Univision rushed to frame its executives' meeting with President-elect Donald Trump as "productive". However, that framing is quickly coming undone from within the organization.
The network quickly spun multiple angles to the meeting. The full text of the subsequent press release is as follows:
“We just had a productive meeting with President-elect Donald Trump about issues facing Hispanic and multicultural communities in America. We look forward to working with Mr. Trump and his administration to make our vibrant country even better. Our Univision News team will continue to cover the Trump administration with the rigor that we have brought to the coverage of every administration that preceded it. We approach this task without fear or favor and with one goal only – to ensure our audience is well-informed. Our eyes, ears and minds are wide open.”
Notice the three statements that Univision subtly embedded within this release: First, that it still purports to be the gatekeeper to America's Hispanic community. The second sentence is a refutation of the Trump campaign's catchphrase "Make America Great Again". And finally, an indication that there will be no change in the tone and tenor of the network's coverage. In other words, that they've learned nothing.
Univision then reinforced that narrative on that evening's newscast, by suggesting that CEO Randy Falco and Chief News/Entertainment/Digital Officer Isaac Lee went to Trump Tower in order to valiantly stick up for Jorge Ramos (a year and a half after his ejection from the Iowa press conference):
PEGGY CARRANZA, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The Univision executives today told the President-elect that Ramos is one of the United States' most important journalists, and they support him.
However, the timing and duration of the meeting suggest something else. As Veronica Villafañe reports, the meeting suggests that Univision sought a deténte with Trump:
Univision responded with news coverage of Trump as an anti-immigrant candidate that did not ease up leading to the election. At the network level, Ramos became an activist advocating for immigrants and proclaiming the election couldn’t be won without the Latino vote. He was proven wrong.
Support of Hillary Clinton went all the way to the top. Univision Chairman Haim Saban was an open supporter who donated millions to her campaign. Many, if not most, of the news division’s staffers also favored Clinton and were not expecting a Trump win, according to insiders.
Now, with the country’s next leader prone to media tongue-lashing, social media bashing, and blocking access, the network has to pivot its stance.
Having already received its foreign-ownership rule exemption as a parting gift from the Obama administration, Univision's narrative comes across as vacuous chest-beating- and is belied by the fact that the meeting lasted only 30 minutes. Whatever went on upstairs, it is apparent that Trump did most if not all of the talking, which leads us to the aforementioned internal dissent.
Deadspin's Hamilton Nolan included the Falco-Lee-Trump meeting in his scathing "This Is Why You Don't Kiss The Ring" take on the President-elect's Jan. 11 press conference.
This is why you don’t kiss the ring of Donald Trump. This is why you don’t visit him in his golden tower and sit stiffly in a spacious conference room to hear his nonsensical thoughts about “innovation.” This is why you don’t tousle his hair playfully on late night television, or allow him to hold off-the-record meetings with your news organization. This is why you don’t pose in smiling pictures with him, or defer to him out of some misplaced sense of decorum or respect for the office he is soon to occupy.
One only imagines what sorts of opinions remain unpublished.
It is evident that the snake that is Univision cannot resist devouring itself, even as it seeks to regroup from what it considered a catastrophic U.S. presidential election.
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