Univision served their audiences a taste of real journalism during an exclusive post-State of the Union interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, boldly asking her about her reaction to the Kiss seen around the world between her husband, Doug Emhoff and Dr. Jill Biden. The bravado, however, quickly gave way to the usual Biden official PR branch when, only a few hours later, the network backtracked to “nothing happened, it was just the camera angles.”
Take a look at the original question from correspondent Edwin Pitti in this report from Univision's Despierta America:
EDWIN PITTI: Madame President (sic), to end this interview I have to ask you about something else with regards to yesterday's State of the Union address: there is a viral video online from the moment when your husband received a kiss from the First Lady upon her arrival to the (House) chamber. What is your reaction to the video, which many say they have to gossip about?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: No – I haven't watched the video. I don't know – but I do know and the First Lady and the Second Gentleman are working arduously with what we are doing with my husband against antisemitism – very important. He was just in Poland – in Krakow, and was visiting Auschwitz to visit – what we need to do in order to fight against hate- he fights against antisemitism but also against hatred towards immigrants and, sadly, we've seen that in our country. But the First Lady and the Second Gentleman are truly, truly concerned for many people that are overlooked and underrepresented.
PITTI: Thank you very much, Madam Vice President, for the time you've given us. We hope to see you soon in Despierta América.
HARRIS: I'd love that. I'll come back. Thank you.
PITTY: Have a good one.
“There is a viral video online from the moment when your husband received a kiss from the First Lady upon her arrival to the (House) chamber. What is your reaction to the video, which many say they have to gossip about,” Pitti asked, to which the VP answered with a thoroughly unconvincing, “I haven't watched the video. I don't know,” before veering off to fluff speech about the chummy First Lady and Second Gentleman's contributions to the Biden administration.
Less than four hours later, however, the story at Univision shifted dramatically, with co-anchors Carolina Sarassa and Borja Voces, from Univision's midday news edition, claiming, or rather, insisting that it was a misrepresentation for which the camera angle was to blame.
Watch the duo as they aired the video “over and over again, even in slow motion”, while repeating the word “angle” six times to try to convince their audiences of their absurd take -- delivered over a chyron that read “Jill Biden and Harris’ husband greet each other with an apparent kiss”:
CAROLINA SARASSA, You're likely to have already watched this video on your phone and it has gone viral. We're talking about That Kiss, the moment where First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff greet each other. There you see it – over and over again, even in slow motion. Afterwards, as is customary, they shook hands and embraced in order to greet the rest of the people that were present and, well, this is footage, Borja, that has been all over the place this morning and I don't believe that this was a kiss on the mouth (lips).
BORJA VOCES: No. It's the angle – the angle.
SARASSA: The angle.
VOCES: It seems like they're
SARASSA: The angle.
VOCES: … giving each other a kiss on the lips but really – if you zoom in you realize that no – it was a peck, an affectionate little kiss, right?
SARASSA: The angle.
VOCES: A close kiss, but a kiss with no kind of controversy, right?
SARASSA: The angle.
VOCES: A close kiss, but a kiss with no kind of controversy, right?
“... if you zoom in you realize that no – it was a peck, an affectionate little kiss, right?, insisted Voces.
Honestly Univision? Did the White House pressure you to discredit what we all saw - over and over and in slow motion - before returning to your on-going role as publicists for the White House?
It sure seems like it, and at MRC Latino we say: Vergüenza ajena, shame on you.
Call out advertisers like Clorox that sponsor blatant bias like the one shown above at the Spanish-speaking media. You can reach them here.
