The Hispanic network Univision is getting whacked by liberals. Why? Because they had the temerity to sit down for an interview with the former President of the United States who also happens to be the leading-by-a-lot candidate for the 2024 GOP nomination.
That would be, of course, Donald Trump.
On November 9, Trump sat down with Enrique Acevedo, whom the Los Angeles Times described as “an anchor from Mexican network Televisa who is not a Univision journalist.” After the Trump interview aired the Times headlined:
Outrage against Univision grows after Trump interview
Then there was this headline in the socialist UK paper The Guardian:
Trump interview an ‘insult to Hispanic community’, ex-Univision head says
Joaquin Blaya condemns recent interview on Spanish-speaking TV network as ‘propaganda’ while John Leguizamo calls for a boycott
The Guardian story reports:
A former president of Univision condemned the Spanish-language US television network’s recent interview with Donald Trump as “propaganda” and an “insult to the Hispanic community”.
To call the Trump [interview] an interview is mistaken,’ Joaquin Blaya told MSNBC. ‘It was not an interview as we understand [it] in the United States. It was basically a one-hour propaganda open space for former president Trump to say whatever he wanted to say.’
The friendly interview was filmed at the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago home. Lingering controversy ensued, including a call from John Leguizamo, the actor and sometime Daily Show host, for a Univision boycott.
Amid revelations that Univision canceled both ads bought by President Joe Biden (after announcing a surprise policy change) as well as an interview in which a White House official was scheduled to respond, a top network anchor resigned.
Speaking to the MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Monday, Blaya lamented ‘a drastic change for what have been the standards of Univision’.
‘When I created the Univision network news [in the 1980s], [it was] built on the principles of American broadcasting journalism, the ABC, CBS, NBC … we were trying to basically create a Spanish but American network,’ Blaya said.
‘And I say that because there’s a big difference from our association in those days with the news that we’re seeing coming from Mexico.’
Univision recently came under the control of Grupo Televisa, a Mexican company. In his interview, Trump, who famously clashed with the Univision anchor Jorge Ramos during the 2016 election, said of the new owners: ‘They like me.’
Stop right there.
Notice that statement from the former Univision president Joaquin Blaya – made on the far-left MSNBC to the far -left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Blaya, without a hint of self-awareness, says that:
“When I created the Univision network news [in the 1980s], [it was] built on the principles of American broadcasting journalism, the ABC, CBS, NBC.”
Translation?
Univision was created to model the left-leaning American broadcast networks. Which are nothing if not leftist propaganda machines. Univision was specifically designed, according to its ex-president, to be a Spanish-language version of those left-wing propaganda networks.
And now? Now the new leadership of Univision chose to arrange an interview with…..Republican former President Donald Trump. Ohhhhhh, the horror.
On top of which Blaya accuses Univision and Trump of spreading — you guessed it — propaganda. As if he’s never watched an American network slobber over Barack and/or Michelle Obama.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board picked up on this hilarity, heading their editorial:
The Democratic Panic Over Univision
A Trump interview on a Spanish network breaks a news monoculture.
Said the WSJ:
How awful is President Biden’s polling? The Spanish-language TV network Univision is now being pounded for running an interview with Donald Trump that failed to include the type of resistance hostility that Democrats think will shore up Hispanic voters. A network executive might even get called to Capitol Hill.
After running through a summary of the Trump interview and what the former President said, the WSJ went on to note:
In other words, Mr. Acevedo offered the floor to Mr. Trump, who ran away with it. But confrontation isn’t the only way journalists try to provoke news. ‘I’m a reporter and my job is to ask questions,’ Mr. Acevedo later wrote. ‘Information should be the protagonist here.’ In any case, the U.S. has a vigorous press, and pundits and fact-checkers can go to town on Mr. Trump’s flights of factual nonsense.
What’s more troubling is the backlash. Latino groups demanded that Univision do an internal review, arguing: ‘Unfiltered, unaddressed and unrestricted disinformation does a disservice to all communities in the U.S.’ The Congressional Hispanic Caucus drew up a draft letter, the Washington Post says, asking a Univision bigwig ‘to meet with members of Congress about the journalistic standards of the network.’
That sounds almost Trumpy in its attempt to intimidate the press. The country doesn’t need politicians demanding that journalists filter and restrict the “disinformation” from a leading candidate for President, even if that were possible. And if it’s softball interviews they’re worried about, have they seen hosts on MSNBC or CNN question Reps. Jamie Raskin or Adam Schiff?
What really alarms Democrats is the fear that they may lose a Spanish-speaking press that operates under a univision of progressive assumptions. For years Mr. Biden’s party has taken Hispanic voters for granted, but their loyalty is being stretched as the left abandons traditional cultural values and Bidenomics hurts the middle class. In a recent poll of expected 2024 swing states, Mr. Biden’s lead among Hispanics is in single digits.”
Bingo.
It is not news to note that Democrats view the Hispanic community not as a diverse, thoughtful community but rather as the political property of progressives. In which contrary thought to the progressive mindset is not allowed. Univision, in that mindset, was built to be on the liberal plantation. And with this Trump interview the network had the audacity to step off of that plantation.
The all-American holiday season is now officially upon us. Serious politics will emerge once past the Christmas rush.
But come the New Year and the advent of the 2024 presidential election, the battle from liberal media to claim political ownership to Hispanics will be on, and on big time.
The torrent of rage aimed at Univision for doing this Trump interview, as with the recent CNN sit-down with Trump, is in reality a clear signal that the far left believes they own the media – and have a birthright to it. Newsflash? They don’t.
So in a media environment that has inclusively expanded to include conservative outlets like Fox, Newsmax, talk radio and sites like NewsBusters, the battle by the left to silence Trump or any other Republican who might emerge as the GOP nominee is on.