A Chicago newscaster spoke at NIU Monday about hardships of the Latin reporter’s role in the media.

Ray Suarez, of WMAQ-TV Chicago, compared the Latin reporter with the Anglo reporter, telling about 25 people that Latin reporters have different assumptions about life.

The lecture was part of NIU Hispanic Month.

When a reporter is asked to cover the vast changes in immigration law, “the way of seeing of an Anglo reporter is different from the way of seeing of a Latino reporter,” Suarez said.

He said Americans are “the most ignorant people on Earth” when it comes to understanding the rest of the world. While Suarez said he could understand a newspaper’s omission of facts if it were government controlled, most American newspapers do not print all the facts even though they can do so.

“The empathy, sympathy, cultural understanding of what these people are going through is going to be different.”

However, Suarez continued, “It doesn’t make any difference who’s in the newsroom because a good journalist would find out what they need to know.”

Suarez said the only way to make it in the journalism business is to be good journalist because it is not a secure job.

Suarez said the television network is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, which has guidelines about who has to work at a television station.

Looking at the kind of people who live in an area, Suarez said there has to be half parity. For example, since Chicago has 20 percent Hispanics, there has to be 10 percent Hispanics in the top four categories, which are management, technical, on-air and sales. But Suarez said this is not the case.

Suarez said he did not get a job only because of his experience, but because of his race. “I got a job because of what I am, not what I can do,” he said.

“My goal is to work in the Third World for an American news organization, whether in print or broadcasting.”