Univision – a television platform owned by Televisaunivision – is the largest Spanish language news platform in the nation. Historically, it has had a left leaning policy.
You may recall the contretemps between Univision’s Miami-based anchor Jorge Ramos and Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. After Trump had rejected an invitation to appear on Ramos’ television show, the news host travelled to Dubuque, Iowa to attend a Trump press conference. When Trump did not recognize him for a question, Ramos became so belligerent and argumentative that he had to be escorted out of a Trump press conference.
Fast forward to today.
Univision invited Trump to appear in a townhall meeting with their predominantly Latin audience. It was the counterpart to an earlier Harris townhall meeting. Trump accepted. It was a generally well run meeting. Trump was asked both tough and softball questions. The moderator allowed the exchanges to be between Trump and the audience – without participating in the debate under the ruse of fact checking.
Weeeell … that is when Democrats and the left-wing media went ballistic.
Former Univision president Joaquin Blaya appeared on “Morning Joe” to castigate the news network he once headed. He called the Trump townhall meeting a “propaganda project.”
He went on to say, “It was really not a townhall. It was an infomercial in where they brought in audience as props.” That is untrue. The audience was random and asked tough questions. Even the New York Times headline read “Trump faces tough questions from Hispanic voters.”
Blaya complained that the network chose Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo to moderate instead of Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. (That’s right. Blaya thinks the townhall needed a moderator with a visceral hatred for Trump.)
Interestingly, there was no criticism of Acevedo when he moderated the similar townhall meeting with Vice President Harris. A Univision spokesperson said the moderator and rules for both townhalls were exactly the same.
Blaya’s main complaint was that the network had shown a “lack of integrity” for allowing Trump to answer questions uninterrupted – and without the moderator fact-checking his responses. The general response from the left is that Univision should never have hosted the former President.
This kind of media censorship is part of the left-wing DNA. You may recall that way back in 2016, the Huffington Post stopped covering Trump as a presidential candidate and reassigned coverage to their entertainment reporters –ensuring much less coverage.
Earlier in this year’s campaign, MSNBC announced its outright refusal to cover Trump speeches – including his rallies. While the network has relented somewhat under public pressure, it still limits coverage to talking ABOUT Trump and using out-of-context snippets of speeches that are subjected to negative spin. They literally do not allow viewers to hear from Trump directly – and they do not allow Trump advocates on the network.
And now, they pounce on a news platform that they once exalted merely for allowing Trump to be questioned by voters – and allowing him to provide his own answers.
Media commentators and voters have sufficient opportunity to respond to Trump’s comments. Political opponents have the primary role of fact checking. They can provide counterpoints. It is not the role of the media to embed itself into a campaign as an active partisan.
What was seen in the reaction of the Harris supporters and her news media allies to Univision’s townhall was nothing less than another example of their use of censorship as a campaign and governing strategy. It also was a clear demonstration of the left’s panic over the movement of Hispanic voters to Trump. Viva la Univision!!
So, there ‘tis.