Comcast-owned NBC announced Monday that they will no longer carry the Donald Trump-produced Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and would be removed from the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice.” Diversity-uberconscious Comcast must have faced great internal and external pressure after Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants and crime.
At the same time, Univision VP of Corporate Communications Monica Talan has informed Ken Oliver-Mendez of MRC Latino that as of this afternoon the network still has neither made any formal statement denouncing -- or taken any disciplinary action against -- their President of Content and Programming, Alberto Ciurana, who graphically compared Trump on the Internet to the mass murderer in Charleston, Dylann Roof.
“Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump,” NBC said in a statement. “At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.” This came on the same day that NBC disrespected Ted Cruz on the air, asking the child of an inter-racial marriage if he would have opposed inter-racial marriage.
NBC bought half of the Miss Universe/Miss USA franchise from Trump in 2002 and has telecast the pageant ever since. Variety added:
Trump’s troubles with NBC and Univision also leave the Miss USA franchise in the lurch as far as TV coverage for the July 12 event. The Miss USA/Miss Universe pageants are a joint venture of Trump and NBC, which makes it unclear if Trump has the flexibility to shop the rights to other TV outlets. Given the uproar over Trump’s comments, it’s likely to be a tough sell at most mainstream broadcast and cable networks....
Trump told CNN that he was considering filing suit against NBC. He said in a statement that “NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct” before saying that NBC will support disgraced journalist Brian Williams “but won’t stand behind people that tell it like it is, as unpleasant as that may be.”
