is because it\u2019s annoying how the media anoints \u201chot\u201d candidates \u2014 even if the ardor only lasts a fleeting moment \u2014 and they seem to never be female or people of color.<\/p>\n

On paper, Castro checks so many boxes. He\u2019s young, he\u2019s Latino, he has as much experience as Beto and Mayor Pete, he can appeal to the right with his strong religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

But even Castro\u2019s time as a former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development can be read as problematic.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider \u2026 his relationship with Hillary Clinton, his time in politics, and I think compared to the two others mentioned, Juli\u00e1n Castro is considered to be a part of the establishment that needs to change,\u201d journalist Shahrazad Maria Encinias told me, via Facebook, echoing the sentiments of other journalists I reached out to in order to discuss Castro\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

And, for that matter, many think that, despite Castro\u2019s resume, there\u2019s not a lot of \u201cthere\u201d there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have worked for three elected officials and volunteered on several campaigns,\u201d another Facebook pal, Shelli Romero, told me. When I consider Castro, I think of him as young and inexperienced. And I don\u2019t know what he has accomplished \u2014 maybe he has accomplishments, but he does not talk about them enough. I don\u2019t know who would be identified as his base. I have not heard concrete issues that would cause me to associate with him. \u2026 I am not sure what issues to identify when it comes to Castro.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Twitter account for the PBS documentary \u201cRuben Salazar: Man in the Middle\u201d chalked it up to Castro being a little unrelatable: \u201cHis handlers have reduced him to role of competent functionary, endorsed by elite institutions. Perhaps a function of white supremacy that they are obscuring any personal, idiosyncratic aspect of his experience \u2014 or maybe the guy is just that ni\u00f1o bueno (\u201cgood boy\u201d) robotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, others were more forceful about perceived media bias. One of my Twitter pals declared that the problem is: \u201cRacism against Mexicans. It\u2019s as simple as that. Julian has more national experience [than] Pete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even President Trump feels Castro is no threat to his reelection campaign \u2014 we know this because Trump hasn\u2019t blessed Castro with a snarky moniker or signature put-down.<\/p>\n

Writing on the Latino Rebels blog, theologian Melissa Cedillo noted a disparity: \u201cCastro is bringing his religion to the main stage and embodying Mexican-American faith in a way that not been seen before.\u201d Yet, Cedillo writes, \u201cWhite Christianity often dominates the political narrative when it comes to faith.\u201d Are progressives \u201cmore comfortable hearing about faith from a white man than a Latino man?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to imagine that attractiveness, skin color, height and other cues and markers of social class and ethnicity don\u2019t play into the lack of coverage for Castro.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown whether the media has declined to breathlessly cover the young, Latino candidate\u2019s every move because more people aren\u2019t excited about him or if Castro is not breaking through because he just can\u2019t get the camera crews and news site bloggers themselves excited.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shame that Castro may end up as another example of the way that, at this American moment, Latinos\u2019 prospects for success are likely limited by our complexions, hair color and surnames.<\/p>\n

Esther Cepeda\u2019s email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com<\/a>, or follow her on Twitter: @estherjcepeda.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Why aren\u2019t I as sick and tired of Juli\u00e1n Castro as I was of Robert Francis \u201cBeto\u201d O\u2019Rourke in March and as I am now of media-flavor-of-the-month, Pete Buttigieg? I want to have Castro fatigue. I want to snark online about the glamour-shot treatment he got on the cover of whatever influential magazine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:14:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}