Here at MRC Latino, our long-standing position has been to point out Univision/Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos' refusal, despite an eagerness to opine on other matters and his long-running feud against Donald Trump, to take any sort of stand against the apparent corruption and public lies of Hillary Clinton as pertains to the ongoing email and Clinton Foundation scandals. But it is our duty to point out that this has changed.
If his introduction to last night's reporting is any indication, then Ramos is definitely off the fence:
JORGE RAMOS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Today we're learning more about how and when the FBI decided to insert itself, at the last minute, into the contest for the White House.
The actual report filed by White House correspondent Janet Rodriguez is quite straightforward and even-keeled, a just-the-fact presentation of the events surrounding the story with analyst commentary from both sides of the issue. But, as is often the custom at Noticiero Univision, the stories are framed by the anchors themselves, and Ramos' heavy-handed introduction is not the exception here.
It is worth pointing out that at the top of the newscast, anchor María Elena Salinas characterized the Clinton Foundation story as "versions" of an investigation, as if there were not an actual ongoing investigation. Noticiero Univision's previous refusal to address the Clinton Foundation story beyond Rodriguez' passing reference in last night's email report is reminiscent of the manner that the network newscast was dragged into reporting on the reopened FBI investigation of the email scandal- which is to say, "kicking and screaming". Noticiero Univision's behavior further solidifies its status as the one, true Clinton News Network.
But let's get back to Ramos. His framing of last night's report marks an on-camera shift away from his stated "red is red, two dead" style of newscast anchoring. Off-camera, he had already mainfested a critical attitude towards the FBI's repoening of the email scandal investigation. It appears that the on-camera anchor is now one and the same with the off-camera activist.
In so doing, Ramos FINALLY takes a stand with regard to the corruption and public lies surrounding Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, Ramos has broken his long silence in order to take the side of corruption and public lies, rather than taking a stand against.
By trying to be cute and throw out that line about the FBI inserting itself into the election, Ramos shows that he would rather question the law enforcement agencies investigating corruption rather than the politicians accused of corruption. There has been much media back-slapping as this election winds down, and much self-congratulation over their shift to advocacy "no two sides" reporting in lieu of actual journalism based on allowing viewers to be the triers of the facts that reporters present. When we get around to doing the post-mortem on 2016, the record will reflect that it was Ramos that built this insane public permission structure by pulling his staged ejection from the Trump press conference in Iowa.
On an unrelated note, Jorge Ramos celebrates 30 years behind Univision's anchor desk. Here's to a long life doing what you love, Jorge. We'll be watching.
