If you ever wondered what Univision's news division looks like when it wants to report on scandals and hold the powerful accountable, you're in luck. Just don't expect any of that reporting to affect Democratic politicians in the United States.
Yesterday, Univision jumped all over the latest scandal to hit Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto- charges that he plagiarized close to 29% of his undergraduate law thesis. Per reports:
Of the 682 paragraphs that made up the 200-page thesis, titled 'Mexican Presidentialism and Alvaro Obregon,' 197, or 28.9 percent, were found to be plagiarized, the report said.
The article and accompanying video were published on the website of journalist Carmen Aristegui, whose investigative team revealed in 2014 that Pena Nieto's wife was in the process of acquiring a luxury home from a government contractor.
The Casa Blanca scandal, as it came to be known, dealt a major blow to the reputation of Pena Nieto, whose poll numbers have recently hit all-time lows over perceptions he and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) have failed to stamp out rampant crime and corruption.
The aforementioned "Casa Blanca" scandal has also made a big splash at Univision, along with last week's revelations about the businessman friend of the president that paid the property tax bill on First Lady Angélica Rivera's Miami apartment. This, in addition to the continuous coverage the network lends to the Peña Nieto administration's mishandling (many say cover-up) of what happened at Ayotzinapa.
For these stories, Univision displays a journalistic rigor and intellectual curiosity that is simply not seen when it comes to reporting on the scandals surrounding Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Whether on any of the recent scandals surrounding Clinton- whether Benghazi, the e-mail server, or the Clinton Foundation- coverage has been reactive and diffuse at best.
The fact is that we expect our news media to hold accountable those both in power and in pursuit of power, regardless of consequence. This simply hasn't been the case at Univision, and the fact is that it doesn't even matter whether this overt pro-Clinton bias is due to the executive chairman's relationship with Clinton, the network's commitment to "no two sides" journalism, or because she may be perceived to be best for business.
The bias is there, it is pervasive, and it is something that people will point to when determining whether Univision is still to be regarded as a credible purveyor of news.
