Univision co-anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Antonieta Collins tried to convince the network’s viewers of their objectivity and failed big time.
This clip from Univision Presents: Diary of the Coronavirus, a daily special update on the COVID-19 pandemic, included a self-congratulatory pat on the back by Ramos and Collins. But a funny thing happened on the way to flaunting their self-admiration for being providers of real news vs. fake news.
Watch as Jorge Ramos reveals what Univision considers to be their ethical standards in news reporting: “Our responsibility is to give you the information that we've been able to verify and set aside the fake news, and the false news, in order to give you exactly what we believe to be the truth.”
MARIA ANTONIETA COLLINS: But the fake news also starts, Jorge. On the internet they're posting that they're going to start mass fumigations in Florida, that they start at tonight midnight. That's the difference between the news that everyone gives as official, as when it comes from the government, when they come from some authority- and those that anybody says and thousands listen.
JORGE RAMOS: So our responsibility, and we've said it many times, but this is- there’s never been a better time to say so- our responsibility is to give you the information that we've been able to verify and set aside the fake news, and the false news, in order to give you exactly what we believe to be the truth.
In all fairness, the intentions of both Collins and Ramos sound plausible. The nation's leading Spanish-speaking network should reasonably be expected to provide, as Collins says, “the news that everyone gives as official, as when it comes from the government, when they come from some authority,” versus the news “that anybody says and thousands listen.”
In many instances, that is the case. However, the reporting at Univision -as well as other Latino news outlets-often lacks such stated objectivity, balance of opinions, and fairness in the news, as is our mission to point out at MRC Latino.
Having Ramos verbalize what many already suspect- that they will “give us exactly” what he believes to be the truth- just doesn't cut it.
