Throughout the presidential election, Univision has served as one of many essential Spanish-language networks reporting correct details about candidates and their insurance policies. The community’s mission is, by its personal account, to “inform and empower” the Latino group, and thru that mission, Univision has earned the belief of tens of millions of Spanish audio system throughout the nation.
Heading into the 2024 election, Latinos anticipated Univision to stay a reputable and dependable supply — not less than till final week, when it reported that community executives met with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. And on November 9, the community was broadcast one hour interview with him maintaining a totally uncritical lens on the damaging insurance policies Trump pursued throughout his presidency and what he has promised to place in place if elected in 2024.
In response to the Washington Submit, executives on the community’s guardian firm, TelevisaUnivision, are altering their strategy to Trump, which allowed him to unfold lies through the interview, whose viewers doubtless assumed Univision was nonetheless working with journalistic integrity. Sadly, that isn’t the case.
This cozy interview got here simply days earlier than Trump’s inhumane and cruel immigration coverage plan for 2025 was revealed by longtime assistant Stephen Miller. It could embrace reinstating a Muslim journey ban, ending birthright citizenship, a focused marketing campaign to “spherical up” undocumented immigrants and detain them in camps, and the start of mass deportations no matter an individual’s time in the US. As well as, Trump has promised that if he’s elected, he’ll give up extraordinarily standard immigration packages similar to Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals and revocation of Non permanent Protected Standing and Humanitarian Parole.
These plans mirror why Trump is taken into account essentially the most anti-Latino president in American historical past, recalling his 4 years in workplace by which he incited hate speech and brought on struggling to so many individuals. Throughout his presidency, Trump even attacked Univision’s Jorge Ramos by ejecting him from a press convention after he confronted the then-president about his immigration file.
Regardless of these previous insults and harmful plans, Univision’s new company homeowners — one in every of whom is pals with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner — have determined to vary the community’s editorial strategy and go together with Trump lower than a yr earlier than a massively consequential election for Latino voters. This shift has included canceling already bought Biden marketing campaign advertisements through the Trump interview and canceling the rebuttal of Trump’s interview with Biden’s director of Latin American media, Maca Casado.
Politicians teaming up with highly effective media bosses to create uncontrolled platforms and censor opposing events is deeply troubling and akin to the sorts of actions we see in authoritarian regimes in Latin America – regimes that a lot of our personal households have needed to flee because of political repression and persecution. Our society is all too accustomed to the results of a politicized press corps.
In a democracy, the function of the press is to assist be sure that authorities is accountable to the individuals it serves. Any company determination that undermines this function is harmful and abuses the general public belief.
As one of the trusted information sources for Hispanics, Univision has a accountability to report the info and preserve journalistic integrity, no matter which politician the CEO chooses to befriend.
For Univision to stay a reputable supply, executives should now show to viewers that they’re able to upholding the rules of journalism. They have to reaffirm their dedication to fact-checking and balanced, unbiased reporting. Univision ought to report on the specter of disinformation getting used to affect Latino voters. Its tens of millions of viewers, who could have a serious function within the 2024 election, will want the community to do its job with integrity. Univision’s repute will not final lengthy if it would not.
John Leguizamo is an actor, comic and movie producer.