Friday, February 06, 2015

Univision needs more balance in its editorial board

A couple of days ago, Ruben Navarrette shook up the Spanish media by making some rather blunt statements about Univision:
Republicans seem to have finally figured out the Spanish translation for “Democrats’ Communications Department.” It’s pronounced: “Univision.”
Navarrette correctly cited examples of how Democrats and Republicans are treated differently:
Co-anchor Jorge Ramos sat down in 2012 with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican who speaks fluent Spanish, and tore into him for belonging to a party that Ramos considers hostile to Latinos. Ramos wanted to know how Rubio, the son of immigrants, could fail to “defend the poorest, the most persecuted victims, the most vulnerable” — which includes the undocumented.
Meanwhile, only a few months later, co-anchor Maria Elena Salinas interviewed rising Democratic star Julian Castro, now secretary of housing and urban development. In between softballs, Salinas gently teased him about the fact that he doesn’t speak fluent Spanish. Castro responded that while he didn’t believe it was necessary to speak Spanish, he did consider it beneficial. He was taking lessons, he told Salinas.
Frankly, both Rubio and Castro were born in the U.S.  They should not be expected to speak Spanish fluently like Jorge Ramos, who grew up speaking Spanish in Mexico.

Another example is Univision's "kids' project with Hillary Clinton."  We posted about this last year:
Last week, at an East Harlem event featuring Clinton, Univision touted a multi-year partnership with a foundation-led learning initiative for children 5 and younger. The success of the " Pequeños y Valiosos" (or "Young and Valuable") partnership will take time to measure.   
But it began paying immediate dividends for Clinton.  
Clinton's face is featured in five of seven slides on the Univision website promoting the partnership with the foundation's "Too Small to Fail" initiative. Taking no press questions at the event, Clinton was featured in the type of feel-good classroom setting that politicians on the campaign trail crave.
Are you kidding me?  Didn't some red light go off at the editorial staff?  Didn't it occur to someone at Univision that featuring the likely 2016 Democrat nominee for president might be a bit strange?

Did they offer a similar invitation to Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico?  I'm sure that Governor Martinez cares about kids, too, especially the ones stuck in public schools because the teachers' union continues to fund Democrats like Hillary Clinton.

Another issue is ownership, closely associated with President Clinton, as Fausta Rodriguez Wertz explained:
In 2006, Univision Communications was acquired for $13.7 billion by a consortium led by Saban Capital Group. 
Its founder, billionaire Haim Saban, is a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton, and his wife, Cheryl, was appointed by President Obama as a U.S. representative to the United Nations.
Last, but not least, Univision focuses too much on immigration reform, but most Hispanics are not illegal immigrants.   

My experience is that Hispanics care about the economy.   They are concerned about public schools, and polls show growing support for "choice."  And there is foreign policy, especially given the number of Hispanics serving in the U.S. armed forces.


Memo to Univision: put a little conservative "crema en el café"!  Your large Spanish-speaking audience needs a little more balance in its daily news feed.  

P.S. You can hear my show (CantoTalkor follow me on Twitter.   We discussed Univision with Fausta Rodriguez-Wertz on Wednesday's show:


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