As the 2010s wind down to a close, MRC Latino recounts the Worst of The Decade from our nation’s domestic Spanish-language media. In this installment we take a look back at some of the most blatantly biased coverage to emerge from the leading Spanish-language network.
Elevation of the Mayor of San Juan
One of the immediate results of the aftermath of Hurricane María was the sudden elevation of Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico to the national political conversation. Little was known about the mayor except that she was outspoken against the Trump Administration, which in the eyes of the liberal media, was more than enough reason to grant her as much free media as she wanted. Univision will be remembered for initially enabling Cruz, as the earliest national platform to grant that access. Read more on that here, and watch below as she failed to answer whether Venezuelan tyrant Nicolás Maduro is a dictator:
Promotion of Oscar Lopez Rivera
For some odd reason, Univision chose grant favorable coverage to convicted FALN terrorist Oscar López Rivera, whose prison sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017. After his release, the New York City Puerto Rican Day Parade chose to honor López Rivera as a “National Liberation Hero”. Several sponsors ditched the event as a result of the subsequent backlash, including Univision- which was less than forthcoming when reporting of its withdrawal from the annual parade. Watch below as former U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) compares the unrepentant terrorist to George Washington:
Univision’s Immigration Advocacy
Immigration has been at the heart of Univision’s news coverage for as long as anyone can remember, and now the network touts immigration as a “human right”. To that end, the network refers to any person or proposed legislation seeking to curb illegal immigration as “anti-immigrant”, and openly advocates for DACA recipients. Watch below as anchor Jorge Ramos details the importance of immigration to domestic Spanish-language TV networks:
Isaac Lee’s “no two sides”
Univision’s injection of bias into its news coverage exploded during the tenure of Isaac Lee as President of News. His 2015 forum with Jay Rosen at the University of Texas (Austin) laid out the entire foundation of how the network would cover the news going forward, in terms of balance and bias. Watch below as Lee suggests that those who would oppose the network's agenda are comparable with Nazis:
Collusion with 2016 Clinton campaign
In 2016, MRC Latino exposed the extent to which Univision worked together with the Clinton campaign. In short, there were two major pieces of regulatory relief sought by Univision: FCC approval of Televisa’s bid to acquire a larger stake in the network, and a continuation of the prevailing open-borders policies. Univision stood to gain from a Clinton election win, and reached out to Team Clinton. (Read the whole story here):
