Democracy Now! co-host and New York Daily News columnist Juan González has been elected president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Leading an insurgent slate that was strongly opposed by the organization’s entire board of directors, Juan swept into office with 58% of the vote against the board’s candidate, Marilyn Garateix, an editor at The Boston Globe, during the group’s annual convention in San Diego this weekend. Several other insurgents also won seats on the 16-member board. During two major speeches before nearly 1,500 Latino journalists and top media executives, Juan blasted the “snail-like progress” of the mass media in hiring and promoting Latino journalists and the terrible news coverage they routinely provide of Latinos. That dismal record, he said, is only one manifestation of a wider problem: how corporate media concentration has decimated the quality of journalism and is threatening American democracy. He vowed that during his two-years term, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists will pursue policies of increased advocacy.