Thread: Univision Chairman Calls Rubio "Anti-Hispanic"

humanevents.com
by Erick Erickson
01/03/2012

Haim Saban is an Egyptian born Israeli-American and Chairman of Univision, the Hispanic television station. For the past several months, Univision has tried to get Marco Rubio to come on Univision for an interview and offered to kill or run a negative story on Marco Rubio’s brother-in-law depending on what Rubio did.

Senator Rubio would not be bought and Univision ran the story on his brother-in-law. Subsequently, all of the Republican candidates refused to participate in a debate on Univision, opting instead for a debate with Univision’s competitor Telemundo.

The New Yorker has a big story on what Univision did or did not do to Marco Rubio. It’s fully pro-Univision spin. The Miami Herald has reviewed it. About all you need to know is that Haim Saban, Chairman of Univision, claims that Marco Rubio is “anti-Hispanic.”

The New Yorker piece is written by liberal writer Ken Auletta who once claimed that Rubert Murdoch imposes his political preferences on Fox News and other Newscorp holdings, but for some reason can’t seem to believe Haim Saban, who has a long history of supporting left-leaning causes (though supported George W. Bush in 2004 because of Israel), would do the same.

And we know what agenda Haim Saban wants to push. According to Saban, “The fact that Rubio and some Republican Presidential candidates have an anti-Hispanic stand that they don’t want to share with our community is understandable but despicable.” Saban wanted to get the Republicans on stage and have a slanted debate with questions sympathetic to illegal immigration — a set up to help the Democrats woo hispanic voters in 2012.

But Univision overplayed its hand with Rubio who stood up to them and now they have no debate, no bridge to the most popular Hispanic Republican in America, and just a liberal writer willing to use the New Yorker to let Univision whine.

A more important issue here is that Univision seems intent to let this kerfuffle fester and to use its “news” resources to damage both Marco Rubio and Republicans. In particular, the Chairman of Univision seems willing to admit he will use Univision to portray Republicans as “anti-Hispanic” in 2012 in an effort to help Democrats. The GOP might want to start wooing Telemundo not as a GOP alternative, but as an objective news source without Univision’s baggage.

Mr. Erickson is the managing editor at RedState.com

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=48501

babalublog.com
By Alberto de la Cruz,
on January 3, 2012, at 10:35 am



Ken Auletta from The New Yorker magazine has written an article about Senator Marco Rubio and Univision's attempt to blackmail him into appearing on one of their shows. It seems Auletta was able to extract somewhat of a confession from Univision that it did propose to Rubio a quid pro quo: appear on our show, and we will rethink running the story about your drug dealer brother-in-law. Auletta also got Univision news chief Isaac Lee to admit the network is biased towards immigration reform that provides amnesty to illegal aliens. Even the network's chairman, Hiam Saban, went on record with his biased opinion of Rubio calling the Hispanic senator "anti-Hispanic."


Auletta and the New Yorker's conclusion? Marco Rubio and the GOP are playing dangerous games with immigration.


You would figure that after all the embarrassment they suffered in their dismally failed attempts to disparage Senator Marco Rubio and knock this uppity Lah-teen-oh down a notch or two, they would have given up. But that is simply not the case. It seems that nothing scares the left and their Latino constituents more than an articulate and conservative Hispanic that appears to be the Cuban Ronald Reagan. In this particular case, their fear breeds contempt. And when you have no credibility left to lose, attacking Senator Rubio with unfounded accusations, misrepresentations, and outright lies then becomes a very viable option.


As it happened with the WaPo hit-piece on Rubio a few months back, Marc Caputo from the Herald is all over the New Yorker piece with some facts:

[...] Picking up where The Herald left off, The New Yorker writes: Although Jorge Ramos has interviewed every President since George H. W. Bush and every prominent Hispanic public o?cial, he has been unable to lure Rubio to his show to discuss immigration, or anything else.

Note the verb "lure." It implies offerings, enticements. The paragraph also speaks to a sense of frustration at Univision over Rubio.


The New Yorker piece also reveals the levels of bias at the top levels of Univision:


According to Univision’s news president, Isaac Lee, the network is openly committed to “pro-Hispanic” immigration reform, and it has a particular slant on the news: a dog biting any man is not a story, but a dog biting a Hispanic man is..,

Haim Saban, the chairman of Univision, wrote, in an e-mail, “The fact that Rubio and some Republican Presidential candidates have an anti-Hispanic stand that they don’t want to share with our community is understandable but despicable. So ‘boycotting’ Univision, the largest Spanish-language media company in the U.S., is disingenuous at best and foolish at worst.”


Just how the Cuban-American Rubio has an "anti-Hispanic" stand is not spelled out in the piece or by Saban. But it appears that Univision sees opposition the DREAM Act and so-called "amnesty" as a sign of ethnic bigotry. The Democratic National Committee must be giddy that this comes from the nation's largest and most-influential Hispanic network. But then, the DNC appears to already be funded by Saban, whose political largesse wasn't mentioned in this particular New Yorker article.


The New Yorker piece is not intended to -- nor does it come across as -- a defense of The Miami Herald or a shot at Univision. It's more about Rubio and Univision than The Herald. It also suggests the original Herald piece was part of "a carefully orchestrated campaign" connected to the Republican push to move Florida's primary vote to fifth-in-the-nation status on Jan. 31:


They [documents], and interviews with the people involved in the conflict, suggest that a complicated and politically risky game unfolded as the Republican Party shifted the date of the Florida primary. Rubio had every reason to want to punish Univision, and the national Republican Party had every reason to want to avoid holding a debate on a network that would ask aggressive questions about immigration.

Key word: "Complicated."

I strongly recommend you read Caputo's entire piece HERE.


Red State has also posted about this latest attack on Senator Rubio HERE.


UPDATE (Henry):
Many people have short memories and in this election year the GOP will once again be painted as an anti-immigrant party but it's instructive to remember that in 2007 it was Senate Democrats who killed the comprehensive immigration reform bill. Their slavish dedication to labor unions and desire to keep the issue on the table in perpetuity to bludgeon Republicans with overwhelmed any actual desire they might have had to resolve the issue. Of course media outlets like the one mentioned above don't want you to remember.

http://babalublog.com/2012/01/anothe...r-marco-rubio/

Related: http://www.alipac.us/threads/247241-...nd-Miami-Heral