A recent edition of Noticiero Univision reminds us that there are other issues for which the network will take an activist stance beyond immigration. And gun control is at the very top of that list.
MARIA ELENA SALINAS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: The National Rifle Association launched a $5 million ad campaign in support of Donald Trump. One of these depicts a woman who, when a thief enters her home, runs to the safe where she keeps her firearm, but it is empty. And then a graphic appears that states, "Don't let Hillary leave you defenseless." Trump has suggested that Hillary wants to take away, or that Clinton wants to take from Americans their right to own guns. Something which is false.
Anchor María Elena Salinas pivoted away from the ad itself and to the statements of Donald Trump in order to disqualify the ad as false...guilt by association. The viewer comes away from this segment with a false belief that Clinton will protect the individual right to keep and bear arms. What's more, this isn't even Univision News' first attempt to shield Clinton from perceptions that she is a gun-grabber.
Last month, the network published an article subtly titled, "Is It True That Hillary Clinton Wants to Repeal The Second Amendment Like Trump Says?" The piece, also in response to an NRA ad, is a summary of Clinton's denials of intent to repeal the Second Amendment and her gun-control proposals past and present.
But there are two key words that are nowhere to be found throughout any of Univision's depictions of Clinton's stances on gun control: "Heller" and "Australia". As the Free Beacon reported last year, Hillary Clinton slammed the Supreme Court for affirming the individual right to keep and bear arms. Furthermore, Clinton praised Australia's mandatory gun buyback program as "worth considering doing it on the national level." Supporters of the Second Amendment view these statements as an intent so severly curtail - if not outright repeal - the Second Amendment.
Salinas rotated strawmen and false arguments with blazing speed over the course of a sub-30-second blurb. Nonetheless, it is both intelectually and factually dishonest for Univision to exclude any of this when attempting to smear the NRA's ad campaign. Actual journalism suffers in deference to a political, activist agenda.
Given Jorge Ramos' prior calls for repeal of the Second Amendment and Chief News Officer Isaac Lee's propensity to equate Univision's ideological opponents with Nazis, though, it is not unexpected.
