MSNBC’s ‘Field Report’ Relitigates 2020, Rehashes ‘Disinfo’ Tropes

I tuned into the first installment of Paola Ramos’ MSNBC “Field Report” special on Florida’s Hispanic vote with an open mind, hoping against hope for an avoidance of the usual tropes when discussing the factors that have led Hispanics to shift to the right in 2020. Dear reader, I am sorry to tell you that this is not true.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. In his pre-coverage of the special, our colleague Alex Christy noted that “to answer the question why so many Hispanics are now voting for Republicans, NBC tasked Paola Ramos to make a Peacock docuseries and on Wednesday’s Jose Diaz-Balart on MSNBC, Ramos was able to report back an answer: disinformation, toxic culture wars, and being paranoid about socialism and communism.” This was exactly what Ramos talked about throughout the special. 

Here’s how Ramos summarized her anthropological findings before going in-studio to Steve Kornacki and Carlos Curbelo:

PAOLA RAMOS: These are the facts we discovered in Florida as the voters go to the polls for midterm elections. Fears of an election thief, trauma from communism and the difficulty of identity navigation. All of that- creating a perfect storm that makes today’s disinformation more infectious, the culture wars more polarizing, and the Republican Party more appealing to certain Latino voters. What does the aggressive rightward trend among Latinos have to do with Democrats? This all has implications for democracy. 

Summarising, Democrats are losing ground with Hispanics due to disinformation. And disinformation is not the same as 2016 because it’s culture war. The Hispanic shift is portrayed as a symbol of parental rights and education advocates. These are victims of communism who legitimately have concerns about the United States’ future. Q-Anon conspiracy theories dismiss concerns over border human trafficking. Moms For Liberty members were harassed for their opposition to sexual and gender education of kindergarteners.

“Field Report” was remarkable for the issues it didn’t cover that would’ve better explained the Hispanic shift to MSNBC viewers: the Trump jobs boom vis-a-vis current inflation and baby formula shortages, Hispanic recoil away from Democrats’ culture wars, the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, or the ongoing disaster at the border. It was not considered how such concerns could play out in policy discussions or how they might be related to cultural Marxism. 

On Hispanic rejection of the left’s culture war, former congressman and current MSNBC analyst Carlos Curbelo nailed it on the head when he said:

Many Latinos culturely worry about what they see as rapid country change. Perhaps the country is becoming more open and accepting. That’s the perception that many would describe it. But Latinos, especially those who came to the country a couple decades ago with an idea of what the United States was, they are identifying with this Trumpian message of “Make America Great Again. And it’s a bit ironic because you wouldn’t immediately think that that would appeal to new Americans. It does in fact, as they worry that the Democratic Party moves too quickly and they are being left behind.

When analyzing rightward shifts, the Hispanic rejection is often overlooked. But it should be.

The first installment of “Field Report” was hyped across NBC platforms MSNBC viewers (as well as perhaps Peacock, NBC Now or Telemundo because corporate synergy) as a glimpse into an elusive psyche. We got confirmation of our priors, and the laying out of disinformation for the time when Hispanics will shift to the right during the 2022 midterm elections. Here’s hoping, against hope, that the rest of the series takes a different path instead of continuing to litigate 2020.