In the wake of controversial segments aired Monday on MSNBC's program "Way Too Early," Hispanic media advocates and watchdogs are outraged, and the network has been forced to issue an apology.

The controversy stems from a pair of segments on "Way Too Early," a show which first aired in 2009 for MSNBC and has been watched by roughly 237,000 people as of February, in which one of the network's producers, Louis Burgdorf, stumbled on-screen sporting a sombrero and taking a few sips of tequila from a bottle and later sporting maracas.

Burgdorf later sported the same sombrero while taking a shot of tequila—saying "Ole" as he did so—which anchor Thomas Roberts referred to as Burgdorf's "go-go juice" as the program's Cinco De Mayo coverage continued.

While the pair had some laughs on the air, Hispanic media advocates were less than amused, calling for the network to publically apologize for the segments that came across as offensive to Latinos in the U.S., which comprise 53 million—or 17 percent—of the U.S. population as of July 2012, according to the most recent U.S. Census data .

Latin Post reached out to Hugo Balta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, on Tuesday after the MSNBC taping. Balta, who works at ESPN as coordinating producer, said he was alerted to the taping when an association member emailed him the video clip of the incident.

His first reaction, Balta said, was "outrage," which was followed by "extreme disappointment" in what he called an example of a "lack of cultural diversity" in the newsroom.

Noting that MSNBC's parent company NBC owns Spanish network giant Telemundo, whose website claims to be reaching Latinos in 210 U.S. markets via the 16 stations the company owns, Balta said, "While they have a wealth of experience in Telemundo, they do not draw from that well."

Balta added that he was contacted by Alex Korson, the executive producer at MSNBC that produces "Way Too Early," and was issued an apology and an explanation for the segments in question. According to what Korson told Balta, the props used and referred to by Roberts and Burgdorf in the on-air segments—which were supposed to dispel the myths of Cinco De Mayo—were solely intended to be props, and not to be used by the anchors.

Balta, who has worked in television for more than 20 years on major networks such as CBS, ESPN, and Telemundo, said that under normal circumstances, incidents such as MSNBC's Cinco De Mayo broadcast should have been caught during editorial meeting discussions between producers and on-air talent.

"Because I have been in incidents similar to this one," Balta said, referring to covering hot-button issues for different racial communities on the air, "I would have commented that the props are specifically that, and were not to be used in any way."

Noting that the MSNBC incident was the first time he was ever compelled to call for a public apology, Balta said he was assured by MSNBC that the company would be dealing out disciplinary measures to those involved in the segment—though he said he was unsure of what such actions meant—but added that the incident was a "learning opportunity" for the network and other media outlets to take a look at how they approach diversity issues and how minority groups like Latinos are portrayed. One such measure, he suggested, could be enacting diversity training programs for newsrooms.

"This should not be indicative of what MSNBC does in championing diversity, but this incident has marred their efforts," he said.

Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, who also spoke with Latin Post on Tuesday, had some harsh words for MSNBC regarding the inflammatory on-air segments.

"You would think that these people [MSNBC] would know better," Nogales said, citing a "great lack of diversity" in the newsroom as the culprit, and the need to hire more Latinos as reporters and producers in order to get the perspectives necessary to avoid situations like this in the future.

"If we as a Latino community had great [representation] to go with this foolishness, it would be easy to say ‘Hey, what's the big deal?'" he said. However, he added, the case has been the opposite for Latinos, who Nogales said have not been represented in the media with the balance that other minorities have received and "keep getting shots on a regular basis."

A 2012 study commissioned by the coalition—which polled a combined 4,000-plus non-Latinos across the U.S.—found that many of the most common stereotypes of Latinos were similar to what was portrayed in the media. Among those polled, 47 percent replied that they rarely saw Latino attorney or judges on TV or film, while only 5 percent said they see Latinos in roles as doctors, nurses, lawyers or judges very often. Meanwhile, 1/3 of those polled assumed that more than half of Latinos were undocumented immigrants. Of the 11.7 million undocumented immigrants, Mexicans accounted for 52 percent, or roughly 6 million of that figure, while the other 5.7 million immigrants, 48 percent, came from other countries.

A statement on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" website posted an apology Tuesday.

"On Monday, Cinco De Mayo, ‘Way Too Early' made sarcastic references to the way some Americans celebrate the holiday. It was not our intention to be disrespectful and we sincerely apologize for the ill-advised references," the statement read.

Burgdorf also re-tweeted the statement on his Twitter account.

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