Investigating complaints that newspaper reports about Hispanic Americans or Hispanic issues are biased, a study examined the daily newspaper coverage of Hispanics and Hispanic issues by the "Albuquerque Journal" (New Mexico) and the "San Antonio Express" (Texas). Three constructed-year samples, for 1982, 1984, and 1986, were selected for analysis, and 27 issues of each newspaper were examined. All wire stories were excluded, as were sports stories, stories in the entertainment or women's sections, and advertisements. Findings revealed that Hispanics and Hispanic issues are, at least in two Southwestern cities, present in the newspaper in proportion to their presence in the population. Albuquerque's population is approximately 33% Hispanic, and the "Journal" devoted 49.6% of its news space to Hispanic coverage. San Antonio's population is approximately 41% Hispanic, and 43.8% of the local stories and photos that appeared in the "Express" were Hispanic. Hispanic stories and photos in the "Journal" and "Express" are generally longer, get bigger headlines and more prominent placement in the newspaper, and focus less on "bad news" than coverage of interest to Anglos. However, findings revealed that Hispanic news coverage tends to focus on Hispanics as "problem people." One-quarter of the Hispanic stories dealt with judicial, crime, or accident/disaster problems, compared to only 16.7% of the non-Hispanic (Anglo) coverage. In addition, 21.5% of Hispanic stories, compared with 12.8% of Anglo stories, were news reports of judicial or criminal activities. (Twenty-five footnotes, ten tables of data, and two charts are appended.) (ARH)