Full of negative stereotypes and inflammatory language, the series depicted African Americans and Latinos as ruthless thieves who committed crimes in affluent neighborhoods and who fled via L.A.'s freeways.
Mexican-American reporters organized and approached the Los Angeles Times editors with a proposed new series: in-depth feature articles on Southern California Latino life that would go beyond depictions of poverty, gangs, and crime.
Some of their non-Hispanic newsroom colleagues made racist comments while the journalists worked, and the team had to fight to get the series nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
The film was called "a powerful and heartfelt account of the journalists who set out to change the stereotypical reporting on Latinos in southern California.
"[3] When interviewed at the Imagen Awards in September 2008, Gudiño announced his "hopes to expand Below The Fold into a one-hour documentary for national broadcast.