Miami Republican voters agree media disinformation is a problem but disagree on sources

From college classrooms to media studios and the halls of Congress, politicians, professors and pundits are once again warning about misinformation, raising concerns that manipulated and misleading content — particularly in Spanish-language media — could have an impact in the midterm elections.

Often, these concerns are pointed at conservative-leaning media, which dominate radio and social media platforms in Miami and have at times on different programs promoted problematic narratives, such as Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

But people’s definition of disinformation varies greatly, often correlating with their political affiliation. And in the era of “fake news” and media skepticism, Miami Republican voters — whose views of media veracity are sometimes left unexpressed in a conversation dominated by left-leaning sources — are weighing in on disinformation, its sources and its impact ahead of the election.

On Monday, the first day of in-person voting in Florida, Carmen Diaz, a 55-year-old Westchester resident, made her way to the early voting center at her local library to avoid long lines. Diaz, who says she’s a lifelong Republican, was inspired to cast her vote for Gov. Ron DeSantis and other politicians who she says support God and family values.

Diaz said she doesn’t consume Spanish-language media — or most TV channels. To stay informed, she prefers Fox News and Newsmax because they’re “balanced,” though FOX’s programming heavily favors conservative viewpoints and Newsmax was among the outlets sued over false claims on its airwaves that the 2020 election was stolen.

“I find that TV channels are compromised,” Diaz said in Spanish. “They’re not publishing real news. They’re only being influenced by politics. Most are Democratic, so they inform people for the convenience of their party.”

On Monday, Xiomara Rodriguez, 63, attended a Marco Rubio campaign rally outside John F. Kennedy Library in Hialeah. She said she’s supporting Republican candidates in the upcoming November elections.

But the Hialeah resident said she wasn’t always a Republican. She said she was a Democrat up until the last election. She said part of the reason she changed her political affiliation was due to media coverage of politics.

Rodriguez gets her news from Instagram and WhatsApp groups and prefers Spanish-language sources that aren’t partisan, she said, citing Mega TV.

“[In media], Republicans are always the bad ones, and Democrats are always the ones that should be in government,” she said in Spanish. “This is a free country, and [they] need to... not constantly tell you, in the news, that you need to vote for a Democrat or a Republican. That is a personal opinion. No one needs to tell you the same thing from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep.”

Esmeralda Billete, 68, considers herself an independent voter. But she turned out to support Rubio at his Hialeah rally and said she will be supporting the senator’s reelection bid.

Billete, who said she has lived in Hialeah for 52 years, gathers her news from local TV channels, including the Spanish-language Univision 23 and English-language WSVN Channel 7. She also reads whatever pops up on her Facebook.

She said she views disinformation in media as a general issue not exclusive to either Democrats or Republicans.

“It creates a lot of confusion for the public, the voter,” she said in Spanish.