In the midst of chasing an exclusive, Univision may have inadvertently broken a bigger story- namely by placing a timestamp on the disappearance of the Orlando shooter's wife.
Univision News swarmed upon Orlando on the Monday after the horrific shooting at the Pulse nightclub, with Jorge Ramos anchoring the news not too far from the site of the terrorist attack. Meanwhile, correspondent Juan Carlos Aguiar rushed to the home of the terrorist, not unlike West Coast correspondent Luis Megid who infamously crossed crime scent tape in order to score a first look at the home of the San Bernardino terrorist couple.
Here's how the story aired:
JORGE RAMOS, UNIVISION ANCHOR: So one of our correspondents, Juan Carlos Aguiar, went into the home, into the apartment where Omar Mateen lived, which is two hours from where we are in Orlando, in Fort Pierce. A door was open, and he walked in. He walked in! This is what he saw.
JUAN CARLOS AGUIAR, UNIVISION CORRESPONDENT: This is apartment 107, within a complex. Neither of the two access doors had access tape barring entry. Upon entering the property through a door which was not locked, you arrive at the living room and dining room, places on which federal agents apparently did not focus because there are no cabinets in which to store private objects or evidence of a crime.
Wide open door, no crime scene tape. That's your first red flag. Aguiar goes on to mention that federal law enforcement had already combed through the apartment- while traipsing through the family's living spaces and making observations on the framed pictures that hung on the wall. Was that speculation or did he actually speak to an agent before entering the apartment?
In a rush to push the network's anti-gun agenda, Aguiar found (and the network published) the terrorist's state-issued firearm license (a requirement of employment given that he was a security guard). It is worth noting that the network demanded exclusive attribution when tweeting out the image of the gun license.
But there was no curiosity as to the whereabouts of the terrorist's missing wife, who may have known about the attack. At least, none that was expressed openly.
A bigger -and much more important- piece of news was lost in a rush to push the big get.
The terrorist's wife may have already been in the wind, whereabouts unknown to the Department of Justice, as of Monday, June 13th- a little over a day after a terrorist attack that claimed 49 innocent lives and shattered so many more.
The Attorney General's reluctant admission seems to have come a week too late.
