In what is clear reversion to form, Univision has chosen to air one-sided coverage that could best be described as Islamist apologia. The most recent instance comes in the wake of the terrorist attack at a shopping center in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
The tone was set early on by anchor María Elena Salinas' introduction of the story filed by Pablo Monsalvo:
MARIA ELENA SALINAS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: Meanwhile, in Minnesota, the enormous Somali community fears retaliation and discrimination after one of their own stabbed ten people at a shopping center, in an incident that is being investigated as a potential terrorist act. In recent years, Somali immigrants have complained of offensive treatment, and (of having been) harassed for being Muslim and from a country with terrorism problems. Pablo Monsalvo is in Minneapolis.
More often than not, the anchor introduction frames the report that follows. Salinas' framing here is no exception, and the viewer is primed to see a different angle to the information coming forth from St. Cloud, Minnesota. Correspondent Pablo Monzalvo then proceeds to deliver a flattering profile of the St. Cloud stabber, launching his report with a quote from a local leader within the Somali community, who asserted his belief that the attacker had no ties to ISIS or any other terror group, and wrote the attack off as the offshoot of a fight. Mind you, the report ran on Tuesday, and ISIS claimed the attack on Sunday- but Univision viewers never heard this in the report.
Monzalvo then highlights a single, local establishment with a "Muslims Keep Out" sign out front- as though it were representative of the entire community of St. Cloud, and proceeds to obtain more shocked and outraged reaction from the Somali community. Finally, Monzalvo informs us that the attacker had hopes of studying computers, that he was an honor student in high school, had a single traffic ticket on his record, and was an all-around great guy. We can be certain about that last part because Monzalvo found a family friend who said so.
Missing from the piece was any law-enforcement perspective, any word about the ISIS claim, or any eyewitness testimony from the stabbing attack. The entire story was yet another in a long line of islamist apologia published by Univision throughout its platforms, another step en route to Chief News/Entertainment/Digital Officer Isaac Lee's vision of a "...fairer, more equal, and inclusive America".
