Univision’s Jorge Ramos dealt the Spanish-language disinformation card during an interview with U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), and in the process dealt a steaming pile of disinformation of his own.
Watch the exchange:
JORGE RAMOS: Let me ask you about one of the accusations made by the Democrats not only against you, but against Republicans in Florida. They say that you are telling lies- disinforming by accusing them of being socialists when you and I know perfectly well, we have been to Nicaragua, we have been to Venezuela, I have been to Cuba, that this is socialism- not the type of socialism which can be seen here in the United States. They accuse you of lying.
US REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): No- that's the famous disinformation. Look, I think that people are not that stupid. I think that people have many different sources of information (from which) to determine whether what I or other Republicans are telling them is true or false. And my opponent said that I was the biggest socialist in the world and the population, my constituents, my voters did not believe her. So people have common sense. Now, what we do know is that within the Democratic Party there is a radical wing, not everyone, no- there are many noble people within the Democratic Party. But there is a radical wing that calls itself a democratic soalist. For me, everything that has to do with the word socialist...
RAMOS: Yes, but it's not Cuba, it's not Venezuela, it's not Nicaragua.
SALAZAR…is very troubling.
RAMOS: It's not Cuba, it's not Venezuela, it's not Nicaragua.
SALAZAR: But everything that has to do with socialism means that they take power away from the individual to give more power to the government. They take power away from small business in order to make government then send you a check. I don't like that word. I am talking about a market economy, giving help to the person who can give it to a person in need. But with regard to socialism, at least in MY district, that was rejected. And that disinformation thing- I heard that many times. But I say again to you, the American People are not dumb.
Take notice of Rep. Salazar demonstrating the proper response to the "Spanish-language disinformation" narrative, as she practically laughed in Ramos' face while he tried to make that point.
There are some in corporate media, and Spanish-language media is no exception, that still try to dismiss Republican successes in Florida as the result of “Spanish-language disinformation” centered around socialism. This is especially true in South Florida, where there is a large concentration of individuals who fled socialist regimes such as Coba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Marxist terrorism in Colombia. While regurgitating the “Red Scare” talking point, Ramos rehashed some of his old disinformation: to wit, that the “democratic socialism” sold in the U.S. is totally different from the “bad” socialism of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Ramos did an entire explainer video on this as AOC’s ascent drew scrutiny on the concept of “democratic socialism”. As we said then:
The Latin American tyrannies that Ramos seeks to depict as "old people socialism" had their origins as social democracies. And it isn’t just old people that feel this way about the tyranny that is inherent to socialism. Univision’s headquarters and news studios are located in Doral, Florida: the raw, beating heart of the Venezuelan exile community- which is far from old. The same can be said for Miami’s Nicaraguan community, which continues to grow as Ortega continues his brutal crackdown against dissidents fed up with the Sandinista Revolution.
To add insult to injury, Ramos claims to show “both sides” of the issue, but only interviews a supporter of democratic socialism. There is no perspective offered by those who favor capitalism, and some of the clips go back to the Cold War- another narrative device intended to depict legitimate opposition to socialism as little more than Cold War scaremongering. But then, had Ramos bothered to present a capitalist perspective, there’s a distinct possibility that his viewers might have heard about the Green New Deal’s now-deleted FAQ section which, in fact, called for a “radical transformation” of government and the economy.
Three years later, Ramos is still trying to explain socialism away to an audience that didn’t want to hear it. Bold move coming from Univision’s Special Editorial Advisor to the CEO.
This soft-sell of socialism was brought to you by Verizon. Their info can be found here.
