Coverage of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s video messages to the 2016 meeting of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) on the nation’s top Spanish-language network was remarkable for totally failing to point out how the two candidates align with the organization’s stated policy priorities.
Instead of examining how well Clinton and Trump’s policy positions line up with the NHCLC’s expressed core values of “protecting life and the family in all its stages, and approve a path to legalization for immigrants” in his report on the candidates’ messages, Univision’s Luis Megid featured two anti-Trump soundbites.
JAVIER MAZA, POLITICA PUNDIT, UNIVISION: A candidate like him that is distanced from the Hispanic voter, can’t come out with a paper, reading, babbling, so evidently in the race… please, that is not the way to recuperate the trust of voters.
REV. INDALECIO CABALLERO, PASTOR: Now he wants to convince us, trying to make us believe that he will do something for us.
The anti-Trump soundbites were not balanced by any pro-Trump voices, and Megid didn’t give any indication that he tried to seek out pro-Trump perspectives. The Univision correspondent also studiously avoided pointing out that Trump’s policy positions actually coincide with at least two - if not all three - of the pastors’ core values, while Hillary only favors one of them.
Just when it seemed Univision was stepping up its efforts to be more fair, comprehensive and inclusive, reports like this begin popping up again.
The network continues to consistently present immigration as the be-all, end-all issue for U.S. Hispanic voters, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. It’s also continually suppressing the other side, despite an increasing number of sources available to speak for the Trump campaign.
Come on, Univision. You know, and we know, you can do better than this.
Below is the transcript of the cited report, which aired on the May 23, 2016 edition of Noticiero Univision:
UNIVISION
NOTICIERO UNIVISION
5/23/2016
6:33:31 PM – 6:35:53 PM EST | 2 MIN 20 SEC
ILIA CALDERON, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: This weekend Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump sent recorded messages to an influential of Hispanic evangelicals in the south of California. Both are trying to conquer their votes, something especially challenging for Trump, who has had serious frictions with the Hispanic community. Luis Megid brings us the messages and the reactions.
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The numbers keep on growing. Today there are more than 40,000 Hispanic evangelical congregations in the country. And this weekend, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each sent a recorded message to the conference that brought them together in the south of California.
HILLARY CLINTON: [Clip of Hillary’s remarks to the Conference] “Let’s keep families together, by passing comprehensive immigration reform…”
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Looking directly at the camera, Hillary Clinton called to work for comprehensive immigration reform and criticized Trump without naming him for asking for the massive deportation of undocumented immigrants.
DONALD TRUMP: [Clip of Donald’s remarks to the Conference] “We’re gonna do a lot of things if I get elected President…”
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: Recorded on a phone and reading from a paper in his plane, Trump did not talk about the wall, but said that he would reinforce the border to stop drug trafficking, promised more jobs, and said that he’d care for evangelicals and would work with them. Experts in political campaigns criticize his style, although one cannot deny that the presentation was different.
JAVIER MAZA, POLITICAL ANALYST AND MEDIA EXPERT, UNIVISION: A candidate like him that is distanced from the Hispanic voter, can’t come out with a paper, reading, babbling, so evidently in the race… please, that is not the way to recuperate the trust of voters.
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The Director of the Conference [Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Christian Hispanic Leadership Conference] responded to the recorded messages saying: “We received both videos respectfully, we’re people for prayer and our response was to pray, Hispanic Christians will need to determine who will preserve our values better, like protecting life and the family in all its stages, and approve a path to legalization for immigrants.”
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: The reaction was pretty diplomatic. The National Conference of Christian Hispanic Leaders is a non-partisan organization, and as such, it prefers not to favor Democrats or Republicans. Some evangelical pastors, however, told us how they really feel.
INDALENCIO CABALLERO, EVANGELICAL PASTOR: Now he wants to convince us, trying to make us believe that he will do something for us.
LUIS MEGID, CORRESPONDENT, UNIVISION: In the latest polls, Hispanic voters go for Clinton by an ample margin, 65% of them support her, while 28% support Trump. The percentage is not bad at all for Trump, with 28%. He’s already over the percentage of Hispanic voters that Mitt Romney received in the election of 2012.
