President Trump's pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now the subject of a Telemundo ad in which the Spanish-language sister network to NBC, in no uncertain terms, vilifies both President Trump and the 85-year-old law enforcement veteran.
Taking its brand of advocacy journalism to a whole new level in its contest with Univision, the Telemundo News promo chooses to ignore any of the merits of the case for the pardon and instead tears into Arpaio as "Public Enemy Number One of Latinos" while portraying Trump as a President who by his act of clemency has "pardoned racism."
TELEMUNDO ANNOUNCER: Sheriff Arpaio, considered Public Enemy Number One of Latinos. Convicted for racial discrimination. The President pardons him.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think he's going to be just fine.
TELEMUNDO ANNOUNCER: Latinos say it is a slap in the face to our community.
JUAN JOSE GUTIERREZ, DIRECTOR, LATINO USA MOVEMENT: An insult.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He pardoned racism.
ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He violated our constitutional rights.
TELEMUNDO ANNOUNCER: The things as they are. Telemundo News.
The ad is the clearest evidence to date that at the national level, Telemundo increasingly operates and promotes itself more like a liberal political advocacy organization than a news organization.
Preferring to cast both Arpaio and the President in the worst possible light, Telemundo ignores the fact that, as is the case in most such actions, the pardon was based on consideration of Arpaio's particular circumstances, not the least of which are his five decades of public service as an Army veteran, police officer, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Arizona branch and more than 20 years as a Sheriff dedicated to upholding the laws of the land, including those against illegal immigration.
In addition, the President clearly took into consideration Arpaio's advanced age, and the fact that his wife is gravely ill. In contrast to former President Obama's recent pardons of people who committed high treason against the United States (Bradley Manning) or sought to violently overthrow the Government of the United States (Oscar López Rivera), in this case President Trump here pardoned a man who was subject to only a maximum six-month prison sentence.
But Telemundo, like the rest of the liberal media, evidently prefers to ignore such substantive considerations, and has rushed instead to further inflame the country's political polarization with reckless charges of racism against both Arpaio and the President.
