NBC News president Deborah Turness is under fire for using the term “illegals” when describing undocumented immigrants in a meeting with Hispanic lawmakers on Wednesday.
The meeting between NBC brass and the congressional Hispanic Caucus was supposed to smooth over tensions created by NBC’s decision to let Donald Trump host Saturday Night Live.
Turness was describing NBC’s synergy with its Spanish-language network Telemundo, and recounted Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S.
She recalled that during his U.S. tour, His Holiness spoke with a young girl who expressed fear that her parents would be deported because they’re “illegals.”
Lawmakers listening took offense.
“Im going to stop you right there,” Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas countered. “We use the term undocumented immigrants.”
Turness apologized, according to Politico, but the damage was done. “She was saying how they’ve done all these great things and then boom, she said ‘illegals,’” Vargas told Politico.
Things got worse when Turness took a stab at speaking Spanish:”We love the Hispanic community…Yo hablo español,” she said. This, of course, didn’t go over well, adding to the lawmakers’ dismay.
“There was a lot of frustration in the room,” Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) told Politico. “You know that (Trump is) an issue on all of our minds and as soon as you start talking about it, you say none of the executives for the entertainment (division) are here. It was a cop out. It was disingenuous.”
NBC News called the meeting “an open and respectful dialogue about the progress that’s been made on diversity both in front of and behind the camera in the news division.”