Los Angeles Times
By Kat Linthicum
July 4, 2015
When
the nation's largest Spanish-language television network cut ties just
over a week ago with Donald Trump, Univision executives said they were
acting out of "a responsibility
to speak up for the community we serve."
"We
see firsthand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values
and the important role Mexican immigrants ... have in building the
future of our country," the
network said in response to Trump's derogatory comments about Mexican
immigrants.
It
was a characteristic move for Univision, which, like many
Spanish-language media outlets in the U.S., defines itself not just as a
media company but as an advocate
and defender of the Latino community.
"They
openly acknowledge their bias in acting in the interest of Hispanic
America," said Fernand Amandi, a Democratic pollster based in Florida.
That
self-assigned role could have big consequences for next year's
presidential election. With a record 28 million Latinos eligible to
vote, Spanish-language media companies
are set to have their greatest impact yet in shaping a presidential
race. Their advocacy stance has been on display as the campaign heats
up, with reporters grilling candidates on issues of special importance
to the Latino community, especially immigration.
"If
the Spanish-language media has five minutes to talk to a presidential
candidate about anything, they will talk about immigration," said
Gabriela Domenzain, a former
Univision producer who is now advising Democratic presidential hopeful
Martin O'Malley. That's partly because reporters for English-language
outlets often touch on the issue in less detail, if at all, she said.
In
a recent interview on a Spanish-language show, O'Malley focused
entirely on his proposals to help the estimated 11 millions immigrants
in the country illegally. The
topic didn't come up at all in an interview O'Malley did that same day
with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
"We
try to amplify the issues that maybe the mainstream media is not
covering," said Juan Varela, vice president for content at ImpreMedia,
which publishes many of the
nation's leading Spanish-language newspapers, including La Opinion in
Los Angeles. "We have more responsibility than other journalists," he
said. "We are a part of this community, and we have a responsibility to
support our people and to help to integrate
them."
That
approach has provoked objections from some in both parties, but
especially Republicans who see the focus on immigration and the activist
stance of many Latino journalists
as helpful to Democrats.
Univision
anchor Jorge Ramos, probably the best-known Latino journalist in the
country, has been a particular target. He recently defended the focus on
immigration in
an open letter to Republicans.
"The
Republican Party has been complaining lately about how some Latino
journalists, including me, only ask them about immigration," he said.
"That is correct, but what
Republicans don't understand is that for us, the immigration issue is
the most pressing symbolically and emotionally, and the stance a
politician takes on this defines whether he is with us or against us."
Ramos,
who is one of the most trusted public figures among American Latinos,
according to polls, has been an outspoken supporter of federal
legislation that would pave
a path to citizenship for those living in the country illegally.
He
has pressed candidates from both parties on the issue. In the 2012
campaign, he hammered President Obama, who had promised but failed to
deliver an immigration bill
during his first term. More recently, he has criticized Republican
presidential candidate Marco Rubio, who as a senator from Florida helped
write an immigration reform bill but dropped support for it after it
drew conservative anger.
Conservatives
stepped up their critique of Ramos last month after the news anchor
announced that his daughter was working for Hillary Rodham Clinton's
campaign for the
Democratic nomination. Other criticism has focused on the close
relationship between Clinton and Haim Saban, one of the owners of
Univision and a longtime Clinton fundraiser.
Conservatives say excessive attention to immigration overshadows other issues that matter to Latino voters.
"Immigration
shouldn't be the sole prism" through which campaigns are covered, said
Ken Oliver-Mendez, director of Media Resource Center Latino, a
conservative group that
monitors Spanish-language news for perceived political bias.
According
to polls, candidates' plans for the economy, healthcare and education
are more important to Latino voters than immigration, he said. Those
issues deserve more
play, he added, along with candidates' views on social issues like
abortion and gay marriage.
But some criticism also comes from the liberal end of the spectrum.
After
Jeb Bush announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination last month,
many newscasts noted the Latino musicians who performed, Bush's fluent
Spanish and his wife's
Mexican heritage.
"This
focus on biographical details has come at the expense of reporting on
Bush's positions on healthcare and climate change — issues on which his
positions are at odds
with the interests of most Latinos," wrote Jessica Torres, a researcher
at Media Matters, a liberal media-watchdog group.
Her
organization found that immigration was discussed nearly nine times
more than jobs and the economy and 26 times more than education on
several Spanish-language newscasts
during a recent five-month period. Healthcare was never discussed on
those shows during that period, according to the report.
When candidates don't address Latinos specifically, Spanish-language reporters are apt to take note.
When
Univision covered Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's announcement that he was
seeking the GOP nomination, for example, a reporter mentioned a few
highlights of the speech
and one thing the senator had left out.
"In
an important detail, Rand Paul didn't mention the theme of immigration —
or the term 'Hispanic,'" journalist Pablo Gato reported.
So several candidates are already courting Latinos via Spanish-language media outlets in heavily Hispanic swing states.
Bush,
a former governor of Florida, has appeared on local Spanish-language
television affiliates in that state. In a recent swing through Nevada,
he used a Spanish-language
interview to criticize Trump, several days before he commented about
the controversy in English.
Last
month, Clinton published an op-ed translated into Spanish in a small
Latino newspaper in Nevada. In the piece, Clinton reiterated a pledge to
do more than Obama to
protect immigrants in the country illegally from deportation.
Ibra
Morales, president of MundoFox, a Spanish-language TV company, said his
network planned to expand its campaign coverage to focus on education,
housing and the war
in Iraq, along with immigration. "The Latino agenda is the American
agenda," he said.
But
as Univision News president Isaac Lee explained at a forum at the
University of Texas at Austin earlier this year, reporters for
Spanish-language stations will continue
to define themselves as both journalists and advocates.
"Univision's
audience knows that Jorge is representing them," Lee said, referring to
Ramos. "He is not asking the questions to be celebrated as a fair and
balanced journalist.
He's asking the questions to represent them. He's going to ask the
person whatever is necessary to push the agenda for a more fair society,
for a more inclusive society and for the Hispanic community to be
better."
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