ICYMI: Congressman Robert Garcia Calls for Action Following the Grammy’s Failure to Properly Caption Musical Phenomenon Bad Bunny’s Spanish Language Performance and Speech
Congressman Garcia sent a letter to CBS CEO George Cheeks that read in part, “This is deeply regrettable and displays a lack of sensitivity and foresight. For too many Spanish-Speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture. For the hearing-impaired community, this failure was hurtful."
Washington Post: The Grammys omitted Spanish captions. A congressman wants improvements.
Spanish speakers across social media knocked the program’s absence of Spanish-language closed captioning, and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) joined the uproar Wednesday, criticizing CBS and its chief executive, George Cheeks, in a public letter.
“For too many Spanish-Speaking Americans, it felt disrespectful of our place in our shared society, and of our contributions to our shared culture,” wrote Garcia, who immigrated from Peru to California as a child. “For the hearing impaired community, this failure was hurtful.”
“CBS owes it to their multilingual audience to do better,” Garcia, 45, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “As a proud Latino immigrant, I am committed to ensuring that the millions of Spanish speakers in our country, and Bad Bunny, are treated with the respect they deserve.”
U.S. Congressman Robert Garcia has penned an open letter to CBS Entertainment president and CEO George Cheeks calling out the network’s failure to provide closed captioning during Bad Bunny’s appearances onstage at the Grammys on Sunday.
In an email to Variety, Garcia added that “Bad Bunny’s opening performance at the 2023 Grammy’s was supposed to highlight a point of historic inclusivity in our country. Instead, CBS’s failure to properly close caption both his performance and his acceptance speech called attention to an incredibly disappointing failure on part of a network that caters to the millions of Spanish speakers that we have here in the U.S. If Bad Bunny, the first-ever Spanish-language Album of the Year nominee, can’t have his words made accessible to the American people, we have an issue.”
Buzzfeed: This Member of Congress Called Out The Grammys’ Bad Bunny Snafu As Lacking “Respect”
Rep. Robert Garcia is doubling down on his disappointment with CBS for its handling of captioning Bad Bunny’s Grammys performance. On Wednesday, the California Democrat called out CBS for not offering Spanish-language closed captions during Bad Bunny’s performances and speech during the broadcast.
Garcia elaborated on his dismay with CBS in a statement to BuzzFeed News on Thursday. “This issue is about respect. The millions of Spanish speakers living in the U.S. deserve equal treatment and consideration as CBS’s English-speaking viewers,” he said. “When millions of Americans tuned in to watch record-breaking Latino artist Bad Bunny perform on one of Hollywood’s biggest stages, they were met with a reminder that for CBS Spanish is simply [NON-ENGLISH].”
Latin Times: Bad Bunny At Grammys: Congressman Robert Garcia Wants Improvements After Spanish Captions Omitted
After Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny's appearances onstage at the Grammys on Sunday, U.S. Congressman Robert Garcia wrote an open letter to George Cheeks, who is CBS Entertainment president and CEO. He urged Cheeks to take "serious measures to address the failures which made this mistake possible."
Twitter users pointed out that deepening the disrespect is the artist's reach. He was streamed more than singer Taylor Swift in recently released Spotify data. He was second overall just behind Drake. But many of his fans felt that he was treated like a second-class citizen during the Grammy ceremony.
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