Felix Sanchez, co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, accused NBC of caring more about ratings than about respecting Latinos after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend.
"The entire approach that NBC has had has been to completely dismiss [Latino groups' complaint]," Sanchez said on CNN's "Reliable Sources" Sunday. "I mean, it's really about choosing ratings over respecting a community."
The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of Latino organizations that Sanchez is a member of, sent a letter to NBC last month asking the network to revoke Trump's invitation to host "SNL." Sanchez called the real estate mogul's appearance on the weekly comedy show a "slap in the face" to the Latinos after Trump made a series of remarks in June referring to Mexican immigrants as "rapists" and "killers."
While NBC allowed Trump to host "SNL" on Saturday, it cut business ties with him in June, firing him from "The Apprentice" and refusing to air his Miss USA and Miss Universe contests following his disparaging remarks. Representatives of NBC declined to reply to a request for comment.
CNN's senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter, asked Sanchez how he plans to hold media organizations accountable in the future.
"We're going to call for a Latino media summit and we’re going to invite Lorne Michaels and Steve Burke and [...] people in the entertainment world to come and have an honest conversation about what's appropriate and what's not appropriate,” Sanchez said.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz should also attend the summit to "understand how this kind of rhetoric is really hurting Latinos," Sanchez added.
Watch the full clip from "Reliable Sources" above.
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