The GOP Was Right to Shun Univision
SAN DIEGO -- Republicans seem to have finally figured out the Spanish translation for "Democrats' Communications Department." It's pronounced: "Univision."
The Republican National Committee recently announced the television networks that will broadcast and moderate a series of debates between GOP candidates in the 2016 election. The nation's largest Spanish-language network was left off the list.
Some people were shocked, others were outraged.Â
I was neither. MSNBC, which is unabashedly liberal, also didn't make the cut.Â
There could be more than a dozen Republicans onstage debating each other. Should they really have to debate the moderator as well?
Besides, while it has made a fortune broadcasting stereotypical telenovelas and misogynistic variety shows, Univision isn't a real news network. And many of the folks who work there don't practice real journalism. It's best described as advocacy TV, and it advocates one cause above all others: immigration reform. Republicans are cast as villains.
Univision has long tried to have its flan and eat it too. It pretends to be the network "for" Hispanics, but it's not owned or controlled "by" Hispanics. In 2006, Univision Communications was acquired for $13.7 billion by a consortium led by Saban Capital Group. Its founder, billionaire Haim Saban, is a prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton, and his wife, Cheryl, was appointed by President Obama as a U.S. representative to the United Nations.
Yet apparently I should consider the RNC's decision a personal slight.Â
Why is that? This network doesn't care about me, and -- as a Hispanic who primarily watches English-language television -- it doesn't speak to me. Or for me.Â
Have Republicans really decided not to communicate with Hispanic voters?
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Copyright 2015 Washington Post Writers Group
