Kansas Official Won’t Talk to Univision Reporter Because… You Know

Oct 21, 2015
6:54 PM

Ok, familia, stay with us. This is happening in Kansas. First off, watch this video from KWCH, a local CBS network affiliate in Kansas:

Richard Ranzau, chair of the Sedgwick County Commission in Kansas, is possibly facing a recall petition for pushing funding cuts for WIC, but it is the last few seconds of the Channel 12 report that revealed the following: the KWCH reporter, Beatriz Parres, is bilingual. Parres files reports for KWCH. She also files reports for the local Univision affiliate, KDCU, whose news segments are produced by (you guessed it), KWCH.

This is what Kansas.com reported:

In a video broadcast Monday, Ranzau walked away from Parres, who had asked to interview him about a recall effort started by a pro-immigrant group and others. They want to remove Ranzau over his ongoing campaign to prevent federal food aid to families in which parents cannot prove legal residency.

“I’m not going to do your interview for Univision,” Ranzau told Parres. When she asked “Why not?” he replied, “Because I don’t want to.”

After Parres, who was born in Madrid and speaks with a Spanish accent, told Ranzau that she was representing KWCH as well, Ranzau told her: “When you have someone who works for Channel 12 only, have them come here.”

On Tuesday, Ranzau did speak with KWCH reporter Rachel Skytta about the recall effort.

Ranzau told The Eagle he thinks Parres is “not interested in being a reporter; she’s interested in being an activist for illegal immigration. She’s working with that advocacy group.”

Ranzau said he was willing to speak with “legitimate news organizations.” But “if you want to be an advocate and pose as a journalist, then I’m not sure I’m interested in being part of your propaganda,” he said.

Asked what evidence he had of that, Ranzau said, “That’s my belief. She evidently knows them very well and some of her comments and this, that and the other.”

Hit it, Gollum.