Multiple corners of the internet were roiled by the news that Univision and senior anchor Jorge Ramos agreed to part ways at the end of the year. While this is a welcome development, I would urge caution against labeling this move as indicative of any sort of ideological shift at the network.
Watch as Ramos announces his departure at the end of last night’s Noticiero Univision:
NOTICIERO UNIVISION
9/9/24
6:58 PM
JORGE RAMOS: In closing, I have something personal to tell you. I’m leaving Univision. The company and I have mutually agreed not to renew the contract that expires at the end of the year. I will remain on this newscast and on Al Punto until December. This has been a sad, difficult decision and it took a great deal of time. Thus ends my 40 years at Univision, 38 of which were at the helm of this newscast, and 17 hosting Al Punto. I am deeply grateful for these four decades. Univision has literally been my second home and I’m very proud to have been part of this great team of journalists that have consolidated leadership over the years. They are my friends. They’re right there behind the camera. They are my family, and I wish them the best of luck. Afterwards, of course, I’ll tell you about my professional plans. There is much left to do in journalism and this truly fills me with excitement. For the time being, all that remains is to thank those of you who watch us every night, who have joined us for such a long period of time, with so much affection and loyalty. And thank you, Ilia. To Maria Elena Salinas, Andrea Cutias and Teresa Rodriguez, with whom I’ve had the honor and responsibility of hosting this newscast. And as I mentioned, this is not an immediate goodbye. We’ll be back here tomorrow with the news.
Ramos’ farewell closely mirrors language from the network’s press release, specifically, the mutual decision to allow the contract to expire with no extension:
Noticias Univision, the leading Spanish-language news and information platform in the U.S., announced today that Univision News and Jorge Ramos have mutually agreed not to renew their soon-to-expire contract agreement. Ramos will step down from his role as co-anchor of Noticiero Univision at the end of 2024, following the U.S. Presidential Election.
To be crystal clear, an announced mutual decision to non-renew is the most elegant of firings. If I walk into a car dealership, offer $30K for the model on sale for $40K and get laughed out of the showroom, then we mutually agreed not to come together on a deal for a car. In this case, “mutual agreement” is a red flag indicating that Ramos refused to accept whatever the network was offering him in order to extend.
Per sources with knowledge of the situation, Ramos was offered a contract extension in exchange for significantly reduced compensation (from a figure reportedly somewhere between Muir and Holt money), and a significantly reduced role wherein he would no longer be the face of the news division. Being forced off the anchor desk and relegated to a weekly role was apparently a step too far for Ramos.
It is clear that TelevisaUnivision wants to take its U.S.-based news division in a different direction. I would caution against anyone inferring that the firing of Ramos represents a shift to the right. It does not.
Televisa’s rumored replacement of Ramos with Enrique Acevedo does NOT represent a shift to the right, no matter how much the Professional Latinx may squeal to that effect, but a shift away from open activism and towards the appearance of something representing “mainstream” media.
For the last decade, we’ve described Univision as an activist organization with a broadcast license and regurgitator of Democrat talking points. These assessments were driven, primarily, by the performance of Jorge Ramos as lead anchor and public face of the news division. For over a decade, MRC Latino has made crystal clear that there could be no true reform at Univision so long as Ramos remained in place. Now that he’s on his way out, we’ll see just how serious the reformers are.
In the coming days and weeks, we'll complete our assessment of the damage that Ramos' brand of journalism has done to our political discourse, and catalogue some of his worst demagoguery. For now, we welcome these developments but remain focused on fighting Spanish-language disinformation at its biggest source: corporate Spanish-language news media.
