Journalistic Fraud at the
Orange County Register?

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - September 22, 2003 - (ACN) The New York Times recently suffered a major setback when it became public that one of its reporters routinely faked articles that were subsequently published in the newspaper. It now appears that "journalistic fraud" is a major problem with more US newspapers than just the New York Times. This Sunday, La Voz de Aztlan was alerted to the possible publishing of "faked" anti-Mexican "Letters to the Editor" by the large Orange County Register newspaper in Southern California.

We have long suspected that the biased Orange County Register was utilizing so called "Letters to the Editor" to bash the large and growing Mexican-American community without directly, so they believe, taking responsibility for them. They continually publish "Letters to the Editor" that are anti-Mexican and at the same time ignore those that have a pro-Mexican point of view. It now seems that the newspaper is taking a more brash and "sneaky" method to publish biased and at times racist opinions concerning the Mexican-American community. They are now prominently publishing, with large headlines, racist "Letters to the Editor" that they say are actually authored by Mexican immigrants.

This Sunday, the Orange County Register published, at the very top of their Commentary Section (page 3), a letter titled "READERS REACT" by, what the newspaper says is, a recent immigrant from Mexico. To many Mexican-Americans in Orange County, and to La Voz de Aztlan, this letter is a total sham. The letter is supposedly from an Alex Gomez who is a resident of San Juan Capistrano. In the letter, Gomez says "I am a fairly recent Mexican immigrant. I am 29 years old, and came here at the age of 15". He continues, "In the past 14 years, I have witnessed a trend that has really angered me. I have seen where both parties ever-increasingly pander to what I call the great loudmouth Hispanic minority, i.e., the idiot subversives who want to "take back the Southwest for Mexico."

So called Alex Gomez adds, "If the radicals were thinking of our best interest, they would be for controlling our borders to keep the hordes out who are destroying our schools and keeping wages down for us. They would be denouncing Mexican gangs, a plague that I, as a Mexican-American, am truly ashamed of. They would be encouraging the kids not to have kids they cannot afford. They would be putting down welfare, not demanding more of it. Welfare is for losers. They should be demanding higher wages by decreasing the labor supply by restricting immigration and encouraging unionism."

Gomez' racist statements includes, "They should quit supporting organizations like MEChA, which encourages the takeover of the Southwest by Mexico. That's the last thing I would want to see happen. We came here to escape that corrupt government. MEChA should be banned from all schools. It serves no service but to cause trouble for and resentment of Hispanics."

Gomez also supposedly says, " They should quit trying to separate us into our own country within a country. I resent being considered a Mexican first and an American second."

At last Gomez says , "Finally, the last person I want to see as governor, no matter that he is an Hispanic, is Cruz Bustamante. He is a radical and a socialist. And he is not that smart."

The letter at the top of the page from this so called Alex Gomez includes an ugly picture of Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante. The picture was obviuosly placed there by the Orange County Register.

The person at the Orange County Register responsible for publishing these sham letters is a Betty Talbert. Roberto Cruz, our webmaster, had a telephone conversation with her this morning and she was extremely defensive. We believe that Betty Talbert is a very prejudice person against Mexican-Americans by the manner in which she conducted the conversation with Mr. Cruz. She failed to ascertain that Alex Gomez was in fact the person he said he was. She is the one that decides which "Letter to the Editor" to publish. The Orange County Register needs to evaluate her anti-Mexican attitude and perhaps hire a new person in her position.

La Voz de Aztlan, through contacts in San Juan Capistrano could not find anyone with the name of Alex, Alexander or Alejandro Gomez. Also, our friends at US Immigration could not find any records of such person immigrating to the US from Mexico that fits Alex Gomez' age. We have attempted to contact Cathy Taylor, Vice President & Editorial/Commentary Director, of the Orange County Register, but so far have received no reply. Apparently she does not think that our allegations are serious enough to merit a response and provide proof that Alex Gomez is in fact who he says he is. A copy of Alex Gomez' birth certificate would be adequate.