The political violence in Charlottesville and President Trump's repudiation of it have been covered in the most widely divergent ways by two national Spanish-language television networks, one based in Los Angeles and the other in Miami.
In Los Angeles, Estrella TV anchor Adriana Yañez prefaced the news from Charlottesville by telling her audience that "Donald Trump's policies of hate have reached their most catastrophic level."
To dramatic effect, Yañez went on to charge only white supremacists with filling "with blood and violence" the city's streets.
ADRIANA YANEZ, ANCHOR, NOTICIERO ESTRELLA: Good afternoon, this is Adriana Yanez with the most relevant news of the day. Donald Trump's policies of hate have reached their most catastrophic level. White supremacists fill with blood and violence the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia.
It actually gets worse. Incredibly, the Estrella anchor then prefaced tape of President Trump's denunciation of racism as evil, and his slamming of those who commit racially-motivated violence, by saying that the President "softly condemns" acts of racial hate.
ADRIANA YANEZ, ANCHOR, NOTICIERO ESTRELLA: This delicate situation caused President Trump to address it again and softly condemn those acts of racial hate.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neoNazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.
Can there be any excuse for this, other than that Yañez does not meet the RAISE Act's minimum requirements for understanding plain English?
In sharp contrast to Estrella's blatant anti-Trump manipulation of the horrific news from Charlottesville, and in setting up the same video from President Trump, Miami-based Mega TV anchor Elvira Salazar told her viewers on August 14 that in his condemnation of the attack the President "violently lashed out against the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists."
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, ANCHOR, MEGA NOTICIERO: Today President Trump violently lashed out against the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. And he condemned this weekend's terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia against an anti-fascist protest that took the life of one woman, and left 19 wounded.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neoNazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.
The stunningly clashing presentations of the same news are also likely illustrative of the major differences that exist in both the ideological and demographic composition of the California and Florida media markets from which the two national newscasts emanate.
Specifically, in comparison to Miami, in Los Angeles there appears to be scarcely any ideological diversity among Spanish-language television and radio news talent. In addition, unlike in Miami, in Los Angeles far-Left activist groups, including Antifa and socialists, routinely have a robust presence on the streets.
In Miami, however, media personalities like Cuban-American Elvira Salazar, whose families have personally suffered the horrors of authoritarian leftist regimes, continue to temper the mix and seem much more attune to the politics of a state where a sizeable bloc of anti-Left, pro law-and-order Hispanics voted for Trump in 2016.
That probably explains why it was Mega that had the distinction of being the only Spanish-language television network newscast to echo the President on his "many sides" remark on the sources of the political violence that manifested itself in Charlottesville, as well as elsewhere around the country.
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, ANCHOR, MEGA NEWS: But the violence doesn't just come from the white supremacists. In the last few hours there are reports of tough protests by activists opposed to these groups.
