"Can we get some music to go along with that? Some Mexican music, maybe?"

which is why I always make pinata and salsa jokes about Nolan Ryan.
Cruz is becoming a somewhat newsworthy figure and certain aspects of his biography ought to be widely known to even the dumbest of CNBC personalities, such as he has NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH MEXICO!! There are three countries in North America, Cruz was born in one and is now a citizen of another, and yet Liesman goes with the third one. Perhaps I'm wrong, but it seems like CNBC should aspire to at least a shred of journalistic integrity and thus it's not understandable to think a prominent Senator is Mexican when he is in fact Canadian-American of Cuban decent.

 

I don't think it is. Anybody working at CNBC should know that Cruz's ideology and worldview was shaped by the fact that his father escaped Cuba as Castro was starting to sway support to his side, that Cruz's aunt was beaten by the Castro regime, and that Cruz spent his entire childhood hearing about the (very legitimate) ills of Cuban socialism from his family.

Part and parcel of spending any time talking about Ted Cruz would be knowing that background. It informs most of what Cruz does. He sees government as a battleground, his dad sees Obama as a Castroesque figure.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ted-cruzs-dad-medias-evil-agenda-surprising-comments/story?id=20638770

It's really not something you should screw up. Most Cubans who got out before Castro took over -- especially the ones left in South Florida, who were furious about the Mariel Cubans coming over in late 1970s -- are as staunch of free market capitalists/Republicans as you'll find.

 

Another thing -- and this is a journalistic thing, not a political thing -- that I thought news outlets missed with Cruz is that he was a world-class debater in college. And if you're in structured debate, it really is about winning the debate, and many debates are judged "tabula rasa" -- blank slate -- irrespective of practicality. In high school and college debate, tilting at windmills <i>wins</i> a lot so long as the competitor doesn't match the argument. Cruz's experience -- and rewards for that experience -- informed his strategy. I heard few, if any, mentions of it.

If the news media researched issues and presented them seamlessly the way, shoot, ESPN's Monday Night Football prepares for two fucking shitty NFL teams and drops knowledge in its broadcast, we'd be a lot more informed a lot more efficiently.

 

The rationalization on this BS is hilarious.

Imagine if a righty on TV said "we need some music for the President, how about some Rap or Hip Hop...." or better yet "...how about some African music..."

My God the screeching and screaming bloody murder from the politically correct about how racist of a statement it was would be deafening......

 

Perhaps. Though E.D. Hill called a fist bump between Obama and his wife a "terrorist fist jab" and I'm pretty sure she's still gainfully employed. She moved from Fox to CNN.

Ultimately, all cable news networks play really, really fast and loose with this stuff about a variety of candidates. It's sad and unprofessional.

And - again -- we could focus on the journalism here. Up to you, Hulk.

 

I have a Jamaican friend, and this line of thinking drives him crazy.

It's easy to assume he's of African descent because he has dark skin. And, people don't think twice about calling him an "African American."

Being called that pisses him off to no end - "I'm not fucking African, assholes." And, I don't blame him.

 

Colin Powell wrote in his book that he was of West Indian decent and not African American.

 

Fire that asshole.

 

Did I call for her firing?

 

Some clarifications:

* It's not OK for a journalist at a major news network to botch a prominent United States Senator's ethnicity.

* That being said, this is not necessarily an instance of someone assuming all Hispanics are Mexicans. It could be the case of someone assuming that a person with a Hispanic surname from Texas is likely of Mexican descent. Which, divorced from Cruz's prominence and the fact that the person making the error is a journalist, would be a perfectly reasonable assumption. I'm not aware that Texas has a large Cuban-American population. I would be more troubled by the error if it had been directed at Marco Rubio.

* Playing Jay-Z for the president is not the analogy. Playing reggae for a Jamaican person is the proper analogy. Or Irish music for a Kennedy.

 

Despite what many think, Ted Cruz is a great American exercising right of free
speech just the way our Founders intended.

They should have played some John Phillips Sousa music for him.

I disagree with him but respect his willingness to stand up and be counted. Unlike
many of the current crew in DC.