Ad Age endorses hate

I’m still not sure why Ad Age felt compelled to give a voice to hate. I mean, how else do you explain their decision to invite a bona fide prophet of hate to their upcoming “Media Evolved” conference?  Glenn Beck may be doing something interesting in media (according to Ad Age) but he’s still a racist.  He’s still the man who called President Obama a racist.  He’s still the man the Color of Change ad industry advocacy group lobbied Fox News to dump for his racist, gloom and doom TV program. And he’s still the man who in January 2008 mocked a Latino Arizona state legislator for his Bronze medal.  Yes, on occasion I watch the dark side out of curiosity, and I’ll never forget that night.  Glenn Beck had Arizona State Rep. Ben Miranda on his program to talk about illegal immigration, and Glenn Beck ranted and ranted, and ended up questioning a proud Latino veteran’s patriotism. Now Ad Age has given Beck a unique opportunity to spread his venom to an ad industry audience on November 15.   And he’ll probably feel at home because for some reason, according to Ad Age, the emerging media space doesn’t include Latinos or blacks. Now to be fair, I contacted the publisher and editor of Ad Age to question Beck’s inclusion, and to also inquire about the lack of blacks and Latinos in the conference speakers line-up.  They kindly responded by pointing out their past ethnic speakers, and their Hispanic Fact Pack and Big Tent columns.  But they missed my point entirely about TODAY’s world. In other words, I commend them for their multicultural efforts but why on a very seminal topic did they fail to assemble a truly robust panel of speakers reflective of today’s reality?  And I’m not talking about including a black or a Latino for the sake of diversity.  My point is based on the fact that Latinos in particular are in many ways leading today’s media revolution.  I mean how can you blatantly ignore Latinos who are outpacing everyone on adoption of mobile and tablet technology? Kudos to Ad Age for the Hispanic Fact Pack but they have ostensibly negated all that good work with the inclusion of one of this country’s most preeminent prophets of hate.  It is another insult to Rep. Ben Miranda.