Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz Has a Few Questions for El Diario

Press Release
For Immediate Release
July 12, 2009

Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz Has a Few Questions for El Diario
 
New York State Senator Reverend Rubén Díaz issued the following statement regarding the recent FBI arrest of Vicky Peláez, columnist of El Diario / La Prensa. Ms Peláez has plead guilty of being a Russian spy.

“I’d like to point out the obvious double standard practiced by New York’s most popular Spanish-language newspaper, El Diario / La Prensa in their reporting of Vicky Peláez, a 22-year employee who plead guilty after being arrested by the FBI for being a Russian spy.

If I had employed a Russian spy to work on my staff – or if any other elected official has employed someone for his or her staff – for 22 minutes and he or she were arrested by the FBI, El Diario’s headlines would be screaming. There would be no kid gloves approach to those articles, and I am sure they would be writing a lot of ugly things about elected officials – especially me.

So isn’t it our responsibility as readers of El Diario to hold El Diario to that same level of accountability?

Who else on El Diario’s staff does not belong delving into records and researching about New Yorkers?  Who else at El Diario should not be given access to interview New Yorkers?  Who at El Diario is taking responsibility for hiring Ms. Peláez and maintaining her as a staff employee for 22 years?  Who else has slipped into El Diario’s staff who does not belong there?

Of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, I am sure I would be required to answer those and many more questions. But for now, I will be satisfied to receive the answers from El Diario’s management, investors and advertiser to those questions.”

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